The project starts with a research and exploration phase: finding the why, focusing on the question and the challenge to undertake; building a project timeline; creating a set of tools to be able to collect information throughout the project (sketchbooks, obsidian, Miro); creating a database of selection of events, stakeholders, potential users, start sketching instinctively.

GOAL: Achieve the design goal and are mainly desk research.
METHODS: Concept Mapping, Audience Design

The second phase synthesises the previous one: the first ethnographic trip to Venice; sketching (free ideation inspired by interviews and failed existing ideas) and framing (insights and opportunity, case study selection);

Other activities are: design of the Cultural Probe Kit, user research strategy and first field observation; setting up and starting running stakeholder interviews; digital ethnographic study; first expert assessment

GOAL: Design Brief Definition

• Simplify the understanding of the high water phenomena; Fulfill the basic psychological needs; make people understand the potential consequences of unprecedented disaster in relation to the surrounding environment;

• Design an object of daily use for the target audience;

• To involve the community in a co-design process, stimulate the collection of the memory of community experiences; 

The third phase is about ideation and co-design. It aims to obtain several early-stage prototypes. It’s a participatory process in the context of the local community to quickly verify the design iterations to reduce time and costs for fixing design flaws.

Testing methods are used to uncover first usability issues and facilitate product design. Inspection methods are used to provide quick and specific recommendations for product enhancements.

• Experimenting with a series of lo-fi prototypes on the field;

• Building the information architecture;

• Series of activities with the local community (survey analysis, ethnographic study, rapid prototyping, smoke tests)

GOAL: Concept selection

The fourth and last phase is about implementation. It aims to obtain a mid-stage prototype to achieve the design goals.

It includes experts and stakeholders assessment, testing the learnability, efficiency, memorability, errors and satisfaction through the cognitive walkthrough, reflective analysis, overall usability (SUS), heuristic evaluation, market interviews and technical validation.

GOALS:

• Get to a work like and look like prototype ready for design tests and problem ranks;

• to study the details of design issues through usability via singular tasks;

• to test the meaning of messages and knowledge acquisition;

• to test the market viability of the proposal;

• to test the technical feasibility.

• The combination of interdisciplinary methods to support risk communication that translates into a real case study in a specific cultural context.

• A design process both scientifically informed and experimental, iterative, in close contact with the community.

• The project shows how it is possible to bring usually distant actors to co-design and listen to each other.

• The project brings a new view on environmental forecasting, using the phone not only for its interface but for its being an object in space.

Achieved goals: The application of the framework and iterations made the system more engaging and efficient: the design object simplifies the understanding of the phenomenon and relates potential risks to the surrounding environment; It is easy to understand and usable in everyday contexts; The project is implementable in the current system; The project involved the community;

Partially achieved goals: A design solution that fulfils basic psychological needs; An affordable solution; Stimulating the collection of the memory of community experiences.

Achievable goals. Formalisation and publication of the Framework in collaboration with the stakeholders involved; Utilisation of research insights for the improvement of the forecast system for exceptional events in Venice. •Design of a high-fidelity prototype.