Throughout 2019, I worked as Community Engagement and Design Partner with the University of Edinburgh’s Edinburgh Living Lab and the City of Edinburgh Council to help design the future of local public services and buildings in a neighbourhood in south Edinburgh. The project: ‘Our Community: Gracemount, Southhouse, Burdiehouse’ used an inter-disciplinary and holistic approach combining service design, data analysis, urban design, place-making, community engagement, user research and futures thinking to help inform Council’s decision-making for investment in the area.

To deliver this new approach combining data and design, City of Edinburgh Council partnered with University’s Edinburgh Living Lab (ELL). ELL use a mix of data science, design thinking, social research and stakeholder/citizen engagement as part of their approach. My role involved leading on a mix of community engagement, user research, graphic design and urban design focussed work as part of the broader project team.

Shown above are the graphical project postcards I produced to promote the project, as well as a hand-built bespoke Place Standard interactive exhibition display panel which I built to tour various local community to invite participation and gather service users’ views. I also organised and delivered schools workshops, stakeholder and community interviews, observational studies of the urban realm, a community photography competition, and online questionnaires. This led to active project engagement with 960+ local people throughout the project duration.