As the new pedestrian bridge will connect Sighthill to the city centre, the name should come from those living in the local community.
Naming New Sighthill Bridge
Date
10 April 2022
My Role
Design Lead, Facilitator
Client:
Project Type
Branding, Campaign
Reconnecting with communities and creating new connections
The problem
This research project needed engagement tools to be created and designed to interact and bring all local citizens together to suggest a name for their new bridge that was built in the community.
What I did
- Designed 6 context walls with stakeholders that where displayed on-site after the initial opening of the new community centre so, that people can contribute at there on pace,
- Co-designed engagement plans and prioritised how to run the engagements, making it easy as possible and to remove all stress to the participants,
- I raised concerns to make the engagement as simple as possible for the citizens to engage because English would not be their first language,
- Designed the concept, posters, flyers and voting cards to be distributed within the community hubs,
- These elements were translated into the three commonly used languages so, that the project was accessible to everyone in the community,
- I engaged directly and facilitated multiple sessions with citizens when I visited the new community centre, the local church and the local school.
Research and insights
- On the opening night of the community centre we received over 60 names for the new pedestrian bridge,
- The engagement we revived showed that citizens engagement doesn’t need to be boring,
- Citizens where truly engaged and wanting to learn more about this project as it was part of the community – the project spread through word of mouth,
- Over 200 school children and parents also got involved as it was assigned as a Homework assignment to name the bridge.
The impact
- The community was given a voice in naming a bridge within their community, building trust with the council in the process.
- Over 200+ name ideas were submitted from citizens across the local community, shortlisted to 4 final names for the community to vote on what the final name should be, 571 counted votes in-total for all four names, with the winner gaining over 275 votes.
Lessons learned
- Michelle’s (Project officer) pre-existing relationships made our engagements more successful because the trust factor was already in place within the community.
My Approach - Design-Led Problem Solving
Discover
Understanding the ask, building an knowledge library around what we already know.
Define
Doing research and identify opportunities.
Ideate and Test
Develop and design new ideas to solutions.
Develop and Deliver
Share the outcomes and results of the new outcome.
Team members involved in the project:
Heather Hamilton: Design Research / Service Design (CCI).