Elevate Testing: Final Blog

Through the course of this term, we have narrowed down our definitions of Civic User Testing, Digital Divide, and Digital Social Innovation. We have done this through collaboration with our peers and community members as well as through our own research. Today we were able to take all that we have learned and present our final case for support. All that we have learned through the lectures, feedback, and discussions came together to create our final presentation. We started with little idea as to what was meant by these terms but after a semester of collaboration and learning, we now have a deep understanding of these concepts and have become passionate about this cause. We have been lucky enough to have so many influential people attend our classes and help us get to where we are now.

Our case for support which was presented on April 7th was an exciting end to our class and was a relief moment as we were able to see all our hard work come together. It brings us great pleasure to know that all our hard work has the ability to make a real impact on our community. We are so grateful to have been a part of this and to have had the support from Dr. Catherine Pearl and those who joined our class throughout the semester.

-Team Elevate

InsightYYC: Civic User Testing Reflection

Having the opportunity to learn about the Calgary ecosystem through the participation of Calgary professionals and guest speakers added an incredible amount of value that built on earlier projects in the Civic Innovation course. Digital social innovation and tech for good are two relevant and emerging topics because of how much opportunity and reliance there is on technology, especially after the last year in a pandemic. A Calgary civic user testing group, otherwise known as our proposed InsightYYC, is the perfect opportunity to intervene and address barriers that Calgarians face. By testing digital products and services of clients, InsightYYC and everyone involved can strengthen and improve the everyday digital products and services Calgarians rely on. With all of the research that has been conducted and having been given constructive feedback, there is a lot of work to be done to ensure that a Calgary civic user testing group can be as inclusive and engaging as possible. We have not only learned about the financial costs and potential organizations to be involved in a civic user testing group but also other considerations such as how to tackle inclusivity, ethics, bias and the digital divide. With an emphasis on collaboration from clients, testers, and funders, a group like InsightYYC can forge innovation and be the catalyst for change that Calgary needs. Together change happens, and it can start with civic engagement through civic user testing.

-Team Insight

The Beginning and the End: A Legacy of Civic User Testing Groups in Calgary

We’ve come to the last day of classes and our long-awaited case for support presentations. Arriving at this moment feels like a quiet peace after a storm of preparation. We’ve worked hard as a team, and we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished.

The importance of advocating for civic user testing groups in Calgary has been a journey of growth for all of us. We began this semester with little knowledge, and little buy-in to the idea of CUT groups. Now, at the end of the journey we can all say with confidence that this is an issue both intimate and important to us.

Having the opportunity to contribute to the implementation of these civic user testing groups is undeniably a proud moment for us. There’s a satisfaction of knowing that the work we’ve done will make a real difference in our city. All in all, we’re so honoured to have participated in this work, and we received so much joy in celebrating this semester’s achievements through our showcase!

Grateful,

Tek Talk Team

Ecosystem Mapping: Civic User Testing in Calgary

During this week’s Vivacity class, we presented our first compilation of research to a community panel, geared towards establishing a civic user testing group in Calgary. The research included an ecosystem map of Calgary’s digital social innovation landscape, and identified potential clients, testers and funders for a civic user testing group. This presentation provided us with the feedback we needed to take our projects to the next level for the upcoming case for support community showcase!

Team User approached this opportunity by framing the critical importance of improving civic engagement and inclusion in Calgary. Civic user testing groups provide agency to everyday citizens in their communities' built environment and by getting these individuals involved in the technology that they interact with in their daily lives, cities can become more inclusive and resilient.

Stay tuned to the Vivacity blogs in the upcoming weeks to find out more about civic user testing, and to see what the student groups are doing to make Calgary a more resilient city!

Author: IL

March 17, 2021

Creating a CUT group in Calgary

This week in Civic Innovation was a chance to connect with some of Calgary’s best and brightest in the social innovation space. 16 mentors representing some of Calgary’s most impactful organizations joined us through a World Café style conversation and helped us to plan out the potential implementation of a Civic User Testing (CUT) group in Calgary. Our goal was to identify potential clients, testers and funders for the project, and we were left with a list bigger and better than we had anticipated!

Perhaps one of the biggest takeaways was centered around building relationships. Civic User Tests are designed to help improve the quality of life for residents, and that means ensuring users are diverse in many ways. The mentors helped us understand that when attempting to create inclusive civic engagement, it isn’t just about who we approach, but how we approach them. Sometimes it starts with building a relationship first, before we can ask for help, or before we can attempt to do work in that community.

IL

February 24, 2021 - Diving into user testing

What an action-packed session! This week we were joined by some of Canada’s user testing experts and learned about what bringing civic user testing to Calgary might look like. Scott Dillon started off by telling us about his story in finding his place with tech user-testing with PLATO (ProfessionaL Aboriginal Testing Organization Inc.), and how this organization has hired 1000 Indigenous user testers to gain insightful data and represent diverse communities. Next we heard from Mike Hrycyk from PLATO, who walked us through his experiences with user testing and a few tips on what we might consider when moving forward with civic user testing:

1. Be the expert on your application

2. Consider what you want out of the test

3. Consider issue management carefully

4. Have a feedback mechanism

5. Make people feel valued

After this insightful conversation about PLATO with Scott and Mike, Marisa joined us from GRIT (Gathering Residents to Improve Technology) to talk about how her team under Code for Canada is building tech capacity with civic user testing groups in Toronto. In her experience, she was engaged with design, recruitment, partnerships and data management to bring about effective user testing that emphasizes their core value of treating their participants with respect. In their civic-focussed approach, library and community centres replace lab settings, tests are held after working hours, diverse representative samples of residents are selected, and trust and empathy with participants is at the forefront of each test. Marisa gave us ten tips for creating civic-user testing groups in Calgary:

1. Understand the local context

2. Have a plan for everything

3. Don’t wait for the perfect test

4. Don’t wait for the perfect client

5. Build a go/no go framework

6. Validate, iterate, validate, iterate, continued…

7. Put a “Pilot” on it

8. Always go back to your principles

9. Lean on other civic testing/tech groups

10. Close the feedback loop

To finish up our information-packed session, we heard from Monique Symes from the City of Calgary’s Smart Calgary sector, where she talked about what Calgary has done to promote economic opportunity and address empowerment and inclusion in the context of Calgary as a Smart City. She mentioned that the next steps for Smart Calgary is to address digital inequality in the context of tools, access and affordability and education - giving us something to look forward to learning more about in the coming future!

SH

February 10, 2021 Reflection: Innovation, Design Thinking ...and Mayor Nenshi! (Copy)

Life is full of surprises. We all seem to be aware of this truth, but how often do we find ourselves, well, surprised when something unexpected happens? It’s only human to experience this, yet we constantly search for ways to decrease risk and increase clarity in our lives. One of the ways we are learning to do just this is through a tool called Design Thinking. In our class today, we were visited by Erin from Calgary’s Civic Innovation Lab, who walked us through how to use Design Thinking and what it is!

After learning about the concept of design thinking, City of Calgary UX Researcher, Murray Thompson walked us through the practicality of running a User Test–let’s just say we all got to hit the ground running with hands-on work. It was awesome!

To put the icing on the cake, we were all surprised to find our very own Mayor Naheed Nenshi waiting for us upon our return from our breakout rooms. He generously shared his time with our class to inspire us and encourage us on our journey to making the lives of Calgarians better every day–a motto which he embraces with conviction.

Dawson D.

February 3, 2021 Reflection - Meaning and the Impact of Design

Reutimann, R. (November 7, 2019). Lensball in metro station [Photograph]. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/xx-Z8fuF83Y

In today’s social innovation class, we were privileged to have many guest speakers, with one being Kurtis Lesick from Alberta University of the Arts. The big question proposed at the beginning was, “How are we to approach the world?” and to reflect on this by asking ourselves what this means and how we might do it. With the guidance from Kurtis, our class then both learned and discussed what meaning is, how we derive it, and how this relates to design. As designers and innovative thinkers, we have to be mindful and aware of the unconscious biases that we all have, and how what we put out into the world can create both solutions but also more problems. It is also a responsibility to apply human-centered design practices to gain perspective, but the work does not end at that. We have to understand that all of our actions contribute to society, whether that is big or small, and thus materializes it.

We will never all interpret, interact or get the same meaning from something in the same way as one another, but we can be more conscious of how what we put out into the world can create an effect.

Kaylee P.

Reflecting on yesterday’s class

This week we were lucky enough to have guests Bree Smith from Mount Royal University, and Jason Cameron from the City of Calgary join our class and support our growing understanding of civic innovation and what it means for Calgary.

Bree shared her expertise in using StoryMap, a software that allows us to showcase different locations- local to international- and lead the user on an intuitive and engaging journey through enriching these locations with unique insights. Learning a tool like Story Map opens up a world of possibilities for those wanting to share unique perspectives on place and space, and we can’t wait to apply this tool to our own learning next month!

Jason’s insight working on Calgary’s downtown resilience and his emphasis on community and collaboration provided invaluable awareness for developing a larger context to frame our class's goal of supporting the creation of a civic user testing group in Calgary. Our discussion with Jason explored elements of inclusivity and exclusivity that exist in Calgary, and the barriers and opportunities this creates in terms of creating meaningful civic engagement.

A big takeaway we took from this class- and the course as a whole so far- is how many opportunities for civic engagement already exist in Calgary! Having the opportunity to learn about tools like Story Map that can increase the visibility of our civic spaces, as well as the vast opportunities and potential in Calgary’s civic innovation space has inspired us. We can’t wait to keep exploring! MM