Browsing by Author "Chu, Vik"
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Item Mind the service gap: improving UNISON for public safety workers(2024) Chu, Vik; Sperano, IsabelleThe client and community partner for this Design capstone project is UNISON, a web-based application that allows public safety organizations to effectively manage limited resources in order to proactively respond to public safety incidents. This year-long digital experience design (DXD) project allowed students to apply design thinking and the design process to solving real-world problems. The fall semester focused on defining the scope and context of the design problem. Research during this phase was conducted with UNISON and various stakeholders and included methods such as interviews, co-design sessions, and surveys. Design artifacts from these methods include affinity diagrams, various charts and tables, and a final presentation that sums up the discovered issues and opportunities for improvement. Two solutions were proposed, a redesign of the user interface and the creation of a mobile app, both of which were approved by the client to be further developed in the following term. Activities during this second phase focused on the iterative development and refinement of the proposed solutions and included methods such as prototyping, user testing, and additional co-design exercises with the client. The outcome is a product with a more intuitive and helpful user interface that has already been deployed by UNISON. Additionally, the new mobile application will benefit front-line public safety workers in particular by offering critical information at the right time and in the right place.Item User experience and digital government: exploring a practice-based participatory approach to identify research opportunities(2022) Sperano, Isabelle; Andruchow, Robert; Petryshyn, Luca; Chu, VikIn this case study, the research team (RT) explores user experience design in relation to digital practices adopted by governments. The goal of this first phase was to identify research opportunities. To do so, the RT adopted a practice-centered participatory research approach (Holkup, 2004). The RT began a partnership with a municipal government (City of Edmonton). Regular meetings were held with the partner organization to discuss—among other things—the organization’s structure, current and future projects, the digital editorial strategies implemented by the organization, and the organization's issues and constraints when designing digital services. This allowed the teams to identify not only interesting research questions but also potential teaching collaborations related to work-integrated learning. In this paper, the practice-based participatory research approach is explained, the timeline and the outcome of the partnership are presented, and the lessons learned through that process are shared.