
The purpose of Plan de Vida is to provide a process which allows a broad representative group of the community to work together and develop a shared vision of a positive future.
The process nurtures critical thinking and cultural engagement.














The purpose of Plan de Vida is to provide a process which allows a broad representative group of the community to work together and develop a shared vision of a positive future.
The process nurtures critical thinking and cultural engagement.
Participatory Web Design invites the community project members to use the existing tools, future tools and all the information gathered to understand how they would like to see them documented on a website. Participants would go through a variety of exercises in both groups and as individuals to come up with ideas, share inspiration and begin shaping and informing the website design.
What do we need:
Two days
Set up room with 4-5 tables (how many people are attending?)
Print A3 Brainstorm notes from past session (4-5 copies)
Vision Statement - What is the outcome we want to see? What purpose will it serve?
Scissors
Tape
Bluetack
Brown paper
Post-its
Markers
Pens
Blank A4 paper
Previous ideas printed on A4
Day One
Introduction
Plan of the workshop
Review Brainstorm notes
Use case cards - to understand who will use the website and why
Review previous ideas
Vision statement - to understand the purpose of the website and the overall project
Day Two - Prototyping! - sketch, brainstorm ideas
Show inspiration on similar projects and using post-its, everyone writes down what they like from each site.
Crazy 8 sketching - Fold A4 paper in half, then again in half two more times until you have 8 equally folded boxes when you open up the paper again.
(1) run an icebreaker where you give everyone 30 seconds to draw random things (i.e. cat, flower, garden, horse, community) starting from easy to more complex.
(2) run the activity again, but this time sketch ideas of how the homepage would look like. Everyone will get 1 minute per pox (8 minutes) to fill each box with a different idea.
(3) everyone shares their ideas and discuss what people like. Repeat it again with the tools page.
Wireframes - Sketch ideas on single A4 sheets based on how you envision the main pages i.e. homepage, about, tools page, specific tool page.
How do we categorise the content? Using A4 sheets with the title of existing/future tools (one per sheet), pass around post-its and pens.. Everyone can write what they feel are appropriate tags/categories for that tool. Pass each paper around until everyone has added their tag to it. This will inform the category/tag for that tool.
In a later session...
Define roles for the website and project
Walk-through and provide training to project members on updating the website
This website is the result of the collaborative nature of the participatory web design sessions. A spreadsheet was created to gather all the ideas from the workshops, which informed the design of the website.
Participatory web design ideas, use cases, vision statements, etc
The Brainstorming session took the key questions and what was found about what people knew and would like to know from the Project Launch to form the themes. This would further help to think of new ideas and create possible tools, events and collaborations between the community.
Four questions were asked as the brainstorming was happening, and one illustrator would visualise on a wall paper the words and things we would describe. For example:
"Very productive session. People started discussing about their Right to the City and their way of reimagining their neighbourhood. The Brainstorming ended with lots of wonderful ideas and concepts, such as the Photocoffee project which took place at the Project Cafe a few months later."
Outputs:
The De-Tour is a self-guided, alternative tour of a neighbourhood or other walkable area. Directed by prompts, questions, suggestions and invitations, the De-Tour encourages participants to explore familiar spaces from a new perspective, to creatively reimagine the spaces of our everyday lives.
The De-Tour developed in response to and conjunction with Botanic Concrete participants’ desire to “get in the space,” to interact more directly with Garnethill.
The most important material for the De-Tour is a list of ideas and questions. Participants should meet beforehand to discuss their interests–what about the location is of interest to them? What questions do they have? What are their hobbies?–and use these ideas to formulate prompts and alternative ‘lenses’ through which to view the sites of the De-Tour.
A physical kit of tools (e.g. cameras, pens and paper) is a highly productive though ultimately optional component of the De-Tour. A box or other container can be used to hold not only these tools for exploration, but also for gathering any found objects during the walk. A map of the area is also useful, though not mandatory. Outdated maps, technical maps (e.g. sewer maps), or other alternative renderings of the area can stimulate investigation, and these maps can be used to create a ‘route’ for the tour.
The Botanic Concrete De-Tour allowed small groups of Botanic Concrete participants to explore Garnethill, investigating themes including green space, architecture, birds and words among others. After discovering that Garnethill was once the site of an observatory, we decided to use images of constellations to create our tour routes: constellations visible from Glasgow were printed on transparencies and overlaid on outdated maps of Garnethill, arbitrarily designating ‘sites of interest’ at each of the stars. The groups each focused on very different suggestion and tools within the box of suggestions and ideas assembled, and the process led to creative and verbal articulations of participants’ interest in the area as well as their interests for future projects. Participants discovered the remains of a night nurse’s residence, hidden courtyards, obstructions of public access to public space, and many words written on and carved into buildings expressing the history and voices of Garnethill.
This tool brings people/the community together. The photo acts as a mediator in sharing stories, experiences, historical facts, concerns, hopes and dreams about the neighbourhood.
Other materials:
A beautiful session where people interacted, learned new things about their area and shared smiles. It would be interesting to try this sessions also in an open space, so that it becomes visible to even more people.
Photocoffee event photos
Photocoffee Garnethill photos