Community Census
Activating Public Space for Data Collection and New Social Interactions across Brooklyn’s Neighborhoods
The Brooklyn Public Library needed to capture new data and engage residents and visitors across Brooklyn neighborhoods to inform its existing programming, understand community perceptions, and promote library use among diverse library goers. Our Team designed and fabricated a public installation that transformed the traditional likert-scale survey into an interactive tool that visualized real time data collection and sparked constructive dialogue between library staff and participants.
Context
How might we improve survey collection, while activating underutilized spaces and fostering improved engagement among an organization and its users? Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) wanted to learn how to enhance its programming and events, and get out in the street to talk with residents across Brooklyn. With BPL we selected libraries around Kensington, Fort Greene, and Grand Army Plaza to capture new information and engage with a range of people.
Participants were asked to answer questions about their neighborhood to understand perceptions and find places of opportunity.
Approach
We identified conventional data collection methods (likert scale and scatter plot) and translated them into an interactive installation that elicited participant interest, using tactile engagement methods, to take surveys. Participants answered questions by weaving and pinning answers across a grid. As participants answered likert scale questions, staff members chartered answers on a clipboard that we later collated and analyzed into user-friendly one-page reporting briefs. The installation animated sidewalks and underutilized open space using “out of the ordinary” techniques that invited people to respond to a series of community-related prompts and talk with library staff in a new environment.
BPL gathered community information and engaged with a range of age groups during launch.
Outcome
Our team designed, fabricated, and launched a mobile public installation with likert questions that could be interchanged for site specific questions. Participants were drawn to interact with the structure and build on existing data. Library staff were able connected with participants to hear stories and opinions not ready accessible within the library and staff’s daily tasks. Our work exceeded community outreach goals for data collection, reaching over 130 participants within the first launch and over 500 participants total. Within several hours we were able to collect information that would take days to collect using traditional outreach methods. We created a compelling reporting system to communicate and highlight collated data for the client and a broader audience to read, using digestible data visualizations and infographics that illustrate findings for more responsive neighborhood programming and amenities.
Reports generated with data collected at site.
