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ABOUTRESUME

OVERVIEW

How do we design participatory data gathering tools for citizen scientists that center their perspectives and research needs?


UrbanHeatATL is a research organization that guides community members in using temperature sensors to gather urban heat data and investigate the role of urban greenspace, city planning, and energy burden in shaping environmental justice priorities. I designed participatory mapping experiences and tools for them to accomplish this.
SCOPE
Mixed-Methods Research
UX Design
Instructional Design

TOOLS

Figma, Google Forms, Observational Studies, Interviews, Python, Seaborn, Mapbox








Back in 2022, I supported UrbanHeatATL by designing and facilitating workshops on urban heat data and participatory data collection, used Jupyter Notebooks to build data flows, and generated visualizations mapping urban heat data gathered by the citizen scientists.

As we worked alongside community partners and developed a better understanding of how data impacted their work, we found a misalignment between how this geospatial data was being collected and how community members wanted to benefit from the participatory data collection experience.

To address this, I crafted a research study, design workshop, and app design proposal to aid in a participatory heat data collection experience that centered the hyperlocal and embodied experiences of citizen scientists.




OPPORTUNITIES

What should data do for citizen scientists?


Many of the Urban Heat citizen scientists were not as concerned with how comprehensive the collected heat data was as opposed to how representative it was for their own experiences. 

Based on my previous familiarity of working with them, I knew that for them, the data should...

  1. Depict the breadth of their experience with heat
  2. Include cultural and community context
  3. Promote discussion and collaboration rather than staying in the hands of researchers


What I didn’t know yet was...

  1. What other kinds of data would be valuable to collect?
  2. How was this community talking about their experiences with heat?
  3. How can a digital tool be used to guide reflection on heat through data collection?




PRIMARY RESEARCH

Conducting participant-observation sessions during a facilitated heat sensor workshop.


I had already been supporting facilitate these heat sensor workshops where we guide community members through the process of collecting and reflecting on data. I used one of these sessions to observe how they talked about their data collection experience. There were four primary parts of a heat sensor workshop so at each stage I highlighted key questions to keep in mind.





    1. Introduction to UrbanHeatATL


    How can citizen scientists gain as much from the data as our researchers?

    2. Calibrating your heat sensors


    How accessible is this technology to use and understand?

    3. Group walk to collect data


    How can nuances about the neighborhood and local history be reflected in the data?

    4. Post-walk reflections on heat


    How can this data be presented to better support multisensory reflection?





    INSIGHTS

    Organizing and coding qualitative data from 25 citizen scientists.


    After observing a group of 25 citizen scientists and interviewing 4 of them,     I organized the key discussion points and quotes that I heard over the session to pull out two key insights. 



    1. The subjectivity of heat

    Discussions around subjective heat were far more resonant and frequent than reflections on objecting temperature data.     Even if a sensor said 80 degrees, the number could feel dramatically different depending on if you were, say, standing and waiting for the bus in direct sun versus sitting in the shade by a pond. We already had a system for more objective and scientific temperature data via the handheld sensors. What about the subjective experience?

    DESIGN INSIGHT Center the experience around the embodied or subjective heat experience rather than objective temperature.


    2. The relationship between heat, our bodies, and our built environment

    Participants talked a lot about how heat felt in their bodies, methods they use to feel more comfortable, and how elements of thier built environment effected that comfortability. Things like awnings, fire hydrants, fountains, or hot pavement gave additional experiential context to the numerical temperature and mapped to ways that community members could advocate for impactful changes to their environment.

    DESIGN INSIGHT Implement photo taking and free response capabilities
    EXPLORATION

    Testing a preliminary “Heat Walk” user flow


    After identifying  key design considerations, I outlined  a loose MVP user flow to test the effectiveness of before going on to design the actual application. To confirm the effectiveness of this user flow, I converted it into a Google Form to prototype the interaction. I then recruited 5 participants to go on a walk while filling out the form, and then give feedback on the whole experience.

    1. Select your comfort level using a relative heat dial
    2. Take a photo of your environment
    3. Add an caption expanding on your experience
    4. (optional) Review or send your data to UrbanHeatATL researchers



    DESIGN DECISION

    Translating this user flow into a “My Heat Journal” app experience.


    As identified from the user flow MVP, there were three main functions to build out. The interaction for adding a new heat journal entry, reviewing/analyzine past heat journey entries, and sending these entries to the UrbanHeatATL research team.



    Add a new heat journal entry


    Here users are able to use a slider to select their relative comfortability at that moment in time, take a photo of something in their environment that is impacting the heat comfortability in some way, and select ways that they could increase their comfort level at that time.










    Viewing past heat journal entries


    Being able to sort through past heat journal entries proved helpful for participants to be able to have conversations with each other about collective patterns that they noticed.

    These localized data archives also allowed for any data to remain in the hands of citizen scientists unless they manually chose to share it to researchers.








    Send data to UrbanHeatATL 
    researchers


    If citizen scientists are in a position where they are interested in and willing to collaborate with academic researchers or other stakeholder, they are able to package up their heat journals and share  as a zipped file. They have control over what days  and specific data is included in this file to ensure a consentful data experience.