Overview
The City of Toronto’s Graffiti Management Plan is a proactive and cooperative approach to manage graffiti vandalism in the public realm while continuously supporting graffiti and street art that adds artistic vibrancy to Toronto’s streets. The following project is an app proposal to give Toronto’s Graffiti Management Plan a platform to help connect communities effectively fulfill their goals.
Duration
November 2019-January 2020
Role
Independent project.
Skills
User Research
Design Development
Prototyping
Tools
Adobe XD
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe InDesign
Background
Inspired by an essay and presentation I did for a Pop Culture class, I decided to pursue the topic as an independent project. Having done thorough research on programs like the Toronto Management Plan and StreetARToronto I noticed an opportunity for intervention with a digital platform that could provide support to fulfill their strategic elements and goals for Toronto regarding graffiti.
My thesis being, "The appreciation of graffiti is relative, but the economic and cultural value it brings to neighbourhoods makes it a legitimate form of artistic expression that needs to be recognized legally."
Problem
Toronto's Graffiti Management Plan strives to find the balance between combatting illegal tagging, supporting vandalism victims, as well as support the artistry that graffiti and street art is and the vibrancy it brings to the city. However, there is a lack of connection between Toronto's Graffiti Management to graffiti artists and the community.
Goals
This case study is a proposal for a digital platform for Toronto's Graffiti Management Plan.
- Provide a connection between Toronto's Graffiti Management Plan with the community and graffiti artists.
- Effectively implement Toronto's Graffiti Management Plan's four strategic elements.
- Provide a personalized feed for users.
Target Users
My target users directly reflect the Graffiti Management Plan's target users to support both graffiti artists and community members. However, seeing as is it a digital platform to these target user to not only each other but to Toronto's Graffiti Management Plan, they also become a stakeholder and target user for this platform.
(The City of Toronto, "Graffiti Management", toronto.ca)
User Research
Questionnaire & Survey
We were encouraged to have a question and discussion session at the end of our presentations with the class. I saw this as an opportunity to get some insights and feedback on the project to create an effective digital platform for Toronto's Graffiti Management Plan. As artists and designers and members of the community, my classmates were able to provide information that helped create this digital platform.
Open-Ended Interviews
Beyond the questionnaire and survey and I also conducted open-ended interviews with a few members of the community. This included local or aspiring graffiti artists to gain some insights from the artist's perspective. This helped gain insight regarding the optimal way(s) the digital platform could connect the community, artists, and Toronto's Graffiti Management Plan.
Second Research
Since this case study started as a research essay about Graffiti Management, my secondary research supported and influenced my design solution. Through my research, I saw an opportunity to create a digital platform that implemented these strategic elements and created a streamlined connection between Toronto Graffiti Management, Graffiti Artists, and Toronto Citizens.
Insights & Findings
1. Graffiti Negative Connotations
• Graffiti is still gang-related and can lead to more crime.
• Less graffiti is in "well-built" communities.
• The "broken window theory" argues that if petty a crime like graffiti is ignored, can inspire and lead to more serious crimes.
2. Graffiti Cons
• Graffiti removable is tedious and expensive.
• The UK spends $1 billion/year removing graffiti.
• Can deface properties and be used negatively/hatefully.
3. Graffiti Pros (Brings economic and cultural value to neighbourhoods.)
• It is a way for people to express themselves & let their voices are heard.
• Openly accessible and displayed art, making it unique from other forms of art.
• Can increase the appeal of a neighbourhood.
• In Soho, residents, tourists and high-end boutiques co-exist with graffiti
• Attracts the "urban cool" consumer that marketers would call "tastemakers & advertisers" that retailers
want to reach.
• People that travel to see graffiti is called Graffiti hunting tourism
• ex. 5 Pointz in Long Island, NY
4. Toronto Citizens
• Some concerns of Graffiti becoming too prevalent or encouraged
• Think it would be good to have a platform to report vandalism
• Finding touristic graffiti spots probably wouldn't be a primary use
• People partaking in graffiti hunting would most likely just be tourist using Google anyways
• Probably not going to be used by individual TO citizens, more likely beneficial for businesses.
5. Graffiti Artists
• Recreational graffiti artists, might use to find legal graffiti walls to avoid any trouble
• One person said likes the original free nature of Graffiti.
• Working graffiti artists/street artist/artist interested in finding work or project opportunities and events.
User Flow
My research helped me determine which areas of focus and emphasis I needed to put on certain services and how the platform would vary depending on the user.
1. Separating the platform between Toronto Citizens and Graffiti Artists to cater to their experience depending on the type of profile they choose.
2. Emphasizing exploration, users regardless of the specific reasons they use the platform they have easy access to all the services the Toronto Management Plan's platform.
Toronto's Graffiti Management Plan
Design Solution
Features
Project Outcome
This project was a pleasant surprise, being inspired by a research essay reaffirmed that user-research produces more effective final solutions. I saw an opportunity for a digital platform for Toronto Graffiti Management, but it wasn't until conducting user-research I was able to see how I could effectively achieve this. Through my research, I was able to develop and prototype a digital platform that met the project goals that fulfill Toronto Graffiti Management's strategic elements. However, to further develop it as a digital platform, I would have liked to perform user-testing. I did receive feedback on the final design, but I believe formally facilitating user-testing would elevate the final design and overall experience of the digital platform.