Key Findings

After interviewing two students at Williams College, both from areas in New York that are currently being gentrified, and a middle-aged professional living in Seattle, we have developed a few key findings. From our inquiries we were able to better understand the lives of people living in gentrified areas––what they are and aren’t aware of, what they feel, their interpretation of their surrounding communities, and much more. The most critical thing we have come to understand is that people are unaware of the risk that their communities are facing of becoming gentrified. More importantly, they do not know which businesses are at risk of closing, nor do they know what is planned to be built in their place until the buildings and stores already exist. Unlike in more wealthy neighborhoods, members of these communities lack the time and resources to inquire about (and potentially voice discontent for) businesses and residences that are being built, thereby waiving their power to support their own neighborhoods.

Contextual Inquiry Results

We interviewed two students and one adult all of whom have lived in gentrified areas. The first two were students from Brooklyn, New York. The first was from Brownsville who moved to the suburbs in Pennsylvania at the age of twelve. The third was a working adult from San Turce, Puerto Rico who grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and recently moved to the suburbs of Seattle, Washington.

There is more of a sense of community in low-income neighbourhoods despite the fact that there are less opportunities. White people move in to predominantly brown and black spaces and build expensive shops, replacing essential local business. New businesses just pop up, leaving residents surprised and unprepared; change was very fast. It’s easy to feel surrounded and trapped, in addition to the lack of housing and financial security. Rent prices increase to the point that living in these neighbourhoods is no longer affordable, and people are forced to leave, sometimes moving in with relatives. There are organizations geared toward helping combat the processes of gentrification by providing support to local businesses, but people don’t seem to know about them. It feels like there’s nothing that can be done to combat this issue, and even if there was, people are too busy to get involved.

Design Research Themes and Process

Themes

  • -No recourse
    • -Many of these families lack time and/or money to effectualize change
  • -Life slowly gets harder
    • -It seems that there is a boiling point reached before people eventually must move
  • -Slow trickle of gentrifiers
    • -White people with money tend to patronize expensive new businesses
  • -No politics
    • -No one who spoke to us mentioned the role the government plays in gentrification
  • -Construction as a force of violence
    • -The buildings are nicer but are obviously not for the people in the area

The people who were interviewed all expressed very similar experiences. There were always telltale signs that gentrification was happening. These establishments provide very little if any actual use to the people living in the surrounding area. Business that people needed to survive would slowly be replaced by relatively useless and expensive establishments. By the time the laundromat or the grocery store is gone, it is too late. The end result always seems to be that low income people move to another place they will probably make end up also making “trendy” at some point. There is no way to unite these people to services/goods that they have lost. In one of the most preliminary iterations of this idea, there was a statement close to saying both that people are knowledgeable about gentrification but also that people do not have the appropriate knowledge about gentrification. While this statement is definitely contradictory, it seems true. There were many answers surrounding the quality of gentrification but not many surrounding the reasons of why it is occuring. There is a knowledge of the surroundings, there is a will to stop gentrification, but there is a disconnect between this and the actions to take.

In the future with much more time, a diary study could yield excellent results. We would have a potential user walk around their own city simply noting the changes they have observed over the course of the time they have lived there. We will ask for special attention to be paid to the people walking the city and the businesses that are passed. The diaries then branch into two different paths a person who walks into an older establishment in their neighborhood, and a person who walks into a newer establishment. From this data we can extrapolate how we would want to proceed with an instance of directed storying telling with new people. The ability of this form of storytelling to delve into the specifics of how someone feels is excellent in a space where our user base would be based around people who may not communicate the exact things they notice and feel about a certain situation in a very verbose manner. If possible a Contextual Inquiry of both grassroots organizers and land developers.

Task Analysis

Who is going to use the design? Our design is intended for use by the residents of neighborhoods that are at risk of experiencing gentrification. This includes people of all ages, so long as they feel that they belong to the existing community and want to get involved.

What tasks do they now perform? This is the biggest issue at hand, because currently people who are living in gentrified areas have virtually no way of fighting gentrification given their resources and availability. As a result, we have found that many can not do much beyond just staying where they are, which is already difficult enough.

What tasks are desired? The goal of commUnity is to provide people with more community awareness, so that they can more effectively learn about and support their local communities. This allows users to strengthen their communities from within, potentially even helping to enrich the preexisting culture and sense of community by allowing users to learn about local community favorites that they hadn’t heard of before.

How are the tasks learned? There are many ways that people learn about local businesses and events, the most common of which is word-of mouth or firsthand experience, but there can be many other ways that locals can learn about and get involved with their community. This includes everything from flyers on the street to advertisements, but these are usually paid for by larger businesses.

Where are the tasks performed? Anyone can support a local business simply by walking in the store and buying something, or by spreading positive word-of-mouth and encouraging others to do so when they are able.

What is the relationship between the person and data? For people supporting their local communities, the relationship can be very personal. People can have very close ties to their local laundromats, corner stores, and other locations if they are places that these people visit for their entire lives.

What other tools does the person have? Other tools to learn about surrounding businesses include Yelp, online search, word-of-mouth, flyers seen on the street, and firsthand experience walking by a local business. These are all means by which people can learn about businesses in their surrounding area, but none of these methods are as optimized specifically for supporting businesses that are struggling or could benefit from greater community involvement as is commUnity.

How do people communicate with each other? Businesses may communicate with locals by posting specials and messages, as well as sharing their location, and locals may communicate with others by sharing their positive experiences with their favorite places. The result is that these places gain the business they need and all are more well-informed.

How often are the tasks performed? People may use commUnity as often, or not, as they wish. Living in a low-income neighborhood means people do not always have the time to help others, but if they are looking for a quick bite to eat or maybe a local discount, they can check commUnity to see if anything is available.

What are the time constraints on the tasks? There is effectively no time constraint, other than businesses wanting to post discounts or specials only for finite periods. Otherwise, a business is free to use commUnity so long as it exists.

What happens when things go wrong? It may be difficult to ensure that the businesses using this platform are of the appropriate size and that they are doing so for the appropriate reasons. To prevent this, commUnity will keep moderators to ensure that only local businesses are using the service to promote themselves, and that all comments and posts are appropriate to the topic. Eventually, communities that adopt the service would come to appreciate the service enough that the community can support itself in this respect.