Client
Over the course of the semester we will work with Nancy Shore, Program Director of Get Downtown Ann Arbor. Get Downtown’s mission is as follows:
The mission of the getDowntown Program is to reduce the number of downtown commuters driving to work alone and to create more transportation choices for downtown commuters through promoting existing transportation options and advocating for new ones. getDowntown strives to accomplish this mission by promoting existing choices, providing research on the benefits of sustainable transportation, organizing events, interacting with downtown employers and employees, and interfacing with numerous downtown stakeholders.
We are currently working with Get Downtown to learn about their outreach methods and audience; we also plan to make use of their considerable local network to learn more about what walking programs and incentives have been successful and where they have struggled.
Because Ann Arbor is already a very walkable city, we are interested in learning more about people who do not tend to walk; we’d like to work toward motivating this population segment, and we will partner with Get Downtown to identify and reach out to these people.
Stakeholders
Get Downtown
Our primary stakeholder is our client, Get Downtown. Get Downtown is holistically interested in providing information and options on transportation alternatives, so one of their goals will be to incorporate our team’s design into the bigger alternative transportation picture. They might be worried that our project only focuses on walking, and for that reason we intend to keep a broad perspective on how motivating walking might combine with other non-automobile forms of transportiation. We will involve our client by meeting with them regularly to communicate our progress and present both our user research findings and our intermediate design artifacts; we will also look to our client to be a liaison between our team and other local end-user groups.
Chamber of Commerce
The Get Downtown program is part of the Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce, so the Chamber is also a secondary stakeholder. The Chamber of Commerce is concerned with maintaining a vibrant and healthy community; they have an interest in seeing local businesses thrive, and so they are interested in promoting foot traffic near those businesses. They are concerned with traffic congestion during commuting and other busy traffic times, so they created the Get Downtown organization to promote alternative transportation. We may interview someone at the Chamber of Commerce if applicable, but our primary contact will be with Get Downtown.
Local businesses
Local businesses have an interest in promoting walking, as long as that walking results in increased foot traffic (and therefore sales) for local businesses. Our project scope is not yet narrowed to this point; we will likely instead focus on walking for enjoyment, or walking for health, but we believe our end system will be strong if it encourages local consumption as a by-product. For this reason we will attempt to speak with local business owners or a representative thereof.