Oracle
CLIENT
Various
LOCATION
London
TIMELINE
6 weeks
YEAR
2022
WORKED WITH
Jacob Tomes
Designer
Parth Loliyania
Designer
Summary
In collaboration with three parish councils in Southeast England, we first investigated the relationship between councillors and members of the public with regards to decision-making.
Drawing the conclusion that the procedures and spatial layout in council meetings rob public members’ agency, we proposed a pattern language and high-fidelity voting prototype for the inclusion of public members in decision making.
Current Scenario
Parish and town councils comprise the tier of government that is closest to voters in England. At their best, parish councils aim to bring a close knowledge of the needs of their communities, with ability to tailor activity accordingly. However, amongst worries over the standards of their performance and governance, senior councillors have expressed doubts over the government’s eagerness to delegate more resources and powers to parish councils.
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From our own investigation, we drew the conclusion that public members are largely excluded from participating in decision-making during council meetings.
Aims
To design a framework for increased participation by public members in parish council meetings.
Outcome
Two outcomes were created:
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A pattern language that provides recommendations for the structure and layout of parish council meetings
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The Oracle, an anonymised voting system
My role
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Liaised with parish councils in order to conduct research and workshops
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Collaborated with team members to design and execute research methods, as well as produce research assets
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Designed and conducted workshops with councillors and public members
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Created the pattern language
Framing
This project was borne out of the curiosity for the potential for design to enhance democratic processes. Having created a interest map which identified a common interest to be politics, my teammates and I decided to zero in on parish councils in England.
Interest map
Fieldwork
We first sought to investigate the relationship between parish councils and their respective communities. Emailing over 300 parish councils in the counties closest to London: Kent, Surrey, and East Sussex, we managed to get into contact with four, and attended their council meetings over the course of a month. These were of:
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Ripley Parish Council (in-person)
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Wye Parish Council (Virtual via Microsoft Teams Link)
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Edenbridge Council (in-person)
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Queens Park Community Council (in-person)
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Map of counties and number of parish councils in each
On attending these meetings, we identified potential relations we could focus on, and decided to zero in on the relationships between council members and the public to analyse.
Analysis
We analysed the meetings in three ways:
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Spatial layout analysis
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Information flow diagrams
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Talk-time and influence analysis
Analysis (1): Spatial layout
The spatial analysis shows the position of councillors and public members in the meeting space from a top down view, clearly showing how they relate to one another spatially.
💡 Findings:
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We found that most public members were sat at a considerable distance away from the council members. Experiencing this ourselves, we found that this meant that it made it hard for them to speak up, especially because they had to raise their voice (for example, with Ripley Parish Council, where a farmer had to shout across the room). With Queen’s Park, we were sat much closer, which enabled us to speak up during the meeting much more easily and comfortably.
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The U-shaped arrangement of the table at Edenbridge was different to that of the other councils. This really opened up the council members to the public members as everyone at the table was clearly visible to the public members.
Analysis (2): Information flow diagrams
Information flow diagrams were created for the other meetings to visualise the decision based aspect of the meeting.
Understanding the flow of information for information flow diagrams
Information flow diagram for Ripley parish council meeting
Information flow diagram for Wye parish council meeting
Information flow diagram for Queen's Park council meeting
Information flow diagram for Edenbridge council meeting
💡 Findings:
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Each meeting had its own intricacies, although they all followed a similar process of going through items on the agenda.
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There were different levels of inclusion. Wye had a particularly closed feedback loop compared to the other meetings due to there being no avenue for observers to participate in the meeting. With Ripley, public members were only allowed to speak during the Q&A section. With Edenbridge, public members were given one chance to participate at the start of the meeting when handing over a statement that stated their disagreement with an agenda item for planning. With Queen's Park, public members got a chance to speak even when the items were being deliberated, and were even constantly consulted during the meeting.
Analysis (3): Talk-time and influence analysis
This analysis was done to understand if the amount of time spoken was necessarily related to having more influence in the meeting.
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💡 Findings:
We found that while analysing who spoke the most in meetings did show who were the more dominant characters, this did not necessarily correlate to who had the most influence on decisions. For example, the clerk spoke the most in Queen’s Park, but she was not contributing to the decisions as much as she was facilitating the meeting.
In summary, Wye had the least amount of participation from public members, with a clear division between online and offline participants as shown in the spatial layout analysis and information flow diagram.
In the Ripley and Edenbridge meetings, public members had a limited avenue to express their opinions. They were also sat far away from the main deliberative area spatially, making it hard for them to interject.
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There was a good back and forth between public members and councillors for Queen’s Park council, as seen from the information flow diagram. The spatial analysis also reflects how they were sat much closer to the main table.
Online survey
Although we had four case studies that we went to in person, we wanted to get a broader view of how other councils looked like. However, as they were hard to travel to, I emailed about 80 more councils for images of their council meetings. 21 responses were received, as follows:
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2 clerks told us to take pictures from their websites
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15 clerks sent us a picture of their in-person council meeting
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3 clerks sent us a screenshot of their online council meeting
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These were then arranged into a spatial categories.
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Some councils followed a board meeting style of arrangement which closed off the public to the deliberation. On the contrary, most parish councils follow a U-shaped table arrangement, possibly to open up the deliberation and allow a clear view of council members to the public.
💡 Based on the online survey, we believed that spatial layout has an important role to play in the deliberative process.
Opportunity areas
Based on our analysis of the four council meetings and the images we received from 20 other councils, three main opportunity areas were identified:​
To develop these opportunity areas further, we decided to conduct workshops with parish councillors and public members.
Workshops
Taking inspiration from the principles of participatory design and co-design, we focused on designing a workshop that would enable us to build knowledge about council meetings with parish councillors and public members.
Development
Previous research highlights the value of games to inform design and serve as a catalyst for participation. Wouters et al. (2014) document the use of ‘LocaLudo’ to build knowledge about the community. Inspired by the above method, I created a similar game to gain more knowledge about council meetings.
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Designing and developing the game
The method relies on physical cards to trigger inspiration and discussion among participants. These cards prompts for thoughts and ideas, ultimately serving as building blocks in usage scenarios for new service ideas and concepts.
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💡 After testing the game among ourselves, we realised the game was very time consuming. It was unlikely we could shorten it, due to stipulations such as rolling the dice, moving tokens, drawing cards etc.
As we would have only about an hour for the workshop, we decided to focus on workshops that could be quicker.
Framework
activity
We designed a workshop activity that would allow participants to create a visualization of their experience at a parish council meeting.
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As we could not test multiple versions with council members and the public, we used mock scenarios with students and tutors at London College of Communication (LCC).
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We tested the workshop with students in three formats:
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A group of 4 students trying to create a diagram (length of the workshop: 6 mins)
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An individual student creating a diagram (length of the workshop: 5 mins)
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An individual student along with a facilitator (length of the workshop: 10 mins)
Version 1: Testing with students
We started the process with a blank paper and allowed students to demonstrate their journey of ‘their first day at LCC.
💡 Learnings and reflection:
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We needed a set time for them to work together because they would only focus on themselves
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We needed to add more structure to the blank paper as participants often felt lost, possibly by defining a start point and an end point.
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Overall, we started to negotiate the level of freedom we provided to the group doing this exercise.
Version 2: Individual student
Before we started the next session we drew a timeline to add more structure to the diagram.
💡 Learnings and reflection:
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The participant spoke about what she were thinking through while making the diagram. This helped us understand the journey better, and we wanted to encourage participants to think out loud as they went through the exercise
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She struggled to understand the different types of cards – we worked towards making them more self-explanatory
Version 3: Testing with student and facilitator
In this test Parth went through the timeline with the participant, as a form of directed story-telling.
💡 Learnings and reflection:
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The facilitator often probed the participant, resulting in engaged conversation.
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The participant often made his own cards, making us think about having blank cards that participants could customise.
Testing with tutors
We further refined the concept by adding more structure to the workshop, creating a worksheet to be used as a base template for the different stages of the council meeting.
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Initial ideation for refinement.
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Image on the left shows our tutors filling out the worksheet. Image on the right shows the completed worksheet.
💡 Learnings and reflection:
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The participants gave feedback that the activity felt like doing homework.
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The activity placed a lot of responsibility on the participants, leaving them to figure out the materials or simply write down their thoughts. We needed to reduce the effort put in by participants to understand the materials and template.
Further development
Revisiting our approach, we realised we wanted to design a research tool that was more tactile and unambiguous. As our aim was to have participants express their journey, we decided on a modular system using acrylic tiles that could be used to 'build' a journey.
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Initial sketches of modular system.
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An example of our understanding of the council meeting structure.
This modular system was a breakthrough in our development of a research tool. The tiles are easy to understand and manipulate, and received much praise during our actual workshops later on.
💡 The modularity of the tiles allows for multiple outcomes within a design system. This would allow participants to express themselves, but at the same time allows for results to be comparable as the overall tile systems they were working within are the same.
Spatial arrangement activity
The objective of this activity was to renegotiate the power imbalance between public members and council members by allowing them to reimagine the council meeting space and propose changes.
Initial version: tokens on paper
The first version of the activity involved the participants arranging custom laser-cut tokens on grid paper. While the materials worked well and communicated the exercise, we wanted to push the fidelity of the design and create something that could be held up to be discussed.
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Trying out the first version
Further refinement
For the final version, we used a combination of printable magnetic paper to create magnets, and a whiteboard with a grid overlay. This enabled participants to move the magnetic pieces around more freely, as well as hold their board up for discussion.
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Final version of the spatial arrangement activity.
We were then able to conduct these activities in workshops with Edenbridge public members, councillors, and Queen's Park's clerk.
Workshop with public members
Framework activity
We first conducted the framework activity with five public members in Joan Varley (a public member we met at the council meeting we attended)’s house. We asked them to recollect their experiences from the previous council meeting they all attended. Through this, we hoped to gain individual experiences of the same event, looking at what part of the process each public member took part in and how they felt about it.
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We divided the public members into two groups to encourage contested collaboration and reflection.
Time lapse of framework activity.
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Snapshot of tiles after the activity.
💡 Quotes:
“(We know) A lot of the people that are on the parish council… through work situations… not intimidated but don’t feel comfortable to put forward, what might be a strong thoughts of a particular item on the agenda.” - Participant 2
“But as soon as you are put into a spotlight, and you are supposed to speak to them with a different hat on… it just gets difficult.” - Participant 3
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💡 Learnings and reflection:
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The framework created by the groups surfaced conversations about their relationships with council members and the informal communications that take place outside the council meetings. Some of the members have resided in the town for many years and often socialise with each other, and these amicable relationships make it difficult to put forth differing viewpoints in a formal setting. This further supports the need for an anonymised voting tool.
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They also noted how they had limited time to speak in the meeting, and expressed that they would like more time to do so in the meeting.
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💡 Limitation:
The space that we conducted the workshop in was not ideal, constraining the ability to make bigger diagrams.
Spatial arrangement exercise
Similar to the previous activity, the exercise was conducted in two groups to encourage contested collaboration.
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Snapshot of tiles after the activity.
💡 Key takeaway:
The members of the public wanted to break the stark divide between themselves and the council members.
Workshop with council members
Framework activity
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Similar to the public members, we asked the councillors also to reflect on the previous planning meeting. This allowed us to compare our results, as both groups reflected on the same meeting.
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Conducting the framework activity with the councillors.
💡 Quotes:
“Now that I look at this (the diagram) from the top… we don’t give them much room to get involved do we?” - Chairperson
“We have a document called the ‘Standing Orders’ that gives a pretty good guideline on how to run parish council meetings. It’s not set in stone but it really helps to maintain the meeting structure.” - Chairperson
💡 Learnings and reflection:
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The chairperson and the council members spoke about lack of public involvement in the council meeting. Looking at the process overall, they realised the process does not allow public to share their thoughts and opinions.
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The Standing Orders played an important role in running Edenbridge Town Council. The councillors rarely steered away from the process, meaning we would have to make incremental suggestions for inclusion.
Spatial arrangement exercise
Most council members and chairperson did not want to participate in the activity as they believed the current arrangement works well. One of the council members who participated in the exercise created the current structure.
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💡 Learnings and reflection:
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Contrary to the public members, the council members struggled to imagine new structures.
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Similar to the learning from the framework activity, in terms of outcome, different levels of recommendations would be helpful in inducing change as the councillors seem rather resistant to change.
Workshop with clerk
Framework activity
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We also conducted a workshop with Shuwanna Aaron, the clerk of Queen’s Park Community Council, starting with the framework activity.
Timelapse of Shuwanna doing the framework activity
💡 Learnings and reflection:
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The clerk arranged and rearranged the tiles many times to arrive at the outcome, eventually making a cyclical feedback loop. The process was comparatively more inclusive of public members as opposed to other councils.
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It is possible not to be beholden as strictly to the Standing Orders. The clerk shared with us that the council receives little scrutiny of the way meetings are conducted and that it is possible to make suggestions for inclusion. This supported our plan for flexible, gradual steps for inclusion.
Spatial arrangement activity
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The clerk really enjoyed this exercise, noting that it was fun to play around with the magnets. She made a modification of the current seating layout where public members are seated directly at the table with the public members.
💡 Learnings and reflection:
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This was promising as it shows that some more progressive council members are open to the highest level of change, where the public members are sat in close proximity with council members
At this point, we had enough evidence to back up our proposed solutions of an incremental framework for inclusion and an anonymised voting tool. The next section details these outcomes.
Pattern language
A Pattern Language is a set of flexible, reusable solutions to common design problems. The term was coined by architect Christopher Alexander and popularised by his 1977 book: A Pattern Language. They were devised for use in architecture and urban design as ways of providing useful access to design knowledge both for the expert designer and for the lay user.
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A pattern language was appropriate as an outcome as it would allow the council members many different levels of change for inclusion. I was in charge of developing the pattern language, with a focus on how the Oracle, our voting tool, could be utilised.
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The pattern language was split into two main sections:
Section A: Structure-focused
Section B: Layout-focused
Section A
The first section lays out recommendations for the procedural structures of the council meeting, including what can happen before, during and after the meeting. The main focus is on how councillors can alter the structure both verbally and visually through the use of the Oracle.
Section B
Section B lays out recommendations for the spatial layout of the council meeting in increasing amounts of change, both horizontally across and vertically down the diagram.
Development
Initial sketches for the pattern language
Trying variations of the visual identity
The first version needed more breathing space. Moreover, using more rounded forms could emulate the Oracle itself, and alternating grey and white columns would increase readability.
The second version could utilise more labels, as well as colour to emphasise the layouts with the Oracle.
Final version
Oracle: voting tool
We tried to work out a way to anonymise public members' agreement/disagreement. It needed to include them in the council meetings in a non-disruptive way, acting as visual feedback to council members, in order to increase the feasibility of it actually being used in meetings.
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We decided on a dome-like structure (as an unobtrusive, organic shape) that would be placed in the center of the meeting table. This shape also meant that public members and councillors could see it from all sides. The dome would be connected to clickers that public members could use to signal a yes/no.
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Sketches exploring different possible solutions.
Development
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Parth coding different lighting animations
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Jacob designing the holders for the clickers
Quick testing with Edenbridge, after which the colours and animations were refined
Final version
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To effectively integrate the pattern language and Oracle into a parish meeting, we would need to test them in parish councils further. We hope to do so, given the opportunity to develop the project.
Reflection
This project was intensive in its research process, particularly because we developed our own research methods. Not only did we analyse the parish council meetings through several means, we took those insights and designed our own tools to test them further in co-design workshops.
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Whilst we did have a chance to show our working prototype to council members, we could develop the Oracle further to be less intrusive, possibly with bluetooth clickers and by having data output that could be incorporated into the minutes of the meeting. This would in turn affect the pattern language as well, which leaves room for further development.
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I would like to thank Jacob and Parth, with whom I had a wonderful time working with. We lifted one another’s spirits when trains to parish councils got cancelled, and split up to contribute in our different strengths in the design phase of the project. It was amazing finishing my master's thesis project with friends I am proud to know.
