CIVIC INNOVATION
DESIGNING FOR A BETTER COMMUNITY

The Fox Design Challenge at Temple University is an annual civic innovation competition to transform great ideas into actions. It brings together over 100 students from different universities and high schools to collaborate across disciplines and create solutions to Philadelphia's most challenging urban and social issues. As part of our research, my team and I interviewed civic, business, and community leaders to understand their behaviors, goals, and motivations, and identified problems and opportunities related to the theme at hand. After synthesizing our findings, we created low-fi prototypes and designed solutions that are environmentally responsible and sustainable. For instance, as part of the "Broad ACCESS" theme in 2013, my team and I designed a service that eases Philadelphia's elderly citizens' access to important information. In 2014, for the "Talking Trash" theme, we designed a service that maps Philadelphia's garbage and litter by engaging its users, and invites them to keep the city clean.