CityStudio Abbotsford Inspires GDD First-Year Interactive Design Students
When a CityStudio initiative was announced in January 2018, the news coincided with the beginning of a set of interactive design projects in GD202. One team of seven students decided to use CityStudio Abbotsford as a focus for the website development process that they were learning about. Led by Stephen Bau, GDD instructor, the process involved the design of a prototype to demonstrate the proposed user experience design for a website project.
The team attended the CityStudio Abbotsford launch event on Monday, February 5. These students used the design process as an opportunity to create an interactive prototype, which they presented to the staff of the City of Abbotsford to invite feedback for the concept of a website. The proposed site focused on a map of the city with markers indicating locations of CityStudio projects that users could click on to learn more information. Based on feedback from the CityStudio Abbotsford team, the students incorporated more information about the UFV CityStudio Courses and the highlighted the Hubbub events to showcase the projects.
Here is what the team wrote about themselves for their presentation to the city:
Who We Are
- We are a team of 7 in our first year of the design program at UFV.
- We are all incredibly passionate about design and creating projects that solve real world problems.
- We love working with local businesses and non-profits to build and grow our communities for the better.
Our Process
We completed a large amount of research coming into the project. After attending the CityStudio launch we set up meetings with Larissa Horne, UFV’s Experiential Learning Coordinator to gather more information about the programs and initiatives.
Our Goal
Our initial goal was to create a full website for CityStudio Abbotsford; however, after consulting with Larissa we decided to shift the focus to how students can participate and come up with new projects for CityStudio as well as be inspired. We put a large emphasis on creating an interactive map that shows current and previous projects offered by CityStudio.
The Team
Stephen Bau, Instructor, GD202 Interactive Design I
Students: Brysen Becker, Nick Bullett, Sarah Butt, Karen Driegen, Kyle Erickson, Chris Fleugel and Emily Rabb.
Featured are some screenshots from the website wireframe prototype and a team photo.
CityStudio Abbotsford is an initiative of the City of Abbotsford and the University of the Fraser Valley to create an innovation hub where City staff, University of the Fraser Valley students, and community co-create experimental projects to make Abbotsford more sustainable, liveable and joyful.
