For our project, we decided to do a design intervention for crowded campus sidewalks. Our concern was not only the congestion, but also that most people's walk to class is a mundane and unenjoyable part of their day. After working out designs from the last update, we got to work prototyping, which mainly involved selecting our materials. The material we picked for this would be a very important part of the overall functionality.
Our first idea was chalk, because it is so commonly seen around campus. It would be easy to use, and doesn't require much waste or cleanup. Chalk had a lot of downsides, though. Because it is seen often on campus, most people tend to ignore it. Also, because this is winter, we couldn't guarantee clear sidewalks when conducting this project. Chalk didn't feel like a strong enough presence to really create the intervention we were looking for, so we looked elsewhere.
We then decided to look in to using tape. Tape requires more cleanup, but it also shows up a lot more than chalk and really makes an impact. We still had to decided on what kind of tape, because certain tape doesn't work on certain surfaces. We mostly tried to use masking tape, but we also used duct tape when masking tape didn't stick. We laid out some tape on different surfaces with different patterns to try out walking over the tape. It worked pretty well, so tape was out winner for materials.
