PEOPLE'S PUB PROJECT
2022
Hospitality
8 Weeks
UX Design + Research
Overview
We collaborated with the People’s Pub Partnership, Walworth Community Living Room, and Walworth Community Pub to create an exhibition event that focuses on communicating the value of community-run pubs. We used co-design to create a pub cart that can be used as a platform to engage the community and share knowledge about community-governance pubs.
Current Scenario
Pubs are an important part of the British culture and they are dying! In the UK, over 18,000 pubs have vanished over the past 40 years. Multiple factors such as changing alcohol consumption habits, exploitative pub ownership models, and rising property prices have negatively impacted the pub industry. As a result, a number of pub owners (also known as publicans) struggle to create a sustainable business.
Outcome
We hosted a two-hour exhibition event where people from the Walworth community could experience a community-run pub. The exhibition featured a pub cart that can be used by pub owners to interact with the community. Furthermore, we received participation from the local community to set up stalls at the event. The event was also attended by two members of the Parliament who highly appreciated the influence of the pub cart on the event.
Design ways to materialise the community governance model of pub ownership
Understanding
pub culture
Being an immigrant from India and having no knowledge about the traditional English pub I believe it was important to sensitize myself to the pub culture. Mark, our project partner spoke with great knowledge about the history of pubs during our introductory session. The following day we went on a pub crawl with him to understand how he evaluates a pub experience.
During our conversation with Mark we touched upon the following points :
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The different types of business models and the consequences they have on the pub owners.
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The dark secret behind why the pubs are declining but the ownerships are increasing.
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A deep conversation about how a community pub works and what is it about (in particular: the ivy house)
Fig. 1: Visiting The Ivy House to experience a community owned pub
Desk Research
The secondary research focused on gathering information about the origin of pubs, understanding the different types of pub ownership models, and identifying the reasons behind the decline of the pub industry.
"A pub is a reflection of the community it serves"
- J Mark Dodds, People’s Pub Partnership
Materialising
Community
We focused on creating probes to help us manifest our ideas and encourage dialogue with the pub visitors. The exercise involved participants personalizing the beer coasters using the stickers provided.
Fig. 2: A couple creating their custom beer coaster
Fig. 3: Outcome of the activity
Analysis
Most of the people chose to do this activity individually. However, we had one group that did this exercise collectively. While the majority tried to create symmetric patterns, some opted for asymmetry.
Overall, participants found the exercise therapeutic. It also encouraged dialogue among the people involved in the activity. The learnings from the activity served as a foundation for co-creating a pub sign with the community.
Fig. 4: A group of NHS workers decided to do this activity collectively
Key directions
These directions were identified based on the findings from our pub crawl with Mark, desk research done by the team, and probes that promoted community engagement.
Exploring a pub without walls
We invited people from our class along with our tutors to try out some of the low-fidelity prototypes. We also provided alcohol and snacks to compensate for their time.
Fig. 5, 6, 7: Images left to right show people trying out different prototypes aimed at exploring a pub without walls
Analysis
Dylan (In the image below) took the different pieces of cardboard and started making his own table. This sparked an idea to explore the direction around modular furniture.
Overall, the exercise gave us a feel of what would it be like to host an event. The majority of the feedback was focused on utility, however the prototypes also helped surface some social implications.
Fig. 8: Dylan and Co. using our furniture to create their own version
Discovering Walworth Pubs
We also spoke with the people of Walworth to understand their definition of a ‘good’ pub. We prepared a map of Walworth with attention to detail on the use of finished material (Gaver et al. 1999). The map was aimed at sparking conversations (Mattelmäki 2005) with people about, where they live? What pubs have they been to? And what do they think about them?
Fig. 9, 10, 11: Images left to right show residents of Walworth sharing their pub stories
Fig. 12: Coding the information gathered during the interview sessions and using the affinity diagram to create themes
AEIOU
Research
Using the AEIOU observational framework, we mapped the movement of people across 14 pubs near Walworth. We made sure we had a good balance of Family-owned pubs and brewery-owned pubs.
Fig. 13: AEIOU Framework for The Bullshead Inn
Fig. 14: AEIOU Layout for 14 Pubs across London
Fig. 15: Detailed analysis of the crowd patterns outside Blackfriars Pub
A community pub cart
We met with Richard (Walworth community stakeholder) to discuss our concept. We pitched a direction to create a cart with different research artifacts that can help us engage with the community.
An interesting artifact that we can take to crowded pubs to help us draw people's attention.
Act as a research tool armed with multiple methods to help us gain insight about the community
Serve as a medium to promote the concept of community pub governance model
Inspiration and Sketches
We looked at architecture books to find sources of inspiration for modular and portable carts. We sketched our own individual vision of the cart and later came together to share our thoughts.
Fig. 16: A snapshot of our vision board for the pub cart
Building the furniture
I primarily focused on furniture and used the research to identify its role in the pub. Some of the key highlights from the probes about furniture include:
Smokers tend to roll cigarettes, which requires them to place their drink on a table or a ledge if they are standing out
Pubs hold events ranging from sports, games, plant swaps, book swaps and open mics to name a few. And how can the furniture quickly adapt to these requirements
Lastly the furniture would have to fit in the cart that was built to carry it around in the Walworth Community.
Fig. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22: The process of building the furniture for the Pub Cart
Outdoor Arrangement
We took pictures of the pub cart in a nearby park to display its role in an outdoor environment. The idea originated from observing people reclaiming public spaces near The Blackfriars Pub.
Fig. 23: Using the pub cart to reclaim public spaces
Exhibition Event
We hosted an exhibition in the Walworth Community Living Room aimed at inviting the local members to experience a community run pub. Approximately 50 people showed up for the event, and the audience included a mix of parents, children, students and working professionals.
Fig. 24: A person contributing to the probes
Fig. 25: Pub chairs used to place drinks
Community Participation
We had 2 members participating from the community of Walworth. Matt organised a non-alcoholic beer tasting counter, and Summer prepared delicious appetizers (resembling snacks from across the world).
Fig. 24: Matt guiding people through the beer tasting
Fig. 25: Summer getting the snacks ready for the event.
Pub cart at Walworth Fair
The pub cart was used at the Walworth Annual Fair as an artifact to draw people's attention to the community-governance model of pub ownership. The Mayor of London came to visit our booth and briefly engaged in the pub cart.
Fig. 26: A video capturing the pub cart at Walworth Community Fair
Learnings
Overall, the project communicated the value of the community ownership pub model through a slice-of-life experience. Working with People’s Pub Partnership and Walworth Community Living Room helped us understand the importance of collaboration in hosting events.
Importance of design-led research practice
During this project, we primarily looked at design as a medium to gather research and built on Frayling's view of research through design. This involved using techniques such as probes and toolkits, as compared to traditional techniques such as interviews, surveys, and focus groups. In comparison, the design-led practice produced a richer data set than the research-led design practice as it challenges the top-down approach of conducting research.
Recognition
A big shout out to the Walworth Community Living Room for allowing us to host our event, and thank you to all the members who helped us organise the space and made the necessary arrangements for the event. Special thanks to Matt and Summer for organising the food and drinks for the event. Lastly, a big thank you to Richard, Frances and Mark for connecting us with these amazing people.