Our Michigan Avenue Research Case Study
There are many different communities and cultures that reside in Lansing, and our goal is to help merge the communities together through new developments, community/pedestrian dominated spaces, inclusion of culture and increased diversity, in order to make the town accessible and inclusive for everyone.
Step 1: Interview Young Professionals
The first step that my group took in this project was to interview young professionals to understand what they value in the community, if they feel like their voices are being heard, and understand what they want and need within the city. Each interviewee was introduced to the Our Michigan Avenue (OMA) website, which allows residents to comment on new developments in the Lansing area.
Objectives:
- Find out why young professionals are drawn away from the downtown scenes of East Lansing
- Research and reach out to people who would be interested in being interviewed
- What could bring young professionals to the downtown scene
- See the point of view of East Lansing residents who are not students
- Collect data and construct a progressive plan
East Lansing is a place generally looked at as a college town. Though it is home to one of the largest universities in the nation, the focus on merging student life with Lansing resident life has been an ongoing issue. When students are attending Michigan State University, they bring student life to the downtown area of East Lansing, but when students graduate, they tend to leave Lansing. If a graduate stays in Lansing, they are highly likely to move out of East Lansing to the Greater Lansing area.
Though there are hundreds of thousands of educated alumni that could reside in the city of Lansing to help improve the city life and young adult professional culture, it is hard to make residents want to stay.
We would like to make it our mission to get to know the young professionals of Lansing and see what they believe would create a more appealing image of EL, and therefore see if we can do anything to attract young professionals to stay in the area to help further city improvement.
Our Michigan Ave (OMA) is a website that focuses on the reshaping of the Lansing area through various projects and votes to find out what changes the community wants to see.
Procedure:
Our research questions focus around the idea of bringing professionals to the East Lansing area. When we were able to develop specific questions that would help to cater our cause, we got into contact with young professionals in the greater Lansing area and do one on one interviews. We had interviewees look through the OMA website to tell us if they like the content, if they have additional ideas, if the site is usable, and if they have any suggestions for improvements for the site.
Questions:
What brought you to the Lansing area?
How long have you lived in the area?
Do you spend time in East Lansing outside of work?
What type of environment do you associate with East Lansing?
Is the environment you described appealing to you?
As a young professional in the area, do you feel like you have a voice in the community, or a feeling of belonging in the community?
If no-- would you like to have a voice in the community?
If yes-- what are ways that you feel you are able to vocalize your thoughts and opinions about the community?
What do you think about the newest developments that have been happening in the area (Sky Vue Development, MSU Art Lab (Grand River & Bailey), Center City Project, Albert St.) ?
OMA is a website that is dedicated to improving urban development in the Greater Lansing Area, and we are here to focus on East Lansing, specifically. As you look through the website, are there development opportunities that intrigue you?
If these ideas are implemented in East Lansing, would you be more likely to spend time in the area?
If yes-- do you think OMA does a good job at laying out the future of these developments?
If no-- would having a voice in the process of improving the urban developments in EL make you more drawn to the community?
What do you think could be changed to give you more of a voice in development projects?
Do you see yourself possibly making an account with OMA and giving input to improve the area?
Are there other people that you are aware of that have an interest in the future of East Lansing?
Step 2: Data Grouping
After collecting interview data, we worked to separate anwers using affinity mapping, find commonalities, and group the data together.
Repeated Phrases
Bars
Restaurants
MSU events
MSU facilities
MSU campus
Group: Activities
Each of the people we interviewed expressed excitement when speaking about the activities they participate in in East Lansing. Each of these responses were mentioned by multiple interviewees.
Repeated Phrases
Albert St. is a community builder
Developments breathe new life
Previously desolate areas have new life
Developments helped merge Lansing into EL
Developments bring new jobs
Previously empty areas
Group: New Developments
Each of the people we interviewed were able to come up with their own opinions on the new developments popping up through East Lansing. The main ideas covered in each response were similar to the others, and these statements provide insight to our interviewees thoughts on the new developments.
Repeated Phrases
I have a voice
I don’t know where I can voice my public opinion
College town
Young town
Grew up in the area
Each of these themes were recurrent during the interview process when our interviewees spoke about their experiences, connections, thoughts, and voice in their community.
Group: Place in Community
Repeated Phrases
OMA is a nice place to know where I can voice my ideas
I didn’t know OMA existed
I would use this outlet if it was updated
I would use this outlet to keep up with what is going on in my community
Projects are intriguing
Group: Thoughts on OMA
When asked about OMA, it was a clear pattern that those we interviewed had never heard of the site before, but throughout the interviews, each person became more engaged with and inclined to possibly join OMA right now or in the future.
Take Aways:
Improve usability and aesthetics of OMA so that it will attract more viewers
Create more public/community spaces throughout the areas of Lansing in order to increase community engagement
Use user research methods on multiple demographics of individuals in order to receive a variety of unbiased responses from many residents in the lansing community
Our Michigan Ave is a great site with a great goal, and we believe community members would be interested in knowing about a place where they can express their thoughts and opinions about their current place of residence. Taking these ideas from the people who have engaged with the site into consideration, a few updates would help greatly improve it’s image in the community. We believe modifying the site and increasing its social media presence will make it a more widely known outlet for people to express their opinions and voice the changes they want to see in their community.
