and& Festival

Prototype & research on how to boost cohesion in a city

Challenge

and& Festival has a legacy of focusing on how technology can positively impact society. But to spark real change, you need to be able to change human choices and behaviour. So we set out to do behavioural research for intervertions that could spark positive behaviour change in the home base of and& festival: “De Vaart” in Leuven. More specifically, we wanted to find an idea that could create more cohesion among the inhabitants of the neighbourhood.

Approach

We followed all the steps of a behavioural design process: 1. Define a clear desired behaviour objective. 2. Do a behavioural analysis. 3. Come up with ideas for behaviour change. 4. Prototype and test the most promising idea. The behavioural analysis was based on insights from 48 surveys filled out by locals, 2 focus groups and 7 expert interviews. This led to multiple ideas for cohesion interventions and ultimately one winning concept. This (podcast) concept was brought to live in 4 prototype episodes, which where then tested by 34 people.

Result

  • + Research report 2021: “Verbondenheid in de Vaart”. Describing the process in full, along with insights from our interviews with scientists, practicioners and local inhabitants, on the challenges for desiging cohesion and possible opportunities for sparking more cohesion.
  • + Concept “Wandelingen op jouw schoenmaat” (“Walks fit for your shoe size”) in which we designed walks in your neighbourhood to listen to somebody about how they experience the neighbourhood. Why could this work? By listening to somebody who shares your shoe-size, you automatically feel a connection to the person, making you just a bit more open to genuinely listen to someone’s story and different experiences of your neighborhood.
  • + 4 prototype podcast episodes
  • + 34 prototype tests
  • + Presentation of process and idea at and& Festival 2021

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