About this Project

A unique opportunity has arisen due to the advent of the Commonwealth Games in 2014 to re-examine Glasgow’s heritage with regards to the place of sport. Of specific interest to this project is the fact that 70% of the venues being proposed for the sporting events are already built. One of the aims of the Games organisers is to produce a lasting legacy of engagement in sports for future generations after the Games has finished and one of the most prominent reminders of that legacy will be the venues that are refurbished, extended and created.

Researchers will work in collaboration with local schools and communities to examine and build a multimedia legacy guide (utilising Web 2.0 technology in order that the community can keep on adding information after implementation) for the East End of Glasgow using one of the three main area clusters proposed by the Commonwealth Games organisers (e.g. The East End) as our starting point for the creation of the guide. The East End we believe will provide a rich seam of data as it holds not just some of the facilities to be used but will also provide the athletes village.

Workshop 1: Storyteller

This session started with a short introduction for the children, informing them about the project.

The rest of the session was delivered and directed by the storyteller (Wendy Woolfson, see Figure 1 left). This included several fun activities surrounding the art of storytelling. The first activity helped the pupils talk about themselves by writing information on paper plates, from the obvious to the secret. They then used the information on the plates to reveal to each other something about themselves.

They were then told a story by the storyteller and were encouraged to participate in certain parts. Finally they were given some objects in their groups that related to the history of some of the Commonwealth Games venues and asked to come up with a story relating to these objects. They then told or performed their story of the venue and sporting objects to the rest of the class.

Workshop 2: Site Visit

The pupils were taken to see some of the Commonwealth Games venues e.g. Kelvinhall and Hampden. They were also given a disposable camera each to take photos of things they found relevant at the site.

The pupils were taken round the venues by the venues tour guides. They were shown the various facilities available and were allowed to play on the indoor running track. The pupils got to see for themselves the facilities that are host to many international sporting events including boxing and indoor athletics. They also learned about former uses of the building and got to stand on the spot where the circus used to be held.

Hampden provides a full stadium tour. The tour covers the interior of the stadium including changing rooms and warm-up areas as well as the pitch and the stand. The pupils were also given information about the changes that would be made to the stadium in order to accommodate the athletics track.
The secondary pupils were given a question sheet to fill out during the visits to encourage them to find some information on their own.

After the tours a homework assignment was handed out. The pupils were asked to take photographs of themselves participating in sport or of anything that illustrates the impact that sport has in their lives. The cameras were uplifted from the schools a week later and developed in time for the next workshop.

Workshop 3: Assembling Info

This was the first of two "poster sessions" where the pupils were asked to put together information. They were split into groups and worked on two large posters during the session. One from one of the visited venues (Kelvinhall, Hampden etc) and one from a venue they hadn't visited (e.g. Strathclyde Park, Chris Hoy Velodrome, etc.)

Information for the venue posters was provided in the form of "information packs". The packs were typically about four pages in length and included information about the venues history, current usage and plans for development. Relevant sport packs were also provided, matching each venue. The packs also included some pictures that the pupils were allowed to cut out for their posters.

The pupils were instructed to include on their poster any information from the packs they thought would be relevant to the final design of the website. They were also given their photos taken during the site visits to include on the posters.

Each student also produced a smaller, individual, "sporting diary" poster about themselves. They were asked to include information about sport that they play in their lives and to include any pictures they took as part of their homework assignment.

Workshop 4: Web Design

In this session the pupils visited the university and were asked to put the information they had in their previous poster together as a design for a website. They were also given new copies of the information packs to use the materials inside.

Each group was facilitated by a designer who helped them with layout and navigation charts. They were assigned a particular venue and sport to be their focus. Each page of the website was drawn on a template sheet and they were all put together on a single large sheet of poster paper. These designs will be used by the researchers to inform their first prototype designs.

Workshop 5: Evaluation

The prototypes produced by the researchers are presented to the children and local community group at the schools. The children and the local community group  are asked to freely critique the prototypes and make suggestions for redesign. The research team takes on board the requests and whenever possible implements the changes to the designs. We also undertake the evaluation of the designs in situ e.g. the mobile application is evaluated in the environment in which it would be used.