In Pursuit Of Meaningful Insight; Covid Remote Collaboration And Design As Provocation

Conducted from June 2020 until the time of writing, this design research activity was conducted as part of the 3 year, H2020, Pan European TInnGO project which aims to create a sustainable paradigm shift in gender and diversity mainstreaming in transport. Such a shift is needed due to the lack of sex disaggregated gender data, gender gaps in employment and decision making and women in STE(A)M able to rise to leadership positions. This lack of diversity at all levels of transport, together with difficulties in engaging ‘hard to reach groups’ in transport planning, means that transport services and innovation continue to fail to consider gender and diversity. This would also encourage design input into future transport. A central concept of TInnGO was to use design activities as provocations and ways to engage with people in new ways – e.g., through visualizations, vignettes and cocreation activities – to develop greater insights into mobility problems and drive gender and diversity sensitive smart mobility solutions. Led by Coventry University, it was anticipated that this would entail management and leadership of codesign sessions in 10 Pan-European hubs. The Covid-19 pandemic significantly disrupted plans, making travel, physical co-design and contact with vulnerable groups impossible. The paper discusses strategies developed to work with placement students to develop gender and diversity sensitive smart mobility design provocations based on information provided by national hubs, and the technological challenges computer supported cooperative design posed.