Project Overview
In 2024, the government donated 24 AEDs to the Feicui Community and launched monthly free first aid training programs to enhance residents' awareness and emergency response capabilities. However, a community survey revealed that most residents were unaware of the AED locations, and the visibility of these devices remained low. Furthermore, enthusiasm for attending training sessions was tepid, highlighting a lack of first aid awareness and a weak sense of shared responsibility for public safety.
This project tackles these challenges by creating an AED guidelines for Feicui Community. The signage offers clear directions and distance details, ensuring quick access to AEDs. Through co-creation workshops, the designer and children collaboratively designed the signs, harnessing the little ones’ influence on families to boost interest among residents in learning fist aid skills.
The project also fosters resident engagement in community affairs, enhancing solidarity, mutual support, and a sense of belonging. By promoting public participation, the initiative aims to cultivate a stronger sense of civic responsibility and advance the public spirit.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Zhuoyue Teng
Project Brief
This project seeks to transcend traditional notification-based methods to effectively implement government policies within the community. By designing and installing AED signage through small-scale public space updates, the initiative aims to enhance residents’ first aid awareness and strengthen the community’s emergency response capabilities.
The design process is intentionally imbued with educational and outreach functions. By engaging children as catalysts, the project employs a co-creation approach to engage families and the wider community in addressing first aid issues. This not only promotes social participation but also lays a solid foundation for achieving the broader goal of “First Aid for All.”
Project Innovation/Need
Traditional government initiatives have struggled to inspire residents to actively learn first aid skills. Our project bridges this gap through a participatory design process that doubles as a promotional strategy. By fostering interaction and collaboration, it breaks away from conventional outreach methods, enhancing resident engagement and increasing the visibility of AEDs.
The project was co-created with community members. During workshops, residents worked together to draw a 4m x 5m map of AED locations within the community. Children played a key role in designing wayfinding signage, blending functional navigation with elements that reflect the community’s vision and aspirations.
We also organized a community exploration activity where residents used the map to locate AEDs, conduct site analyses, and determine optimal placement for the signage. This hands-on involvement turned passive observers into active contributors, fostering a sense of ownership and responsibility.
This project represents an ideal model of community governance. Its unique interactivity breaks down the "stranger society" barrier, conveying emotional value across multiple levels—from the system to the individual, the community, and society at large. For the government, the project enhances public service efficiency, encourages social participation, and achieves the goal of co-governance.
Design Challenge
The main challenge of this project was creating a signage system that combines participation, communication, and uniqueness, ultimately fostering progressive first aid awareness and widespread dissemination of emergency procedures.
Another challenge was ensuring the activities were engaging enough to encourage broad community participation in the co-creation process. Designing an effective workshop flow was also critical to ensure meaningful contributions toward the project’s objectives.
To address these challenges, we conducted extensive research and utilized service design methodologies to develop an inclusive and engaging process. This approach not only enabled us to design functional and visually appealing signage but also cultivated a sense of belonging and active involvement among community members, significantly enhancing the project’s impact.
Sustainability
The AED signage features bright, warm colors that contrast sharply with the surrounding environment. Color zoning and precise distance markings ensure residents can quickly identify the nearest AED during emergencies. Integrated with existing streetlight poles, the signage optimizes space usage and guarantees visibility even at night.
The AED signs are the result of co-creation, with each sign bearing the name of the child who contributed to its design. This approach fosters a sense of pride and ownership among residents for their community. With the completion of the AED guidelines, the community’s emergency response capacity has been enhanced, marking a significant step toward achieving the goal of "First Aid for All."
Tags
Wayfinding
This award celebrates creative and innovative design in the ways people orient themselves in physical space, and navigate from place to place. Consideration given to signage and other graphic communication, clues in the building's spatial grammar, logical space planning, audible communication, tactile elements and provision for special-needs users.
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