News

Isaiah and Annie Roberts' canoe returned to Lac La Ronge Indian Band

A canoe built by Isaiah and Annie Roberts, and which was featured as part of Shared Space's presentation at the Canadian Craft Federation's Ten Digit Technology conference in March 2020, has been returned to the Lac La Ronge Indian Band. Shannon Boklaschuk has written article about the canoe's return, which was facilitated in large part by Shared Spaces Development Team member Terry Clark.

Reflections on the Wireframe and User Interface design process

From April to May, 2020, our User Engagement Team developed prototypes for the Shared Spaces service. Employing service design methodology, they developed journey maps and storyboards for each of our personas, using these to understand how people would come to know about and use Shared Spaces. From this understanding, they worked with Professor Lisa Birke to wireframe and develop the user interface for the app itself. We asked them to reflect on this process. Excerpts from their reflections are below.

Shared Spaces at the Ten Digit Technology Conference

Our Project Manager, Michael Peterson, was invited to present as part of the Building Digital Communities panel for the Canadian Craft Federation's Ten Digit Technology Conference, which was held in Saskatoon March 4th to 7th, 2020. He spoke about our design process, what we have learned from contributors across the province, and our initial project directions in response. 

Video of Michael's presentation is available at: https://youtu.be/4RKS2QSpuMg. 

Creating Augmented Reality Content

As part of our project, Shared Spaces has been working on developing an augmented reality (AR) application. We are currently in the prototyping phase, learning and observing how members from our communities respond to this type of technology. For those unfamiliar with how AR works, here is a brief explanation: Upon opening an AR app, the user first scans a “trigger”. This can be a photograph, scanned image, QR code - basically any digital image file that is visually unique. The app reads this trigger and activates some other form of content; this can be a video, animation, link, etc.

Design workshop in La Ronge

I traveled up north within Saskatchewan to La Ronge to meet with a group of individuals who are either artists who work in various forms of mediums, or who enjoy taking some part in the arts. This was the first group to experiment with the Augmented Reality (AR) artworks we displayed. At first, I was skeptical of whether this group would enjoy interacting with the AR, or if the whole process and experiencing AR was too challenging. They were skeptical at first, questioning why we chose the AR route, and whether technology should be the recommended platform we chose to view art.

Design workshop in Little Pine First Nation

On a cold September afternoon, Michael Peterson and I drove the 200 kilometres northwest from Saskatoon up to Little Pine First Nation to give a workshop to get community input into shaping our art and technology project. Our project explores how technology can be used to enhance art experiences. When we arrived, a small gathering of local artists welcomed us into the community. Small talk ensued over bannock and warm drinks. I was surprised about how openly individuals talked about themselves and their art careers and the challenges they faced in order to create art in their community.

Design workshop in Regina

On the morning of Saturday, September 14th, I woke up with a start as the alarm went off. The first thing that came to my mind was the Shared Spaces workshop in Regina. We had been talking about and planning this workshop for weeks. We had prepared a worksheet of questions, two pages long. The workshop was supposed to begin at 2p.m. It started on time with 7 participants. Michael started the workshop by first introducing himself, followed by a round of introductions for participants. They had to tell their name, their job and how they are connected to the art world.