People often talk about ‘setting the scene’. When we watch a film, see a play or read a work of fiction we understand that the backdrop plays an essential role in creating atmosphere, allowing us to become immersed in the action as it unfolds.

More significantly, life’s everyday ‘scenes’ have a huge impact upon our day-to-day experiences. The quality of the spaces where we live, work and socialise can influence our mood and even affect our health, relationships and personal well-being.

Here at the U, we want to make sure that the scene is set for a brilliant experience for all of our guests and hosts. Whether on a busy high street shop, or in a pop-up space in your community, we understand the importance of creating a place where people can come together and learn in a relaxed, fun and interesting environment. This is why we have recently been busy thinking about how to bring our U spaces to life.

Before Christmas we got to work visualising the ideal qualities of a U space (armed with prit-stick, scissors and plenty of snacks!). Based upon our existing experience of U sessions, as well as our aspirations for how these will develop in the future, we collaged images to capture the interactions, activities and atmosphere that a U session offers. This led to a discussion about the importance of creating a space that is not only comfortable and welcoming, but that also has an element of excitement and intrigue and that will appeal to passers-by within its given context.

To turn these ideas into a reality, we are working in collaboration with interior design students from Kingston University to design and build a mobile kit that can transform the spaces where sessions are delivered, and offer new opportunities for guest and host interaction with the props and materials that are used during the sessions.

These propositions will hopefully develop into a really effective tool for creating an interesting environment where people feel comfortable and willing to participate and engage with the space. However, space making remains more an art than a science, and as always testing and prototyping ideas will be an important part of the creative design process, ensuring that the propositions are an appropriate response to what users really want and need rather than being based upon assumptions about how people behave.

We’d love to hear what you think about this. What kind of environment do you like to learn in? What makes a space feel inviting to you? Which places do you find interesting in your day-to-day life? Please share your thoughts and ideas with us on facebook or twitter, and help us to create a place that inspires ‘U’!

After a month of research, interviews, and creative ideation The U has developed the first iteration of our next module.  ‘Give & Take’, developed in partnership with Dfuse, aims to give people the skills and confidence to address low-level conflicts in their neighbourhoods and daily lives.

The U team traveled to Northumberland this week to deliver two prototypes of the session with participants from Hexham. As with previous modules, the first prototype proved to be the most difficult.  No matter how many times you’ve done it, opening up your ideas for scrutiny can be a bit unnerving. But it’s the only way to be sure you are headed in the right direction!

With the first prototype session, we quickly recognized that the instructions for the role-play activity were just too complicated. During the feedback discussion, the group suggested that the role-plays be presented to the group as a whole rather than in smaller groups of four. Fortunately, we had another session starting in just 30 minutes and decided to test out the suggestion. Such is the exciting world of rapid prototyping! In the end, the new format was much more effective and made the entire session much more cohesive.

Overall, the first iteration of ‘Give & Take’ was largely successful. The sessions proved to be a great opportunity to appreciate each others’ differences. Whilst there is still room for developing the specific skills involved, the sessions successfully encouraged participants to  consider different perspectives in a conflict situation and to step back and consider their own assumptions.

Special thanks to Stopgap and ISOS Housing for their help in coordinating the sessions.

The next prototype session will be held in Sutton at The U’s pop-up shop in St. Nicholas Shopping Centre on November 30th. If you’d like to attend, send and email to hello@the-u.org.uk. It will be a lot of fun, and you’ll even get a £20 high street gift voucher.