The G Street corridor, located in the heart of downtown Davis, is a thriving center of commerce and dining. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the street has been closed to cars through the use of blockades. The primary aim of this project is to increase the visibility and accessibility of the G Street corridor, thereby enabling a broader audience to discover and patronize its many businesses.

The Problem: An Unseen Gem & Fragmented Identity

How Might We: Enhance the discoverability of the G Street Corridor to foster a stronger sense of community and draw more visitors to its businesses?

Why Human Centered Design

• Puts people at the core of the design process

• Analyzes users' experiences to uncover unmet needs and desires

• Creates a targeted solution

My Role & Approach

As part of a four-person UX design team, I contributed to the end-to-end human-centered design process. Our approach was rooted in putting people at the core of our design, analyzing user experiences to uncover unmet needs, and creating targeted solutions that directly addressed G Street's discoverability challenge.

User Interviews

As a team, we conducted 11 30-60 minutes interviews with UC Davis students, other Davis residents, and non-residents. Notably, some people had no idea what G St. was, and another person said, "It's just a street... isn't it?" (reword this)

We created an empathy map to analyze and compartmentalize our users' actions, thoughts, and feelings. 

• Some of our users visited places like Woodstock's or Temple, but they really had no idea they were at G St.

• Found out that the users couldn't recognize G St. Corridor as its own entity because businesses there lacked cohesion even though they were a part of something together. 

  That is when we decided to foster a sense of community to engage both businesses and potential G St. visitors.

Part 1: Postcards (with directory)

We included a QR code on the postcard that links to our Instagram account.

Why a postcard?

Part 2: Instagram Account

We came up with different G-street hashtags like (#gstreetvibes, #gstreetcorridor, #discovergstreet), and used them in our posts.

Why Instagram?

Testing-Postcard

• Engaging with business owners about our idea and asking them to display our postcards in their businesses

• Also asked people at G Street simple questions about the overall design and effectiveness

Testing-Instagram

Feedback Posts

Direct Messages from Business Owners

Instagram Insight Data

• A steady increase in the number of non-followers who viewed our account transitioned into followers ever since we passed out the postcards

• Reflects that the postcards effectively advertised our Instagram account and Instagram encouraged interactions and engagement among the Instagram users

Learnings & Future Considerations

This project was a fantastic journey, teaching us some key lessons that will shape our future work:

• The Power of Tangible Meets Digital: We truly saw how effective it is to combine something physical, like our postcards, with a vibrant digital space like Instagram. It's a powerful way to reach different people and really make a community initiative stick.

• Crafting an Identity for Places: It became clear that giving a physical location, like G Street, its own unique story and brand is crucial. It helps people see it as more than just a street—it becomes a place they want to visit and connect with.

• Learning on the Go: Getting feedback directly from people on G Street and watching how our Instagram posts performed in real-time was incredibly valuable. It showed us how quickly we could learn and adjust our approach to make a real difference.

• Looking Ahead: We really hope the City of Davis takes this foundation and continues to build G Street's reputation as a must-visit spot in Davis, making it an even bigger draw for everyone.