Você que ama o
passado e que não vê
Porto Alegre's historical and cultural heritage preservation platform.
Project Overview
IAPI, or Conjunto Residencial Passo D'Areia is considered by some the oldest condominium in Latin America. The 'vila', as is called, was inaugurated in 1953 by former Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas and today holds the bagde of an urban cultural heritage of Rio Grande do Sul's capital.
Despite its history and architectural importance, IAPI has seen its original buildings and streets deteriorate as the years go by. The lack of government action is aggravated by the lack of knowledge of its history among its own population.
This situation brought us the question:
"
How can we encourage the residents' engagement on preserving the built heritage and awaken the general city's population's view on the cultural, economic and tourist development potential of this place?
Wanna jump straight to the prototype?
My role
UX/UI Designer / Product Designer
The team
Lucas (architect) & Silvana (researcher).
Process
Research, market analysis, qualitative interviews, ideation, prototyping, testing, evaluation.
Scope
4 weeks
Tools
Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Procreate, Notion, Google forms, Zoom.
The challenge today
Raising awareness of the building typologies conservation
Classified as an Area of Cultural Interest (AIC), in 2012, IAPI became part of Porto Alegre's Cultural Heritage Real Estate Inventory. However, the protection of the cultural built heritage hasn't been seen in the last 12 years. Instead, current residents live with the remains of a forgotten and sometimes despised past. As a result of the abandonment of these buildings, IAPI has become a place on the margins of economic development and the quality of life of its adjacent neighbourhoods. Moreover, architectural solutions that show non-compliance to the original project have emerged with the demands of contemporary life.
Safeguarding the legacy
IAPI's heritage doesn't lie only on its architectural project. The residential complex shelters the history of cultural icons, such as former dweller Elis Regina, amongst other important chapters of the city and state's biography. Nonetheless, with the passing of its first residents, the stories have been slowly fading from the collective imaginary.
Project peculiarities
This project came to life as part of a competition organised by the local Architecture and Urban Planning Council, therefore, the work presented for approval needed to be done through a lean and quick process.
Ideally, some extra steps would have been added before the product vision and the prototype being finalised. Nevertheless, extra research and tests are being conducted as the product is being developed.
Due to its 'in progress' status, the project explanation disclosed below has been highly summarised. Despite that, don't hesitate to contact me for further information!
Research
During the research phase, our first main objective was to gather information on initiatives with similar goals already on the market. From educational videos to leaflets, we've analysed different projects being implemented in Brazil and abroad.
Afterwards, the next step was to understand our target audience and to map out its pains and needs, which was done through 3 qualitative interviews. The insights were organised during an affinity mapping session and its results were synthesised in two empathy maps.
Ideation
Subsequent to the research, the two main audience pains and their respective solutions were made clear: guide the residents throughout the preservation process of the neighbourhood and spread IAPI's history importance to the general population.
First, the platform was sketched into a website, but as the work continued and the gamification idea came to life, we decided the product would best fit a Web APP format. The user flow was adapted and Você que ama o passado e que não vê's first low fidelity wireframes were, then, drawn.
It was determined that the app would have two main functionalities representing the solutions listed: an interactive guide with architectural recommendations to preserve the heritage and a treasure hunt where the user would be able to get to know IAPI's history and landmarks.
Design
The name of the project Você que ama o passado e que não vê (you, who love the past, and don't see it) alludes Como nossos pais, a song written by the prestigious songwriter Belchior that was immortalised by the singer Elis Regina, who was born and raised in the residential complex.
The visual identity had as base the predominant colours of the neighbourhood and drawings of the architectural project. Another important decision was bringing the engineers responsible for the construction (Edmundo Gardolinski and Marcos Kruter) as the app's guides.
Below, you can see a glimpse of the high fidelity wireframes.-
Test
After finishing the high fidelity wireframes, I've conducted 5 usability tests. After which, some colour choices and button positioning were changed.
The app is currently under development, but I can already profess what a pleasure it was to work as a product designer in this project. To create something that will help keeping the history of my hometown is already special, but creating an experience that will assist people with practical issues and work as an educational tool was extraordinary.
A fun fact about the process: I had the chance to know and present the project to the son and grandson of the main engineer of IAPI's project Edmundo Gardolinski, who became one of our dear characters and treasure hunt guide, Ed :)
As always, I would be delighted to share more about this experience. Feel free to message me so we can chat!
