In the last decades, a change from the user-centered design to the participatory design approach has been taking place in the architecture industry. This direction mainly means that you stop designing for the user and start to design with the users. This experience prevents a lot of miscommunication and false expectations between the architect and the client. Now you should just let your user talk about their needs and requirements of the place and set their creative thoughts free. The benefits of this approach include leaving a space for the community to contribute to the solution, allows for an open dialogue between participants. The most important factor is that it creates the opportunity to utilize people’s creative strengths and come up with the best solution for everybody. However, the question is how to implement the participatory design strategy and still keep the project under your control at the same time?
The answer lies in the following recommendations according to the Department of Informatics University of Oslo which includes this plan:
Co-design with your users through four phases: Inspiration, investigation, cooperation, and community.
Use a participatory design approach inside your team: A strong connection between the team allows innovative thoughts to flow within the project.
Leadership participatory design: One of the most important elements in this strategy is having the leader who can manage the user’s participation parallel with tightening his grip on the rest of the project parts.
One contractor schedule solution you need to integrate your team into
It’s a well-known fact that the contractor is the ship captain of the construction project. If the contractor’s schedule misses the deadlines it can lead to a collapse of the whole undertaking. Taking this fact into account, construction industry investigations found out that a well designed and estimated contractor schedule have the best chances in keeping the project on track and on budget. These schedules will not only affect the project but also your team. Information sharing is the starting point for transparency and work efficiency. In the previous part of the article, we talked about the participatory design approach from a user collaboration point of view. Now we highlight the potential for team collaboration. Effective communication helps in maintaining relationships, trigger innovative ideas and enhance team management. Of course, no one wants to miss adding all these benefits in their project. Implementing the right tool allows you to create feedback loops where everyone can share his thoughts and find constructive solutions together. We introduce PlanRadar software that enhances team collaboration and increases work efficiency.
With PlanRadar you can easily save and send any comment you have to your team partner, access any of the project data at any time, check the work progress and send a request for an investigation “RFI”. In addition to having the ability to producing daily statistical reports, PlanRadar helps you to deliver the results that everyone is looking to achieve. Start now and get 30 days free of charge to try all the features yourself.
Effective and Cooperative Construction Work Using a 3 Steps Site Plan App
So, in the previous part of the article, we have talked about the participatory design from the user perspective and the team perspective. In this part, we will focus on how to bring it all together and transform the whole construction site into a networked work environment. Just like the gears in a well-oiled machine.
The construction site is a complex, fast-paced and interlaced work environment. Upon the high demand for solving this dilemma, the software industry developed a sector which is the Software as a Service. “SaaS” is a method of software delivery that allows data to be accessed from any device with an Internet connection and web browser. In this web-based model, software vendors host and maintain the servers, databases, and code that constitute an application. Through this method, the typical construction project management tasks as data storage and statistics production can be finished faster and cheaper than before. Most of these apps are depending on three steps strategy which is managing the team schedule, managing the office work and managing the site management process as following:
- Implementing construction crew scheduling software
With implementing a crew scheduling software, you will easily create and manage simultaneous schedules which will increase the job speed. You will easily track the staffing work progress, so you can help the project managers to be more effective. In addition to having the ability to comply with the new scheduling laws.
- Tracking the construction office management process
Office management processes are certainly a main pillar in the construction work. The more organized an office is, the more projects you may win, it’s as simple as that. Well documented projects save you from most of the reasons for construction delays and disputes.
- Building construction site management trust loop
People normally tend to be more efficient when they really trust their team. We know that construction projects involve multiple parties from different backgrounds and targets. However, you can select your most trusted team members and build a strong bond between them by implementing the right software.
Finally, it’s clear that the web-based software and apps can make your construction task smoother and faster. They empower communication, increase accuracy, accountability, and development. Don’t hesitate to choose PlanRadar as your construction defect tracking software through your participatory design process. For more information contact our customer care center anytime.
