The InstaBooth: an interactive methodology for community involvement and place-making

Purpose: Community involvement is a common strategy to negotiate changes to the built environment. Traditional community involvement approaches are increasingly augmented through playful elements or through the use of technology. The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of a community involvement approach aimed at expanding participants’ ability to contribute to the issue. Through the design of bespoke interactive approaches to asking questions and receiving responses, the InstaBooth shifts the involvement process toward an open discussion between community members. Design/methodology/approach: The InstaBooth methodology established in this paper is based on the use of a physical interactive installation for situated community involvement and place-making, the InstaBooth. This methodology embeds design thinking and collaborative approaches to move the focus of the engagement from data gathering to data sharing and content co-creation. Findings: In 2015, the authors worked with the local community of Pomona, Queensland, Australia, to inform the new masterplan for the town center by using the InstaBooth as a community involvement methodology. Examining the case of Pomona reveals how the InstaBooth approach allows participants to join a discussion about their own environment in a playful and unstructured way. This is achieved through the application of design thinking across three key phases of the community engagement; 1) planning the engagement strategy, 2) implementation of the strategy and deployment and 3) data co-analysis. Originality/value: The InstaBooth is an interactive methodology which has allowed citizens to engage in the discussion about the future development of their town strengthening their sense of place and sense of community. The significance of this paper is applicable to others interested in community involvement and place-making, as it presents a novel methodology that combines different methods for different contexts while embedding co-creation in its approach.