image from: https://blogsprinter.es/mejores-rutas-de-skate-en-espana/
posted by YI ZHAO(yzha0623) on 22/8/2018
Part I: Day
Date: 10/8/2018
Time: 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Weather: Sunny, 23° /8°
Equipment: – basic Map Sydenham Green Skate Park – A4 tracing paper (3 per person)– 3 black marker pens, 3 blue marker pens, 3 red marker pens– a clipboard – Camera (smartphone)
In today’s lecture, our whole class went to the skate park and it was the first time for our group to go there. All of our group members from China, however, the skateboarding is not popular in our country. So we need to do good site observation and site analysis to understand this unfamiliar sport. We arrived at the skate park at 2:30 pm, some skateboarders already had exercised.
Here is the basic map of the skatepark. The skatepark is divided into 2 areas. One is the pool which allows users to complete many special activities. Another one is the big area including many street elements, like Skate Rails and Ramp.
At the beginning, no one used the pool. Players just used line 1 and line 2 in the big area. Jumping and sliding were the 2 main normal actions for them to practice.
Jumping Sliding
As time goes by, maybe they finished warming up. They began to use the difficult area such as the ramp and the pool. So, based on the observation and notation, I drew players’ spatial trajectories and players’ activities.
Jumping activity
Riding a skateboard
As for the social interactions, most of the users do not have too much communication with each other when they play. Just when they had a break or they made a mistake, they may have a short conversation.
Part II: Night
Date: 15/8/2018
Time: 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Weather: Sunny, 26° /10°
Equipment: – Fujifilm X-T2, tripod
Today, I went to the skatepark alone to find the difference between day and night and also checked the night illumination. The sunset time was 5:31 pm, so I came here at 5:00 to wait. The street light was opened at around 5:36 pm and the is was pretty bright similar likes daytime. Users can clearly see the site.
Here are the three videos to show the night scene in the skatepark. At night, the players’ level is higher than the players in the daytime. They can do many special and difficult activities.
Summary:
During these two times observation, I generally understand how skateboarders ride and which area is popular. We will interview one or two players from the skatepark to get some further information. And plus, based on these findings, our group will create some super awesome concepts to improve the skateboarding experience and enhance their communications.
Playful Cities 