Students will launch the Chicago neighborhood inquiry by examining local challenges through maps, stories, and stakeholder perspectives, then draft the first three framing artifacts that will guide later research and design work.

Students will deepen their neighborhood investigation by evaluating sources, analyzing historical and present-day patterns, comparing stakeholder perspectives, and using evidence to define root causes and a research-backed solution direction for one Chicago neighborhood.

Students will turn neighborhood research into testable design concepts by studying strong models, naming quality criteria, writing a measurable hypothesis, planning team production, building and revising an early prototype, and documenting how feedback from peers and outside stakeholders shapes a stronger neighborhood asset map, identity profile, or community space proposal.

Students will implement a neighborhood asset map, identity profile, or community space proposal in a small-scale test, collect evidence from users and observers, and analyze whether their design addresses the neighborhood need they defined. They will document testing with visual and quantitative evidence, compare results to their success criteria, and identify revisions that strengthen the proposal before the public sharing phase.

Students will present their Chicago neighborhood work to an authentic audience and synthesize how their research, design choices, revisions, and community understanding changed across the project.