UCL Visible CoSpace: A study of space and health

Feedback, connections and pizza!

To prepare the materials for our upcoming project, some members of the Visible Co-Space research team and other UCL academics met with the Camden Youth Councillors to gather feedback. Of course, working with young people, it only made sense to get the eyes and ears of young people on our project aims, materials, and ways to recruit participants. 

After some introductions from everyone, including fun facts, Keri and Lusi shared what the Visible CoSpace project is aiming to research, its importance, and our hypothesis. During the introduction to the study, the youth councillors were able to submit feedback and ideas anonymously on a few topics: 

– What can you do with a ‘paper clip’? 

-What do you think of when you hear ‘UCL’? 

-What can UCL researchers do to make it easier for young people to take part in our project? 

-What challenges might we face? 

-If you were helping us, how would you convince other young people to take part in a project like ours? 

-What would you like to get out of taking part in a project? 

-How might you share what we find with the public, policymakers, and other researchers? 

Following this, the youth councillors completed the survey as if they were participants in our study. While reading the questions, they were able to leave anonymous feedback about what they noticed, suggestions they had, how to make it more digestible to young people in general, formatting, and more. The youth councillors took everything from wording to colors used to font into consideration when reviewing our study materials, and the feedback was incredibly insightful. With their help, we were able to make our project more accessible and participant-friendly! 

After all their hard, diligent work, everybody had the opportunity to connect and network with others in the room over pizza & juice. The conversation topics were endless, from social media consumption and addiction to general health to attending UCL to outside hobbies and interests to the Visible CoSpace project. This was such a lovely and beneficial experience for both the councillors and the UCL affiliates, as it is always nice to gain the perspective of anyone you might meet!