Deedit app asks Edinburgh festival goers to help out in the city

A new digital experience that encourages members of the public to do good deeds throughout the Edinburgh festivals has been launched this week with the aim of tackling social issues such as plastic pollution, litter and homelessness.

The Deedit app launched this week

Deedit encourages locals and visitors to carry out small acts of kindness, such as picking up litter, buying a sandwich for a stranger or giving directions.

Once these good deeds are completed, users are encouraged to record their activity via Deedit, sharing a photo of their deed or a selfie. They are then shown how their single deed or collection of deeds, have helped to impact on bigger, positive social change.

Deedit was created as part of Data Pipe Dreams: Glimpse of a Near Future, the annual interactive pavilion of the Centre for Design Informatics at the University of Edinburgh, which showcases prototypes that explore designing with data.

The pavilion, which is located on Edinburgh’s George Street, is open to visitors throughout August and is free to attend.

Deedit has been developed as part of Project Mercury, a collaboration between the Centre of Design Informatics and Tesco Bank designed to explore Fintech.

Although the pilot has been launched in Edinburgh, the developers are encouraging people from across Scotland to use the platform to do good deeds.

Following the pilot, the team will use data captured throughout the festival to explore potential future uses and further developments of the digital experience.

The online platform will also benefit Social Bite, an Edinburgh-based social enterprise which helps homeless people across Scotland. A number of deeds directly support their work, such as buying a meal or coffee from their cafes for a person who is homeless.

Chris Speed, director of the Centre for Design Informatics, said: “One of the challenges we face is helping people understand the impact new data technologies will have on their lives. Co-designing imaginative, human-centred experiences with the financial sector here in Edinburgh demonstrates that the city is becoming a world leader in FinTech design.”