Collaborative Design

PROFESSIONAL HISTORY

•  97 to 00 – Fine arts degree

•  00 to 08 – Technology for social change:

•  Web design for community orgs

•  Women & tech advocacy & trainer

•  Media literacy training with youth groups

•  06 to 08 – Masters degree in media studies

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PRESENTLY

•  08 to 13 – Kids media development:

•  User research design

•  User experience design

•  Game design

•  Game literacy

•  Co-design as a research methodology

•  Health and wellness gaming

•  NEW: Service design & digital service provision

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MAIN CURIOSITIES / QUESTIONS:

•  Relationship between service design & digital experience

•  Designing with stakeholders •  Emotional health through game play

and game design •  Game literacy as a critical discourse.

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LongStory is a progressive and queer-positive dating game that helps players sandbox healthy relationships and sexuality  

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Platforms: IOS, Android, Desktop Audience: All ages Downloads: 90,000 + Marketing budget: $800

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USER FEEDBACK Conducted preliminary focus group & game jam, plus six playtest parties during development cycle for first episode.

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Second episode should be out in November. Currently we are victims of our own success.

Thought Spot is a live map designed by students, for students in the Greater Toronto Area. The map allows students to easily identify and access health and wellness services, and discover resources that are relevant to their experiences, situation, and location.

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Partners: CAMH, U of T Ryerson, OCADU, Connex, Kids Help Phone Audience: Post-secondary students Resources mapped: 900 + End result: 90% student-driven

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Students were directly responsible for all phases of the project: Design ,development, build, marketing right up to the launch of the website.

Tension at the outset of Thought Spot project stemmed from students lack of involvement as ‘initiators’ of the project. Important to think about how much ownership stakeholders will have at the end project. Are they being invited in early enough? Hint for public organizations: Involve end users in the grant process.

INNOVATION:

•  Required great deal of trust from sponsoring organizations

•  First time hiring & managing student-only production team

•  Bottom up approach to design, production & distribution of project.

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PROJECT ACTIVITIES:

•  Data review & hygiene •  Content & taxonomy development •  Mapping workshop design,

coordination, and delivery •  Website UX & design •  Marketing & Social

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NEXT UP…

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Hackathought Hack for mental health Date: Nov 7 – 9, 2014 Where: Ryerson DMZ

Website development & workshops

Hackathought

Student teams

Staff Steering Committee

Small team

Small team

Small team

Small team

Institutions

Project conception

EXPERIENCE DESIGN:

Growth of trust = growth of participation

Institutions are present in all phases. As their comfort with the process grows, role evolves to facilitate & support broader range of stakeholder contributions.

High Involvement: Stakeholders design the end product Low Involvement: Stakeholder feedback and concepts shared with the people responsible for the final product.

COLLABORATIVE DESIGN IS A CONTINUUM

PROTOTYPING WORKSHOPS

•  Provide materials and a design goal. “no open field”

•  Make sure assignment is reasonable within time frame.

•  Have users explain their design process to gain understanding about their expectations.

•  Do not promise that the results of the workshop will be turned into a final product.

Itir and Sonny make a game about financial literacy

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PROTOTYPING WORKSHOPS

OUTCOMES: •  Users relax and feel ownership over the environment if

they can make a material contribution. •  Users design decisions give insight into emotional

experiences of a product and their expectations. •  User design decisions are not art or technical direction.

They are emotional & experiential cues. •  Reality of making the ‘dream’ product helps users see the

dilemmas designers face, so feedback can be more pragmatic.

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TRUST YOUR MVP

•  Make & test a minimum viable product

•  No ‘help’ from researchers

•  Watch users see what is missing from the experience

•  Don’t assume something simple won’t be ‘good’ enough.

Playtesting our first build at a coffee shop.

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TRUST YOUR MVP

OUTCOMES: •  Much cheaper to test & fail early. •  Users tell you what is missing instead of your designer having to

anticipate their every need. •  Much of what you think is a requirement is actually just a feature. •  Your user will know if something important is wrong.

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PARTNERED TESTING

•  Have users interview each other regarding an experience both have had using the same product under similar circumstances

•  Users can co-play a game under observation

•  Focus is on user interactions with each other in relation to the product

Miguel and Naz play a prototype together

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OUTCOMES: •  If users are shy or may not give researchers an honest answer

they often do better playing with a friend, family member or care-giver.

•  Gives researcher more time to circulate and observe. Can listen to tapes or read transcripts later to get even more information.

•  Can provide insight into how a product will function socially – which aspects inspire connection & conversation & which are better as a solo experience.

PARTNERED TESTING

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WHEN?

•  Tendency to involve stakeholders too late. –  Or too early, when you have no idea what you want

and give users too much responsibility to choose a design direction.

•  Ask for help once you know enough about project scope and required deliverables that you can give meaningful support to their design process.

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Want to learn more? mir@bloomdigital.to  

Twitter: @bloomdigitalmed