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Viver
Introduction
This project was focused on co-creative design, each participant on the Masters course was put in a random group and over the course of a University semester we had to design a product and pitch it to a potential client. The structure of the module meant that first three weeks of the project were spent developing our individual proposals for the team to eventually work on one for the remainder of the project.
Individual Proposal
The team held an initial meeting to discuss the broad topic of each of our proposals. This gave the team a chance to introduce ourselves to each other, to broadly discuss our interests and to find out what type of product we would work on. After discussions, the team decided on the topic of sustainability as at the time of the project inflation and cost of living was beginning to reach new heights.
I initially spent time researching current models that were helping people buy more sustainably and through this process I changed my strategy. I discovered minimalism, not the design movement or lifestyle aesthetic but the principle meaning of the word being a reductive living ideology.
Goal: Influence more sustainable living through a platform that champions the user experience.
Project Objective: Create something that helps people require less to be sourced.
Research Topics for Individual Proposal
Academic Understanding of minimalism (reductive living).
Minimalisms current state.
Minimalisms connection to sustainability.
Current perception of minimalism as an ideology.
Findings
Academic Support - There is a host of academic support suggesting that the ideologies connected to minimalism could combat a range of challenges presented by globalisation.
Image of Minimalism - Findings suggest a re-framing of information about minimalism would have to occur to enact a steady cultural shift back to the original ideology. As minimalism is know culturally known as method of buying rather than buying less.
Social Change - As minimalism is seen as a set of sustainable ideas this is a far more realistic approach to take within this project, than trying to enact sustainable change through a product that requires legislative action or support.
Individual Design Proposal
Implement the concept of reductive living into a platform that is like a combination of Psychology Today and Pintrest to create a multifaceted, engaging and diverse service for users to better implement sustainable habits in their lives.
Proposal Collaboration
Once each member of the team had made a proposal we reconvened. Each member's proposal was placed into a shared drive and we all reviewed each others work. We then had a meeting to discuss which proposal the team was most excited to work on and my proposal was chosen. At this point in the project I put myself forward to be Team Leader as I felt I was best placed to drive the direction of the project with the proposal being my own.
Market Research
As the team were not experts in sustainability products we decided to conduct some market research to better understand current successful products. This would allow us to take inspiration from different aspects of different products and understand where our product could fit into the market.
This market research allowed us to identify that there was an accessible niche that was not being used. Other competitors had similar platform structures, topics or content strategy but none linked them altogether in the way we wanted to.
User Research
Now that we had established a niche in the market that our platform could fit into, we needed to challenge the assumptions that we had made up to this point. We needed to understand whether the user needs and current pain points aligned with the goals of the project. To do so, we conducted some one to one user interviews, where we discussed the challenges of the current cost of living and the desire to live sustainability.
The results were formed into affinity maps to understand the key themes across participants. We synthesised results to be able to communicate which themes were strongest and build a design plan around user needs. We derived both qualitative and quantitative data from the interviews which aided modelling the user and justifying the design directions respectively.
User Research Results
Key Qualitative Information
Challenges of Sustainable Living - On the subject of living sustainably users are left feeling frustrated and discontent, not only do users feel that their individual circumstance is difficult enough already but also that there is a host of pain points making change inaccessible. Users are being left feeling powerless to big corporations and government causing a lot of discontentment with the subject.
Positive Information Attitudes - Encouragingly users have broad positive attitudes to many mediums of information, most importantly users like to consume information in the most digestible way for them which is not the same thing as the easiest. This should be considered when designing the platform.
Negative Information Attitudes - Contrary to the positive attitudes, users hold a lot of negative beliefs towards information when considering it's trustworthiness. This is a challenge that has to be combated within our site as credibility will be the corner stone of the platform's success.
Key Quantitative Information
93.2% of people find sustainable behaviour difficult to maintain.
63.6% think sustainable behaviour is important.
54.5% of people do not know where to find information on sustainable living.
78.2% of people feel positive about implementing sustainable habits.
Modelling our User
Using the research insights about our potential users we developed two user personas, these reflected a typical user of the platform we wanted to make to ensure that throughout the design process all of the ideas and solutions were tethered to a user.
Research Summary
In collection of our research, it is clear that there is a desperate need for a platform similar to what was early theorised in the project. Though what was initially thought by the group has changed to conform to the requirements of the users in response to the insights and findings from research conducted.
The platform that is to be designed will serve and empower users to make change in their life by communicating a ‘new’ type of minimalism, a type removed from the modern meaning giving users the ability to make immediate change in their life to benefit their individual circumstance and contribute to tackling wider sustainability
issues. It is essential that this platform is welcoming to all in tone and should be far removed from any sense of ‘eco-warrior’ to encourage maximum engagement and reach.
The platform needs to communicate a sense of trust and community so that it can grow and develop inline with present struggles to stay relevant to its audience and not become dated similar to that of MoneySavingExpert. The platform also needs to allow users to feel responsible so that they continue to engage, which should be achieved though the organic growth of smaller communities under the umbrella of the site. This platform will also have to be uniquely funded to allow the site to be a non-bias space of information while promoting the values of minimalism, this funding method should be devoid of basic donation as to avoid the risks and dangers surrounding lobbying to a business.
The overarching purpose of this platform should be to bring ‘new-age’ experts to the forefront to communicate new and innovative ideas about sustainability to an audience that can enact change. It should look to build a revitalised sense of trust in pacesetters and experts within the sustainability space and be closer to a self-sustaining information community than conventional one way news.
Design Goals
Build a brand identity and name to which the concept can be built upon that communicates credibility and legitimacy.
Generate ideas about features and add-ons that could sophisticate a conventional forum to enhance the core foundations of the platform.
Ideate innovative and new methodologies which could fund the platform.
Generate a user journey to identify what the user will specifically gain from the platform along the site’s development.
Agree on the mediums the site should inhabit its content e.g., mobile, web, tablet etc. As well as video, audio, text etc.
Generate ideas about wider features the platform could have to enhance the user experience and allow them to maximise their time on our site.
Create a rough architecture layout for the site to understand what we have to design.
Ideation
Platform Medium
The most appropriate medium we felt this platform should inhabit is a website that is mobile friendly. This was decided upon because the 92% of people questioned would access information they want to find via mobile, but we also felt from an agile perspective that the platform should be created in a lean manner to manage resources. If successful, the platform could branch out onto more specific mediums for users.
Branding
The branding strategy was not to take the typical minimalist direction of scaling back identity and colour to infer a reductive aesthetic. As a team we wanted the importance of reductive living to come through in the product while also giving the brand life. We wanted to detach it from the current 'minimalist aesthetic' and have an energic presence.
Loose Sketching
After a team meeting about how we were going to achieve all the design goals, we individually went away and ideated our own visions of how the platform could function.
Once we had decided on the rough user flows for each of the features we wanted to implement into the platform we then created medium fidelity wireframes to align the initial concepts with the brand image.
High Fidelity Wireframing
After initial design sketches and team discussions minimal viable product high fidelity wireframes were made to communicate the key features of the platform.
Product Differentiators
Viver should be a platform for all, not only will our site host a comprehensive forum for mature users wanting to understand how to better live sustainably, but also age specific sectors with appropriately digestible information for all ages.
Viver understands that with the present challenges not all people will be able to access this information. Therefore the platform will offer Viver Coverage to businesses offering training on how to operate and engage with the platform to ensure the most vulnerable do not miss out on the information.
Designed Credibly, Created Credibly, Funded Credibly. Viver understands that the credibility of the platform is the basis which allows users to trust the site and for that reason Viver believes that it should uphold certain standards of credibility. Information will be free to all, each published piece of information will be reviewed for legitimacy and all funding will come from ethical sources.
Product Features
Viver’s main feature will be the hosting of forums streams and verified posts to its user base about sustainable living. Our platform will prioritise topical points of discussion to ensure that the forum is relevant to present challenges 24/7.
Another of Viver’s features is Focus, which will be a weekly point of information communicated in a video format as to give users a selected topic of discussion every week to bring together users to discuss ideas, personal solutions and challenges presented by the topic.
The final key feature will be Viver Circle, which will be a space for users to join to together to discuss issues of a more specific topic or localised nature. A Circle could be formed for a borough to discuss how they could enact collective change that could support that community e.g. A car share to the shops.
Funding Strategy
To satisfy the requirements for this project, we needed to find an organisation or fund to pitch our concept to. After initial research we discovered the Global Innovation Fund, we felt this best fit our concept as the platform was going to be non-profit and the funds accessible from Global Innovation Fund would facilitate the launch of this concept.
Final Pitch
Key Learnings
Team Dynamics - Collaborating with a team for a single project was a challenging experience. It was important to understand other team members' skillsets and generate a rapport with them, while also being vocal about my own strengths and clear about what I could to contribute to the project.
Leading a Project - Leading the project was a very rewarding process, as having the pressure and responsibility to delivery the project was very stimulating. Leadership comes naturally to me in a creative environment as I often find the most valuable results come through overcoming the hardest of challenges.
Managing Product Delivery - I learned a lot about product delivery during this project as I found that I was continually reflecting upon the performance of the team which influenced the next stage of the project. This allowed me to make small adjustments to the project depending on the work rates or availability of the team to ensure that the project was finished with a minimum viable product.