Lasting Impact Designathon project
Our team included two teachers and three politically active women of color. We definitely understand the importance of wielding political power. But we’re adults who have put in the work to get there and to process all that goes with political and social awareness. We thought about how important it is for BIPOC youth to feel supported and understood, and how challenging it is for them to find reliable information from reliable sources. Our goal was to provide a space for youth that is looking for a way to channel all that frustration and stress into something productive.
Team
Adriana Ferrer
Tisha Woods
Katherine Ruiz
My role
UX researcher
Visual Design
Duration
48 hours
The Challenge
How might we provide a safe space for youth of color to help them manage their fears and frustrations while dealing with current events?
The Process
This was our teams first ever designathon. We had a huge challenge this time around. Designing a whole product within 48 hours. While we were completely overwhelmed at first it was extremely rewarding in the end.
48 hour Design Sprint
We followed “the remote sprint design guide” and consolidated the steps in order to complete the sprint in a 48 hour period of time on Miro.
We divided it into the following steps:
Mapping, brainstorming, competitive analysis
Sketching
Designing the prototype
Competitive Analysis
Findings
During our research we also thought about parents who are seeing their children be their authentic selves. Parents who want to learn and unlearn perspectives. We continued brainstorming to discover possible market opportunities for our product.
Prototyping
We moved on to design but simultaneously continued our research due to the time crunch. Each finding lead to new potential for our product.
The Outcome
In our prototype, two personas go on different journeys with the same goals - to connect and learn. A mom is exploring fun ways to participate in local political events with her kid.
The second persona is a young BIPOC soon-to-be voter who wants help processing trauma in a productive, creative way. They go to the site’s Create page, where they find information about artivism, reflection prompts + a journal where they can reflect on events in their preferred medium, and different ways to check in and reset after a draining event.
In short, Lasting Impact helps people by giving them language and methods to express them to themselves and to others. In doing so, they become more comfortable with who they are and present themselves with authenticity and confidence.
Learnings
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Time is Gold
We knew we were heading into a project with a limited timeframe, and we’re familiar with project constraints, but it took us some time to adjust to the accelerated project timeline. We had so many features and ideas in our site map, but we were encouraged to step back and see what’s really important for people to see right now. We looked at the unique features and ideas that would showcase our thinking and research.
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Effectivity
We learned how to be economical and effective with design choices. This experience reinforced our beliefs that we make an INCREDIBLE team under unique circumstances.
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Up Next
We hope to further develop the site with the other ideas we had in our site map, including a brief onboarding survey to personalize the site experience.