IDEATION
In the Ideation phase, we focus on developing all our research first and foremost into design requirements. These will act as essential guidelines for the rest of the project. From there we slowly start developing ideas for the preliminary version of LinkNow. By storyboarding we are able to discuss various use case scenarios that later inform the Information Architecture of our entire system. These help us conceptualize the features and functionality our application will provide.
01 Design Requirements
As the culmination of our research, the design requirements outline what our product will be containing. After identifying user needs, the shortcomings of existing products, and the problems facing the volunteering community, we developed a list of important features that our product would have in order to address these challenges. We came up with ten specific requirements, broken down following the action-object-context and data-functional-contextual methods. Based on the feedback we received, we further refined this list into the 6 most essential design requirements. This process helped us solidify the pain points we were going to tackle through our designs.
1
Allow User to input Time Availability and cater position to when they are free
4
Allow Users to easily apply for a volunteering position, and display information needed to make this decision
Allow User to add the fields of volunteering they are interested in
2
Allow users to view upcoming and past events or positions they have signed up for.
5
Allow users to be able to engage with a group or community of like-minded individuals volunteering in similar areas
3
Allow users to favorite events or organization and have the ability to share these with friends.
6
Takeaways
-
As we created these requirements we focused more on the exact functionality at a microscopic level rather than taking a macroscopic view. Hence, we had to revisit and change all our requirements to prevent ourselves from fixating on ideas.
02 Storyboards
After identifying user pain points with current volunteering platforms, we are ready to come up with solutions that can facilitate a better experience. Following the conditions outlined in our design requirements, we brainstorm scenarios where our application would prove more convenient and enjoyable to the user than the existing alternatives. The reason being, to effectively convey the experience of the design ideation in a narrative format. This would help evaluate potential solutions and their viability from a real-world standpoint.
03 Information Architecture
Following our storyboards, we created an information architecture diagram to map out the high-level components and hierarchical relationships of our system. Creating an Information Architecture helped us visualize the overall flow of our application. We took all the ideas we had in our storyboards and created an interconnected flow of our design solution. Mapping out all possible state changes reminded us of other interface interactions we still needed to design.
Takeaways
-
Initially, we decided to create two sides of our application, one pertaining to Volunteers and the other to organizations that provide these opportunities. Through this process, we realized that to do justice to our project given the timeline it would be unviable to design for both sides and hence we refined our application to focus just on Volunteers. This decision was essential in the success of our project.