Connecting the Silos
Our client ArtsPond initiated DigitalASO in 2016 as a cross-sectoral effort to empower the digital transformation of Canadian arts services through platform-building among many things. They envisioned the DigitalASO Ecosystems Map as a platform that would help build alliances across multiple arts sectors to connect these usually isolated silos to encourage information sharing and digital literacy building. With the COVID-19 pandemic taking a toll on the arts community, ArtsPond realized that it was more important now than ever to provide this platform for artists and organizations at a time when everything was shifting online. They entrusted me and my team with the task of conceptualizing this platform and laying a foundation with our design so that they can further build on it, trying to make it available by the end of 2021.
Team Members
Kaitlin Boyd
Megha Singal
Savannah Kimmerer
Seulmin Ahn
Client Partners
Jessa Agilo, Founder & CEO (ArtsPond)
Margaret Lam, Co-Founder (DigitalASO)
Design Process
Research
User Persona
Alignment Diagram
Prototyping
Testing
Understand resource and networking needs of artists and their current journey.
Create a
profile that best represents the target users and their needs
Communicate with our clients for the best possible direction for the design of the product
Ideate, sketch and design the app, eventually turning it into a prototype
Test the effectiveness of the design with the help of our target users
Research
Go Big or Start Small?
The first step in our journey was to make sense of the current journey our potential users embark on to either get access to resources or network within the arts community or beyond but before we could even do that we had to decide on whose journey we would look at?
We had two options to go for, either focus on large organizations or individual artists and organizers for our research. After some back and forth with ArtsPond and DigitalASO, we decided to focus on individuals rather than organizations as these large organizations might already have the resources or have a large enough network to obtain them. With our initial concept, we wanted to provide value to individuals who might not have these kinds of resources.
The Realization
We started interviewing artists and organizers to better understand their resource and networking needs, focusing also on what motivates them to share resources as these users would also play a part in populating the Ecosystems Map. While I was creating the affinity diagram based on the interview data to plan the next steps, I got a gist of some of the resources the interviewees looked for and how they connected with others but I also realized that there was one value that almost all of them expected: Trust. Whether it be a resource (finding or providing) or a person they wanted to connect with, they wanted to know if they could trust it/them? Do their values align? What is their work ethic?
Other Important Insights
The need for trust and value alignment weren't the only insights I discovered, the affinity diagram also helped me get a sense of some of the pain points and areas of interest:
Most users found resources and expertise through their networks.
The Users who didn't have a large enough network found it difficult to find resources and expertise.
They followed an unstructured approach to search for resources, contacts and expertise.
This often started with a google search which leads them to websites, social media and sometimes eventually to the resource or expertise.
When searching for potential connections and expertise, it was really important for the users to find people with the right skills for the project they were working on.
Once we had the insights we needed to plan the next steps, the team got working on creating a persona for the Ecosystems Map.
Meet Lauryn!
32, Independent Artist
She wants to
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Find people with specific skills (like tech!)
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Find resources easily and quickly
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Expand her network
Her challenges
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Looking for people and resources takes time and money!
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It is hard to define my actual requirements
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It gets confusing determining where to find resources from?
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It is tough deciding if someone is the right contact for me
Lauryn's a 32-year-old independent artist based in Toronto. She has done a lot of installations and curated a few digital experiences in the past but with the onset of the pandemic, she has been forced to move exclusively online and create more digital artwork. Though she can navigate technology, she is no expert and is looking for help with her latest project - an interactive digital exhibit.
Aligning Priorities
With our persona now ready, we started charting out Lauryn's current journey to find resources and expertise to connect with which included all the touch-points used and the pain points and emotions experienced.
We combined this As-is journey with a draft alignment diagram to align ArtsPond's and DigitalASO's goals to the different phases of Lauryn's journey to bring attention to the value they can provide to users like Lauryn with the Ecosystems Map.
The aim behind this activity was to inform ArtsPond and DigitalASO about the research findings and work with them to decide which phases of Lauryn's journey should the initial concept of the Ecosystems Map provide solutions for?
Lauryn's Current Journey and Alignment Diagram
From our Research and the Persona we had constructed, we were able to identify 5 phases in Lauryn's journey:
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Identify which resources are needed based on project requirements
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Search for the resources she needs, looking within her personal network or searching online
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Connect with the resources she finds interesting (email, call, downloading, etc.)
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Evaluate whether a resource provider will definitely help with the project needs and compare the different options
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Select the resources that suit best for her needs also recommending them to others in her network
Narrowing Down the Focus
We sent the alignment diagram and our research data to ArtsPond and DigitalASO to start working with them on deciding which phases to focus on. Based on the pain points and activities in each phase, we decided that we would focus our efforts to address the pain points and needs for phases Search, Connect and Evaluate. These phases had the most pain points that could be addressed with the initial version of the Map and phases like Identify would require the creation of recommendation systems that would require a lot of existing data which for the short time window we had for the project wasn't possible to address with the MVP. With our areas of focus decided, we started ideating.
Conceptualizing and Realizing the Ecosystems Map
Into Uncharted Waters
The Ecosystems Map by ArtsPond and DigitalASO was a response to the lack of an alliance-building and digital-literacy building platform in the Canadian Arts and Culture. As we attempted to design something novel, it brought a feeling of excitement but it also posed the question of "How do you go about building something like this?"
The research, persona and the current user journey were already making me think of potential ideas to conceptualize and eventually realize the Ecosystem Map. Time was ticking and we had to now quickly move on ideating. I and my team started working with Margaret Lam (Co-Founder of DigitalASO) to come up with potential ideas for the map.
Sketching a Map
Our ideation efforts gave us some good ideas to start sketching with. These ideas were rated based on their impact (star) and feasibility (circle) and the top ideas that we selected were a comprehensive profile (for users of the map), better networking opportunities, a merit/badge system and a detailed search system.
Before we started sketching, there were some recommendations proposed by ArtsPond and DigitalASO when coming up with a design for the map, these included:
Focus on a mobile Web App.
I and my team also believed this would a good approach as scaling up to desktop is easier than scaling down to mobile.
Try not to have too many interactions at a time to reduce the complexity of using the Ecosystems Map.
With our sketches we started visualizing our big ideas, creating a final set of goals that we wanted to achieve with the design for each phase of the current journey. These goals or Hills were as follows:
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Search: Lauryn can search different types of resources in one place, avoiding extensive hours of online search.
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Connect: Lauryn can connect with people with diverse skills who are outside her network without needing a referral/introduction.
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Evaluate: Lauryn can identify the validity and suitability of resources at one glance.
While I will go into much detail later regarding the different features in the Prototype section, I will mention some areas we focused on visualizing in the sketches. This included tags for enabling/disabling certain search results, specialized filters for different search categories, details for a resource like an ongoing project and a comprehensive user profile.
The Vision!
For our design we went with Lauryn's digital exhibit project and based on the rough sketches, I started visualizing how she would search for resources and info on that topic in the Ecosystems Map while my team member Savannah focused on the profile creation. I went with a minimalist approach for my designs, not focusing a lot on colours as this wasn't meant to be the final design (leaving room for DigitalASO to further develop it). While I wanted to make sure that the UI elements were identifiable and the interface usable without relying on colours, I did make the elements themselves visually appealing to provide enough direction for DigitalASO to continue our work and expand on it. I also took care of information presentation, providing enough information at each stage and trying not to overburden the users.
Inspirations
While Designing the Web App, I took some inspiration from the ArtsPond and DigitalASO design language whether it be through the limited colours I used, using interconnected circles to show all the resource categories or the rounded edges on the different UI Elements.
A Spotlight on Projects
We wanted to change how people searched for expertise and contacts by making projects the focus of our design showcase. Lauryn can search for projects related to her Digital Exhibit and find people who have worked on such projects. These people could then prove to be the help Lauryn could use. To encourage users like Lauryn to join the Ecosystems Map and protect the privacy of existing users, information on the people who worked on a project is available only after signing up.
Values and Connections
In order to help users decide which resources might align with their values, I added a merit system with the help of badges. These badges represent ArtsPond's core values of ACTION, JUSTICE, PROCESS, CULTURE, IMPACT, ECOLOGY, EQUITY and demonstrate to users like Lauryn the associated values of each resource. I also wanted to help Lauryn jump from one useful resource to another via the Connected Resources section that has all resources that are related and/or connected to a particular resource (Like projects and workshops)
A Small Step Towards Accessibility
ArtsPond and DigtalASO value accessibility and I wanted to make sure that I could provide at least a blueprint for the initial set of Accessibility Settings. While the design for the accessibility settings page isn't final, it does have the necessary settings for the MVP. These settings will allow users to change text size, adjust line spacing, change fonts, colour scheme and language.
While creating these screens, we conducted usability tests to help me iterate on the design and fix interactions and language used. With the prototype ready, we created the Storyboard that charts out all possible interactions and explains the different features in the Ecosystems Map.
Evaluating the Map
The Good
I and my team were conducting usability tests while I was working on the design to provide me with constant feedback for iteration. Most of the fixes were implemented and are represented in the screens you have seen. There was a lot of positive findings from the test some of which included:
4/5 Users
Found the design to be clean, simple and visually appealing
5/5 Users
Found the profile creation process to be straightforward
3/5 Users
Felt the project overviews and detailed views were straightforward and would be useful to them
The Good Intentions
It is difficult to represent a value like trust in a digital product, it was a difficult undertaking. The idea that we finally went with was value badges, hoping that they would help users quickly figure out the values associated with a resource. The users could also award these badges to resources that they found helpful but our attempts at democratizing values had some flaws.
First of all, the users initially had a hard time understanding what the badges meant (5/5) which after some contextual information, they said could be useful to them. There were however 2 users who brought out an interesting point that could seriously impact equity on the platform. They feared that allowing users to award badges could make the system into a popularity contest where Organizations or Artists with good PR or social media reach can gain more awards compared to fledgling organizations who might not have those resources.
We believe that representing values can have a huge impact in the positive direction for the platform based on the fact that the users do believe this could help them but we will have to work on the implementation. Some alternatives can be either allowing organizations and individuals to assign values to themselves or having DigitalASO play a more active role in vetting resources. We made sure to notify DigitalASO about this for their future work.
Closing Remarks
I am glad that I got to work with ArtsPond and DigitalASO on this new and exciting product. I feel honoured that Jessa and Margaret put their trust in us to design a platform that has the potential to change the Canadian Arts and Culture Landscape.
Something my team member Megha said about the Ecosystems Map when talking about the sustainability of the product made me realize the importance of our work. She said, "Given the backdrop of the pandemic and loss of opportunities for artists to meet each other, combined with the sudden need to produce digital artwork, the Ecosystems map is definitely a relevant product which has the potential to become a dominant collaboration and resource-sharing platform."
There is nothing like this potential product out there which puts ArtsPond and DigitalASO in a good position when it comes to user adoption. While there are certainly risks involved like users not sharing enough information, I believe that with ArtsPond's and DigitalASO's reputation as non-profit organizations and their focus on privacy can help build trust and participation!