MINIWORLD - master of design for services

an online platform to create communities for former users

of arts and creativity based organisations

MINIWORLD

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report is an initial step in the search of a solution for the challenge of how to follow up on former users of arts and creativity based organisations. This problem can be framed inside the major one of measuring the impact of the organisations in the long term. Therefore it should be considered essential for a complete evaluation of the organisation work, being also key to the success of obtaining funding.

This short research has been carried out both among and for organisations that aim to improve people’s lives through arts and creative activities. However the result is thought to be applicable to a wider range of organisations.

A Service Design approach was taken to complete the research, being eleven organisations and professionals interviewed. The initial ideas were tested with potential users and with some of the organisations. The eventual selected idea was defined by the use of storyboards and an initial blueprint. It was prototyped and tested. The feedback was used along with further secondary research to improve the prototype and to test it again. As a consequence of this process, the necessity of creating a new tool to develop the idea emerged. This tool was also prototyped and tested with potential users.

In addition to the preferred solution, a number of other ideas were prototyped and tested. Some of these are also presented in this report to provide a more complete picture of the design process.

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This research is not a finished and polished solution, rather it is a starting point for the further development of a solution based in the creation of an online community through the use of a bespoke private platform, in order to ensure the privacy, safety and intellectual property of the generated data. This is especially relevant in the case of organisationsworking with vulnerable people.

María Ruiz de Olano Ferná[email protected]

@maryfloppymariaruizdeolano.wordpress.com

CONTENTS

BACKGROUND Potential reach of the project Benefits of artsImpact and evaluationParticipation and social media PRIMARY RESEARCH Insights on the benefits of artsInsights on the evaluation processInsights on engagement

DEFINING A CHALLENGE SPACE

IDEA GENERATION Early phase Writing a visionIndividual brainstormingIdeation workshopIdea selection and testing

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT OriginPurposeConceptStoryboardPersonasFirst blueprintPrototyping and testingFirst prototype results analysisIterationDesigning a new platform Blueprint NEXT STEPS & CONCLUSIONSTesting with a specific organisationA framework for content creation A question of time

REFERENCES

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BACKGROUND

This report provides an overview of the research process around the challenge of how organisations can follow up on former users. The entities on which is based and for whom this project is intended to, present some or all of the following characteristics: • They run long length programmes (minimum of 6 months) • One of their aims can be to improve people’s lives. • Among their intended outcomes are improving self-esteem, increasing confidence, promoting wellbeing and ending loneliness • They can have an educational purpose • They use Arts or creative activities as a medium. • Developing artistic and creative skills can be their goal. • They have a charitable status.

Model for an animation. Theatre Nemo

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Potential reach of the project

Currently there are 23,770 charities in Scotland including community groups, religious charities, schools, universities, grant-giving charities and major care providers. Approximately 50% of them have as a charitable purpose “advance education”. From those that have educative aims 3,692 also have as a goal the advancement of the arts, heritage, culture and science. If the criterion of advancement of health is added, this number is reduced to 1210 charities. By instead adding the scope of providing of recreational facilities, or the organisation of recreational activities with the object of improving the conditions of life for the person for whom the facilities or activities areprimarily intended, this is further decreased to 754 organisations. (OSCR 2014)

These figures are restricted to Scotland and to charitable organisations, thus the reach of the project can be wider if profitable entities and other parts of the UK are taken into consideration.

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Benefits of the Arts

While some of the research programmes worked with a focus in the development of artistic skills, the majority of them also work through arts and creativity to pursuit outcomes related to wellbeing, such as self-esteem improvement, ending loneliness, socialising, team working, improving academic performance etc.

In the reviewed literature there are opposed positions around these so called instrumental benefits. Thus, while some studies recognise the positive consequences of an early exposure to the arts in the subsequent academic results (Catterall et al 2012) others refute that these instrumental benefits can be achieved through other activities and advocate more for encouraging the practice of the Arts for its intrinsic benefits (McCarthy et al 2004). However, both reports recognise a lack of longitudinal studios that track people who participated in arts programmes.

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Impact and Evaluation

This lack of longitudinal tracking entails a failure in understanding the impact that the organisations have in the long term. Thus, the following question arises: how can the organisation know the continuity level of the claimed benefits in the long term in order to be sure of having a real impact in people’s lives?

This point is strongly linked with the problem of how to follow up on former users and should be considered as part as the evaluation process. In this way knowing the perishability period of the outcomes and the degree of the drop off can be considered as part of the summative evaluation.

As far as evaluation of social interventions is concerned the secondary research indicates that the measurement of outcomes is gaining importance oppositely to the traditionalevaluation processes only based in hard data. Thus, in the evaluation process both the breadth and the depth of the impact should be taken into consideration (ACUMEN 2014) The breath concept refers to the number of people reached by the action, while the depth tries to measure how much and in what way has someone’s life changed. Evaluation systems such as Social Return on Investment and the Theory of Change are being currently using for this purpose. The primary research indicates, however, that some of theorganisations are still having difficulties in the measurement and evidence of outcomes, and also that the hard data is still overrated by the founders.

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Participation and Social Media

If engaging with current users to get qualitative evaluation can be tricky, as mentioned during some of our interviews, trying to do it afterwards could be much harder. Although new technologies can make this easier to achieve, there are basic principles of participation that are valid both online and off-line.

The three components suggested by Fogg (2010) in his behaviours model – motivation, ability and triggers- can also explain participation. Thus, the degree of motivation is strongly linked with the sense of reward and the personal benefit that users can get from doing an activity. This reward can be material but also of skill acquisition, reputation, creativity, self expression etc. In other words, the activity has to be meaningful for the individual.

As far as the ability is concerned, the activity should be easy to do and not require a great effort from the user. Therefore the chosen tool should be as flexible as possible, allowing users to participate when and how they are most able (Simon 2010)

Finally, triggers such a correct facilitation have a vital role in the success or failure of the activity. As Simon points out in her book participation is encouraged and focussed by meaningful constrains. She also states that participants should be engaged through personal entry points and progressively being directed towards social experiences.

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She calls this evolution “me-to-we” design and divides it in 5 stages.

1) consuming contents 2) interacting with contents 3) networking individual interaction in aggregate 4) networking individual interaction for social use 5) social engagement among individuals.

These stages are progressive and not all the projects require the 5 stages, as well as not every user will participate in the same way.

This is clear in the case of Social Media, in which users can be divided in seven categories (Forrester Research 2011), being the data for Europe and among users over 18 years the following one:

•Creators (32%) •Conversationalists (26%) •Critics (33%) •Collectors (22%) •Joiners (50%) •Spectators (69%) •Inactives (21%)

Therefore, It cannot be expected to reach all of the organisation users even with the best social media campaign. As previously mentioned, a good facilitation is, however, essential for success.

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David Dubois, Marketing professor assistant at INSEAD, mentions three key points for a successful social media campaign:

• The use of a common language for users when talking about the product/activity (social base) • The specification of common or individual goals that people will pursue (social engine) • The setting of codified interactions or rituals based on shared symbols that guide actions (social glue)

Among the numerous recommendations found on specialist blogs the most common were:

• To set goals • Find your organisation voice • Engage with users, not only broadcast but also ask questions and comment on their posts. • Share valuable information: tips, ideas, links from other organisations • Plan and create your content • Time your content • Be honest • Be visual • Measure results • Say “thank you”

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Also Visser and Richardson (2013) state that the key element of a successful campaign is a good timed content as a translation of the assets of the organisation in something to build on. They further suggest four steps in the engagement process- reach, interest, involvement and activate- establishing the rate of conversion from the first stage to the activation one in 1 user out of 1000.

Visser and Richardson (2013)

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PRIMARY RESEARCH

For the primary research semi-structured interviews were conducted, in person or via Skype. The duration of each of these interviews was approximately of 45 minutes. The interviewed organisations/professionals were:

• Playful Communications • Theater Nemo (Glasgow) • Community Focus (London) • An Art Therapist working for the NHS • An Artist working in collaborative projects with different institutions • Space Unlimited (Glasgow) • Project Ability (Glasgow) • Edinburgh Museums and Galleries Outreach • Whale Arts Agency (Edinburgh) • A clinical psychologist • A Social worker working with young offenders.

All the information gathered through these interviews and from secondary research was summarised in a deck of Index Cards (Appendix 1)

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A comparative chart of the interviews was also created in order to look for common challenges

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Insights on the benefits of the Arts

From the interviews with a tutor from Community Focus and with an art therapist that hadpreviously worked in arts based social programmes we obtained interesting insights about the instrumental benefits of the Arts. These included:

• The use of art based activities have a beneficial effect in people’s self-esteem. • It improves the concentration skills. • It is also a way of socialising. • It provides an opportunity to learn new skills • It provides an opportunity for enjoyment. • It changes attitudes from I CANNOT DO IT to a feeling of pride and achievement. • When trust is achieved people talk out and reveal fantastic stories. • Success key is in the course/activity facilitator. The most important skills are empathy and listening. • It is also important to establish an appropriate level of challenge for each activity/ individual and to make them exciting and different every week. • The value can be seen in the change of attitude, stories, study cases and the quality of the produced materials. • The impact is difficult to measure, because there are a lot of factors that have an influence.

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Insights on the evaluation process.

During the initial stage of the research we attended the Volunteer Fair happening atDundee University to ask several organisations about the methods they use to gather feedback and to evaluate their programmes. From that visit we also arranged an interview with a professional who has among her tasks the evaluation of projects.

Among the most mentioned ways of getting feedback were surveys, questionnaires, social networks, observation and focus groups. Difficulties in getting feedback from young people and in interpreting children’s feedback given by using drawings were pointed out often. In addition indirect ways of collecting feedback were indicated such as asking to teachers if working with schools or daily informal conversations. Attendance, smiles and positive behaviour were also recognised as positive feedback. Other methods mentioned were the use of postcards to give immediate feedback after the service and the use of touch screens. Workshops are games were not so common.

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In a later stage, more interviews were conducted among professionals that work in arts based social interventions or in which creativity has a relevant role.

In most of this interviews questions about the evaluation process were asked. The main take aways from the answers given are:

• Questionnaires are the most used system. • They combine statistical data with qualitative data. • Founders are still giving great importance to the number of users. • The most common format of qualitative data is individual’s stories. • Every evaluation process should be different for every project. • Space Unlimited was the only organisation that mentioned that they had their own evaluation framework. • Some organisations have had difficulties in the evaluation. • Young people find having to write annoying. Also users that have been in the organisation for long periods consider qualitative evaluation made through written questionnaires boring. • None of the organisations had a systematic way of following up with former users or they do not always do it. However they found the idea interesting in order to get a better understanding of their real impact.

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Insights on engagement

In order to know more about engagement, and more specifically with young people, some interviews with professionals that have worked with young people were conducted. From this research the main insights are:

•There are different ways & levels of participation •Not everybody wants to participate •Participation is linked to empowerment •Engaging with young people is not always easy. •Time is needed to build trust •Be patient, responsive and resilient •Give them a voice, responsibilities and decision power. •Make a behaviour agreement. •Give them different roles during the whole process to make them feel the ownership. •To be engaged, young people have to find the experience meaningful and valuable. •Dismiss assumptions of superiority based in age and cognitive maturity

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The last insight listed above is related to the attribution concept: Are the benefits a direct and the sole consequence of the intervention? What else is contributing to the achievement of those benefits?

This concept is considered as fundamental in SROI (Social Return On Investment) reports and its levels could be increased through collaboration among institutions (Nef 2011). In addition to the attribution, another important idea pointed out in the same report is the one related to the drop-off, or how can the organisation know the continuity level of the claimed benefits in the long term in order to be sure of having a real impact in people’s lives?

This last question is strongly linked with the necessity of following up on former users. Although none of the interviewed organisations does so on a systematic basis, is considered as an interesting thing to do, and even during the interview with the freelance artist it was directly required.

Another fact that reinforced the necessity of tracking former user is the lack of longitudinal studies, which would ensure a theoretical back up, mentioned in the reviewed literature.

Therefore, and after the analysis of the data gathered from the secondary research and during the interviews, the challenge space that this report is trying to contribute to can be formulated as the following question:

DEFINING A CHALLENGE SPACE

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How can organisations that have arts and creative activities at the bottom line of their actions ensure a long term relationship with their former users?

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IDEA GENERATION

Early phase

The initial steps of the research pointed towards the challenge of how to evidence outcomes based in the instrumental benefits of arts such as ending loneliness. As it is pointed out by Dorst et al (2001) in the creative process there is not a clear division among the research and the ideation phase. Due to this co-evolution in the problem-solution space two tools were created and tested while the final problem was not entirely defined.

These tools, namely Mood Tracker and My Social City, are explained below, since they were conceived to be part of the evaluation process. Thus, these two tools would be part of a formative evaluation while the final solution would be more related to a summativeevaluation to which it would add a longitudinal dimension.

Moreover, a number of other ideas that add longitudinal dimension were prototyped and tested. Two of them, the Timeline and the Stickers, are also explained in this report, with the latter being the seed of the proposed solution.

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Writing a Vision.

In order to find a clear design direction a short project brief was written. Setting up the desired result would help to know the previous steps that should been followed in order to reach the goal.

Looking backwards it can be said that this small manifesto was quite ambitious and it still maintaining the link with the problem of evidencing outcomes and therefore accommodating the tools described above.

“To create a series of tools that aim to help organisations to evidence the impact that their long term programmes have in providing, improving and shaping individuals’ soft skills.It also will provide a way of knowing the real impact in the long term not only by tracking individuals after their leaving but also trying to create a quid pro quo relationship”

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Individual Brainstorming

A series of short sessions ofbrainstorming were conductedindividually. In order to improve theideas a creative card deck was used. This tool helped to look at thechallenge from different angles.

Among all the material generated a timeline was the most remarkable idea.

Borrowed from the report New Lives in the Making (Press and Cusworth 1998) this tool aims to gather information about former users since they left the organisation.

The tool was designed in two formats. The first one is similar to the one used by Press and Cusworth, while the second one uses the metaphor of a path and it comes with icons that can be cut and pasted along the path.

Created as an alternative to conventional surveys, the Timeline/Timepath would be sent to former users in order to gather stories, looking for learn about the impact of the programme in the long term.

Roger von Geck’s Creative Whack Pack was used during the idea generation phase.

PRESS M. CUSWORTH, A (1998) New lives in the making: The value of craft education in the

information Age. Art and Design Research Center. Sheffield Hallam University

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Ideally the user would complete the tool writing but also adding drawings or even pictures. After completion the users should take a picture and send it back to the organisation by e-mail. To encourage participation and creativity the possibility of taking part in a competition will be offered.

In addition, along with the Timeline, an old picture of the time spent in theorganisation will be sent. Moreover a task completed by the user in the past such as My Social City and the Mood tracker could be also be sent. This aims to trigger emotions and memories that motivate the user to participate and perhaps to try to keep in touch again.

A question to be explored is the way of sending the tool. Of course by e-mail is the cheapest option for the organisation. However, if the intention is to boost creativity, it does not look like the best option since it would require to print out the Timeline, requiring anextra effort from the users. Being completed without being printed faces the problem of the format of the document. Word looks like the best option because it is a common format but is also a messy program to add drawings and pictures. Sending it by post is probably more expensive but again it opens the doors to more actions that can encourage participation.

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Idea Generation Workshop

The aim of the workshop was to generate ideas to answer the question of How can an organisation follow up on its former users?

A team of five was gathered. The group members had different professional profiles: fine arts, tourism, service design, IT and English Literature. The format of the workshop was quite relaxed, with two main exercises. We brainstormed by writing our ideas on post-its and passing them to the person on the right after ten minutes. Then we had another ten minutes to build new ideas from the previous ones. After that we put the ideas in categories and chose our favourite ones. From the conversation we got new ideas too. For the second part we used a deck of creative cards to discuss and to generate new ideas.

Some of the ideas emerged in the workshop were similar to the ones generated during the individual brainstorming. However other were quite original and a fantastic starting point to

build on

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Idea Generation workshop

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Once the workshop finished, an affinity map was created. The ideas were grouped in ten categories:

• Pre following up• Surveys• Social Media• Trips• Competition• Observation• Task/Continue Creating• Stories• Party/Meetings• Others

This process made it clear that some of this ideas can be part of the same method and also that they can be placed in different moments.

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Idea selection and testing

From all these ideas ten were selected. The Mood Tracker, My Social City, the Timeline and the Timepath were also tested. In addition, the Mood Tracker and the Timeline were tried out on individuals too.

The organisations that collaborated in this part of the process were Whale Arts Agency and Edinburgh Museums and Galleries Outreach.

The type of feedback given by these organisation was different in each case. One of them provided specific feedback for every tool adding examples of similar tools/activities tried by the interviewee. The other, instead, made more general comments about the evaluation process and about the necessity of longitudinal research.

However both considered competition as an incentive and the idea of sending a picture of the time of the users in the programme or a similar item as a trigger of memories that can encourage participation.

While one interviewee pointed out the importance of great stationery and the format in getting better response, the other interviewee mentioned as key the simplicity and the short amount of time needed to complete qualitative evaluations.

Some of the ideas selected to be tested

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Timeline/Timepath

Timeline presented to the organisations.answered the survey

The feedback from both organisations was positive. Thus, they highlighted as a goodresources to gather long term evidences, since there are not many longitudinal studies to measure the impact of this kind of programmes. Their suitability for in depth courses that try to improve employability skills also was suggested. The style of the instructions was described as friendly and also the idea of sending an old picture to trigger emotions appealed to the interviewees.

This Timeline was sent by e-mail to a group of 17 alumni of the University of Deusto.(Spain) that graduated around 10 years ago. Unfortunately, no one answered the survey.

Following these lines the most significant feedback about some of the tested tools is highlighted.

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As far as the Timepath was concerned, the shape of the path was mistaken for the ups and downs of life by one of the organisations. This would need to be taken into consideration in any further development, which would also include perspective in the drawing of the template.

This absence of answer can be explained due to the limited number of people that wasrequested to complete the survey. In addition, the intangibility of the medium can also explain the low response. Thus, is the survey is not answer when the e-mail is open for the first time, it can be easily forgotten since there is not a physical reminder and there is not a prize or a punishment that acts as a reminder.

Timepath

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My Social City Tool

My Social City is a prototype aimed to map social networks. Using the metaphor of a city, every house is a person with whom the user has a meaningful relationship. The user’s home is placed in the middle of the map while the rest of the houses are designed for the people that surround them. The user should write the names of owner of every house distribute them in the space. Depending on the meaningfulness of the relationships the houses are closer or further away. They are also more or less accessible following the same criteria. The houses can be connected or separated with roads, motorways, rivers, parks, cliffs… being each of these elements a metaphor of the relationship between the user and that person. The aim of this tool is to create an evidence for the outcome of socialising/ ending loneliness. The map can be constructed at the start of the program adding at the end of it more houses to show the relationships emerged during that time.

My Social City tool was conceived in the early phase of the ideation stage and it was aimed to visualise the outcome of ending loneliness

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My Social City tool generated a positive reaction with its better suitability for younger rather than older users,being pointed out. The inclination of younger people to express who they are was mentioned as main reason. In addition, the difficulties of using the tool with older users with mobility problems and dementia were remarked. Thus, the simplification of the tool by providing all the shapes and icons already cut and ready to just arrange them was suggested. When asked about the metaphor the interviewee stated that was appropriate and that specifically creative people could enjoy it.

From the second interviewee the answers were again more generic. This person highlighted that the evaluation tools work depending on the context, pointing out that for his organisation would not be fully applicable because its programmes do not have a clear termination. It was also mentioned that the tool could be useful for the individual but that not everybody would be up to complete it.

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Mood Tracker

This tool was developed in order to help organisations to visualise the outcome of improving wellbeing and it is thought to be included as an evidence in the evaluation reports. It is explained here because it can also be useful to monitor the drop-off of the benefits experimented by the user as a consequence of the time spent in the organisation and, therefore, it provides a longitudinal dimension.

The Mood Tracker is an easy way of recording the emotions experienced each day and also the underlying reasons. It can be helpful to find patterns and to improve the self- awareness of the user. Despite the fact that there are apps with similar aims, handwriting enables reflection and can be much more cathartic than writing in a small keyboard. It is also accessible to everybody and can be a trigger to start conversations.

The Mood Tracker was conceived in the early phase of the ideation stage and it was aimed to visualise the outcome of improving wellbeing

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This template is to be used during the length of the programme as a personal exercise. Simply marking with a dot in the smiley that represents the experienced mood, in the morning and in the evening. Another dot during the afternoon can be added too. After marking the mood reflections about the reasons, if any, can be made in the Why? box. At the end of the programme the users will finish with a graph that records their moods. This graph can then be cut and used as evidence for outcomes related to wellbeing since if the project is helping to improve the user’s wellbeing, this would be reflected in a more stable and positive mood.

Feedback from the users:

The Mood Tracker was tested with six people for a month. Most of them liked the idea and thought that it could be useful to raise self-awareness, with only one of them not understanding the purpose of the tool. However no one of them was able to complete it. Most of them just forgot using it some days and two of them did not even start it. Improvements such as providing more space for writing and recording the data were also made. Some users suggested that the tool should be more visual and digital to allow it to be carried everywhere and set up reminders.

Despite the fact that none of the users completed the Mood Tracker, the feedback is considered positive because most of them saw the value in it. As far as the problem of forgetting to use it is concerned, this is not as worrying as it would appear because it is intended to be completed at the start and/or end of each session with the organisation, so they could be reminded by the tutors.

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Feedback from the organisations:

The Mood Tracker was presented to two organisations based in Edinburgh.

From Edinburgh Museums and Galleries the feedback was quite positive. The responsible pointed out that the tool could fit into the ideas of the Happy Museum project, which provides a leadership framework for museums that want to undertake a holistic approach to sustainability and wellbeing. In addition, the interviewee also highlighted the utility of the tool to find out how people feel after every session.

From Whale Arts the kind of feedback given was less specific, the answer being a reflection about why this should be done and for whom. However, the interviewee also pointed out that could be an interesting reflection tool as far as the exercise is useful for the user and not merely used to justify the outcomes of the programme to the funders.

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Stickers

The concept has been borrowed from a project of the MuRAC museum/ artistic initiative based in Spain. The idea is basically to give the users somestickers with the organisation logo or programme name before they leave. The users should then take pictures of their subsequent works with the sticker and upload them to the online gallery of the organisation. It could be also found objects(a tree, a nice house, an old bench…) in that way the user becomes curator of the organisation virtual collection..

This idea got positive feedback, with the only objection being a concern about where the stickers would be stuck. The interviewees considered that it could work nicely if properly encouraged and also depending on the group. The incorporation of digital resources was also appreciated.

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CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

Origin The origin of the solution is the aforementioned idea of the Stickers. These have been substituted by a self-standing three dimensional object to avoid troubles with the placement of the stickers. It has been also decided to move the focus from the organisation to the individual, so the object would be a representation of the user or could even become a dreamed alter ego.

Moreover, the idea of recording meaningful moments with a small figure in them recalls the sweetness and sense of humour of the French film Amélie (2001)

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Purpose The main aims of this solution are:

•To obtain data and stories about the former users.

•To create a sense of community among former users that encourage them to continue exploring and developing the skills that they gained in their time with the organisation, in order to delay the drop off.

•To maintain a certain degree of relationship between the organisation and its former users.

•To generate collaborations between users and with the organisation.

•To create a platform to host the community that ensures a safe data sharing

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Concept

MiniWorld is an online community in which the former users of an organisation post content about their projects once they have left the programme. The community isintended to host projects mainly related to the programme contents but is also possible to move to the terrain of the personal or to another peripheral subjects on occasions.

The main characteristic of the posts is that they should be mainly photographs and videos taken by the users with their MiniMe in them. The MiniMe are little wooden figures customised as the user’s alter ego.

Initially the community would be facilitated by the organisation and it would have agamification component in order to encourage participation.

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Storyboard

A storyboard was created to understand how MiniWorld project would work.

1 The organisation arranges a short workshop before of the end of the course. In this workshop small peg people are provided along with materials for their customisation. This activity is intended to create and attachment feeling towards the peg person in the user. The quality of the resulted MiniMe can vary depending on the scope (if the main activity is on crafts and arts or not) of the organisation and also on the skills of the user.

Alternatively a customization kit with the explanation of the project can be sent by post to users that have already left the service.

2 After the customization activity is finished the purpose of the activity is explained in relation to idea of a community creation.

3 Interested users sign up.

4 The organisation invite them to the group. Users download the app.

5 Users start taking pictures of their projects, inspiration places etc. with their MiniMe in them. They upload the pictures to the group and comment on others’ posts.

6 The organisation collects stories and data from the pictures and comments.

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7 The organisation also posts pictures, makes comments and asks questions to try to encourage participation.

8 There is also a gamification component.

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Personas

These organisations had a wide range of audiences. Which may vary from programme to programme. In order to define the features of the MiniWorld project three different personas have been created. Each of these represent a type of user and they are created based in testimonies and stories found on the websites of the researched organisations.

Ross, 18 years oldUnemployed. Currently doing a course to improve his employability skills.

Likes: Music, Football, Hanging out with friends and DIYDislikes: School, Exams and Adults telling him what to do

Story: He left school with 16 years oldGoals: Getting a job, continue learning

Motivating: Meeting people that work in the same field, Keep in touch with his classmates. Show his work.Demotivating: Getting a job can make him stop working in his projects, specially if the job is not related with the content of the course.

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Sarah, 33 years oldAdministrative.

Likes: Theatre, Afternoon Tea, Reading and CraftsDislikes: People speaking loud and crowded places

Story: She just moved from her home-town and she feels a little bit lonely. She decided to enrol in a course of theatre to meet new people.Goals: Meeting new people,Improving self-confidence, Stability

Motivating: Sharing her work, Keeping in touch with classmates, Getting InspirationDemotivating: Not very into Facebook.

Alex, 60 years oldWindows CleanerLikes: Gardening, Outdoors activities, Watching FootballDislikes: Staying InStory: He had depression when he first started the gardening course. The individual work but at the same time surrounded by a group of people helped him to improve his interpersonal skills.Goals: Stability, Feeling of Achievement. Self-ManagementMotivating: Showing his garden pro-jects. Asking for advice, Inspiration, RoutineDemotivating: He is new in IT, Privacy Issues.

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First Blueprint

An initial blueprint was created while using Facebook as a platform

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Prototyping

A first prototype of the project was created using Facebook as a platform. Thirteen people were invited to participate in the test. All of them from aged between 20 and 40 years old and IT literate.

The instructions for the participation in the test were given in small groups and individually. Some of the users took part in a short workshop to transform the wooden figures in MiniMe and to explain the project. These informal activities were conducted in an individual basis and run for approximately 40 minutes. The users engage deeply with the activity and enjoyed it.

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After the MiniMe were created, theusers were invited to a Facebook group created for the purpose of the project. The description of the MiniUs group asked the participants toupload pictures of meaningful moments with the MiniMe in them.

The group ran for 15 days with a very low participation. The facilitation was intended to be subtle. The researcher MiniMe commented on others’ MiniMe pictures and posted her owns with the intention of encouraging interaction. The post of the researcher tried also to be a reminder, since Facebookprovides notifications every time that a post is submitted. Despite these attempts, the engagement with theusers was not achieved, being 12 of out the 21 posts created by theresearcher. Screenshot of the group MiniUs during the

first prototype

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First prototype results analysis

After the fifteen day trial the participants were asked the following questions:

What do you think about the idea? Why were you not using it? What do you like most? What would you change? Any other comments?

Despite the majority liking the idea, the participation was still low. Some of the reasons mentioned to explain this were technical problems but the majority of the participants pointed out having forgotten or lost the MiniMe. Other comments made reference to a discomfort related to the look of their MiniMe.

One of the most valued things was the customisation process, being described as very enjoyable and fun by several participants. Another positive points that were mentioned are the paying of more attention to daily life and small things, the use of it as a dream projection and the interactions and sense of game showed in the pictures of several MiniMe together.

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“I think it is cute and sweet”

“My phone’s camera doesn’t work and that makes it difficult”

“I like the idea of documenting and sharing life with other people”

“My drawing is bad, so my MiniMe looks very ugly. I feel shame for posting in the community”

“I couldn’t customise it properly, I didn’t have access to colours”

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Less positive elements mentioned by some participants include not being a big fan of Facebook and therefore not being very used to post content or making comments. The necessity of making sure that everybody has access to the tools to customise properly the MiniMe was also mentioned, as well as a proper explanation of the activity, with more specific guidelines to understand better what should be posted and what avoided.

Take aways

1 Customisation process is very important for creating a personal attachment with the MiniMe. Solution: Running a collective activity to customise the MiniMe providing access to proper tools to do it.

2 Make the MiniMe wearable to avoid forgetting or losing it. Solution: As a key ring or a brooch

3 Provide more specific guidelines about what to post and what not in order to avoid trivialization. Solution: Specific Tasks

4. Make it more social Solution: Encouraging interactions in the real world

5 Give incentives and try to make the activity rewarding on a personal level. Solution: Gamification Solution: Posibility of showing own work and learning from others’

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Iteration

After analysing the process and the feedback given by the users some changes wereintroduced in the group.

In order to make the content more specific the participants were asked to complete an easy task everyday. These required carrying out activities like introducing the MiniMe, showing the workspace, the favourite place in the city, presenting your last project etc.

To encourage participation a score system was introduced in the community. Points were given for every post. The posts in response to the daily task provided one point, whileothers provided two points. Commenting on other participants pictures was also awarded with one point. In addition a final personalized prize was promised for the winner. The prize was intended to complement the reward that the community can provide in terms of personal creativity, learning or reputation.

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Participation Analysis

Despite the changes introduced in this second phase, the level of engagement did not increased substantially. The uploading of pictures went up but it took place among areduced number of users. Although the amount of comments and likes was higher and more distributed among the group members, most of the tasks were not completed.

When asked about the competition as an incentive the majority of the participants stated that they were not interested in the competition or in the prize.

The main reason for this low participation is perhaps that the users did not share a strong common interest. This lack of thread outside of the use of the MiniMe made difficult the creation of content through which the engagement could be achieved.

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Designing a new platform

Despite the fact that Facebook is an easy and widespread tool, it is not totally perfect since does not have all the basic features required. However, and after analysing some of the mainstream apps, it was considered sufficient for the prototypes, with the main problem being the impossibility of having an individual gallery for each user, accessible for all the members of the group without the need of being friends.

Going private

Since the most important social networks are not able to tick all the boxes, the creation of a private social network would be suggested. Other reasons that support this suggestion are the issues of privacy and data security, which in this case is especially relevant since some of the organisations work with vulnerable people.

Big institutions such as Standford University are turning to private social networks to guarantee the data protection of their students (Fox 2014) In particular Stanford is using Omlet for building group chats for students. Omlet is a great chat application that allows users to create discussion groups, sharing pictures and videos with their contacts. Omlet encourage the use of cloud systems like Dropbox and Box to store the data.

For the purpose of creating a bespoke solution we took as inspiration some of the useful features that it presents. The main reason to not adopt this solution is that it lacks of some features that can add extra value to the final solution such the possibility of uploading files. However, before starting to design an specific platform it would be advisable to prototype the community using this tool since can be found good enough in terms of costs and benefits.

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Comparative chart of some of the most popular social networks

Facebook Flickr FourSquare Pinterest Instagram

Photo/video uploading

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

Comments ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

Who you were with?

✔ ✔ ✔ ✗ ✔

GPS

✔

− In the version for computers

is possible to enter the

longitude and latitude

✔ ✗ ✔

Individual gallery

− Need of being friend to access other people’s galleries

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

Group ✔ ✔ ✗ ✔ ✗

Who is close to you?

✗ ✗ ✔ ✗ ✗

Follow/Friends ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

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Features and wireframe

As a guide for the design a new social app a low-fi wireframe for tablets was created. Users will be encouraged to use the cloud to keep their data. The app will offer a limited capacity of free storage. Once this limit is exceeded the user will have the possibility of buying more storage space.

The application is divided in 4 sections, clearly defined in the home page: Camera, My Gallery, Messages and MiniWorld, group section after which the whole app is named.

User at the home page during the testing session

In the next pages the features of each section are listed and illustrated by photographs takenduring the user test sessions. In these pictures the wireframe of several screens can be observed.

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• Camera

o Camera for video & photo o Photo editing and filters o Comments, Tagging and GPS on photos and video o Sharing photo and videos with the group, individuals, via Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, Google Drive… o Saving photos and videos to user’s galleries o To be possible adding a digital MiniMe to the pictures. o Individual privacy settings for each photo and video

User taking a picture during the testing session

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Contrast value modifying

Commenting and tagging the photo. Inclusion of a digital MiniMe

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•My Gallery

o Individual privacy settings for each photo and video o Photos gallery o Video gallery o Albums o Board to collect links, documents, other people’s pictures. o Sharing photo and videos with the group, individuals, via Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, Google Drive… o User profile o Creation of a Digital MiniMe o Portfolio building: Allows to select photos from the gallery, to arrange them and to export the selection as a PDF or to get a link to be share with others. o Timeline (built by the user, it does not contain all your publications,) • General view • View per year • Add text, Drag videos and photos • Privacy setting, if public will appear in the user’s profile • Shareable in PDF or link (can be used as a portfolio)

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User dragging a video to the Timeline during the test

User section first screen, with Editable Profile, MineMe builder, Galleries overview and Tmeline

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• MiniWorld

o Invited by the organisation. Possible to be member of more than one group. o Photo and video upload allowing comments, tags and geolocation. o Files upload o Comments o Likes o View of members profile o Events arrangement o Quick Surveys o Private messages to the organisation and to other users o Chat by proximity o Following members o Check in

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User in the first screen of MiniWorld,

This section is similar to a Facebook group. The main difference is that the gallery of the rest of the members is visible to everybody whereas in Facebook, it is only available to friends. In MiniWorld there are no friend groups, just group members. Users can, however, follow people in order to be notified each time that something is posted or made public in their gallery.

Finding who is nearby and sending a message to meet them.

This option can be deactivated by the user at any moment.

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• Messages

o Private messages to the organisation o Private individual or group messages to other users o File attachment

User checking the list of messages during the test

User writing a message

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MiniWorld App Storyboard

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Users Feedback

The paper prototype was tested with several users. None of them considered themselves as a tech savvy person, and one of users did not have a smartphone.

The feedback was very positive as all of them stated that the application was easy to use and very intuitive. About the functionality one of the users mentioned that perhaps it included too many things and that the part of the boards did not make too much sense for her. A lack of understanding for how the timeline and the PDF creation could be used was also detected. Thus, the utility of these features had to be explained again. This fact should be taken into consideration for the future in order to improve the communication of the possibilities that the application offers.

PRE

AWARE JOIN USE MAINTAIN LEAVING

USER

-Currently attending to a course or using the organisation space and resources-Has left the organisation recently

-Attendance to MiniMe customisation and project explanation Workshop-Social Media-Getting a letter with a kit to create your MiniMe

-Signing in after the workshop-Getting in touch with the organisation to confirm participation-Downloading the app-Signing in Miniworld

-Taking pictures of their works with the MiniMe-Posting pictures/videos-Reading, Liking and Commenting on others’ posts

-Content generation-Conversations with other users-Sharing, posting, liking..-Arranging online activities-Taking part in off-line activities-Buying more storage space/deleting content/ off-line storage

-To stop using the app-Deleting their profile

TOUCHPOINTS-Activities-Workshop spaces-Staff-Social Media

-Workshop-Letter-Social Media

-List on paper-E-mail, Phone, in person-Staff

-MiniWorld App-Reminder E-mail

-MiniWorld App-Organisation Premises-Staff-Reminder E-mail

-MiniWorld App-Reminder E-mail-E-mail to thank the user and to ask feedback

FRONTSTAGE-Classes-Support and advice-Learning how to use the application

-Workshop facilitation-Workshop activities preparation

-Taking the names of the interested people.-Explaining how to download the app.

-Group facilitation: -Content Posting: links, tips, organisation news-Support: Technical & Physical e.g. MiniMe replacement

-Group facilitation-Content Posting-Offline activities proposal-Competitions proposal and delivery

BACKSTAGE

-Including the use of MiniWorld in the organisation’s strategy

-MiniWorld training session preparation and running.

-Workshop arrangement: place, time, materials.-Confirming postal addresses. -Prepare the kit to be sent. --Writing instructions

-Gathering all the participants names.-Inviting them to the group-Creating a content strategy using the framework by Visser & Richardson or other similar one-Enrolment statistics

-Content Creation- Data and Stories Gathering-Data Analysing-Information synthesis-Report writing

-Offline activities arrangement (time, space, staff, catering…)-Competition Arrangement (rules, score system, prizes…)-Content Creation- Data and Stories gathering-Data Analysing-Information synthesis-Report writing

-Deleting the leaving user’ data from the system.-Feedback analyzing

INTERNAL/EXTERNALPROCESSES

-MiniWorld Application Purchase

-Buying materials for the workshop and for the KIT-Sending the KIT

-Technical Support-Peg People Stock

-Technical Support-Outcomes communication

-Technical Support-Outcomes communication

Technical Support

Blueprint

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PRE

AWARE JOIN USE MAINTAIN LEAVING

USER

-Currently attending to a course or using the organisation space and resources-Has left the organisation recently

-Attendance to MiniMe customisation and project explanation Workshop-Social Media-Getting a letter with a kit to create your MiniMe

-Signing in after the workshop-Getting in touch with the organisation to confirm participation-Downloading the app-Signing in Miniworld

-Taking pictures of their works with the MiniMe-Posting pictures/videos-Reading, Liking and Commenting on others’ posts

-Content generation-Conversations with other users-Sharing, posting, liking..-Arranging online activities-Taking part in off-line activities-Buying more storage space/deleting content/ off-line storage

-To stop using the app-Deleting their profile

TOUCHPOINTS-Activities-Workshop spaces-Staff-Social Media

-Workshop-Letter-Social Media

-List on paper-E-mail, Phone, in person-Staff

-MiniWorld App-Reminder E-mail

-MiniWorld App-Organisation Premises-Staff-Reminder E-mail

-MiniWorld App-Reminder E-mail-E-mail to thank the user and to ask feedback

FRONTSTAGE-Classes-Support and advice-Learning how to use the application

-Workshop facilitation-Workshop activities preparation

-Taking the names of the interested people.-Explaining how to download the app.

-Group facilitation: -Content Posting: links, tips, organisation news-Support: Technical & Physical e.g. MiniMe replacement

-Group facilitation-Content Posting-Offline activities proposal-Competitions proposal and delivery

BACKSTAGE

-Including the use of MiniWorld in the organisation’s strategy

-MiniWorld training session preparation and running.

-Workshop arrangement: place, time, materials.-Confirming postal addresses. -Prepare the kit to be sent. --Writing instructions

-Gathering all the participants names.-Inviting them to the group-Creating a content strategy using the framework by Visser & Richardson or other similar one-Enrolment statistics

-Content Creation- Data and Stories Gathering-Data Analysing-Information synthesis-Report writing

-Offline activities arrangement (time, space, staff, catering…)-Competition Arrangement (rules, score system, prizes…)-Content Creation- Data and Stories gathering-Data Analysing-Information synthesis-Report writing

-Deleting the leaving user’ data from the system.-Feedback analyzing

INTERNAL/EXTERNALPROCESSES

-MiniWorld Application Purchase

-Buying materials for the workshop and for the KIT-Sending the KIT

-Technical Support-Peg People Stock

-Technical Support-Outcomes communication

-Technical Support-Outcomes communication

Technical Support

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NEXT STEPS & CONCLUSIONS

Testing with a specific organisation.

The next step for the further development of the project would be to test a new prototype with the users of a specific organisation. This third trial would ideally test the creation of a community using a more finished prototype of the proposed platform. Thus, the project would not only be close to a real scenario but it would also be easier to create the content needed to engage with the users.

The two prototypes on Facebook have demonstrated that although the MiniMe introduce a sense of fun and playfulness and can reinforce preexistent links and even create new interactions and synergies, the concept is not sufficient in itself to generate an emergence of a community that would last long.

Therefore it is necessary to build on a subject of common interest among the users. This common ground should be the interests, skills, works, employment prospects and experiences occurred during and as a consequence of the time spent in the organisation. The contents can also be based on the organisation’s values and assets.

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A framework for content creation

As the secondary research shows and the testing results demonstrate a meaningful content for the users in essential. That content should be also linked with the mission of the organisation and therefore part of its communication policy. In order to ease the creation of a content strategy here the utilization of the framework proposed by Visser and Richardson (2013) is suggested.

Framework by Visser and Richardson

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The research also proves that a sense of reward must be achieved in order to maintain the participation. From the results of our second prototype it can be said that participation increased. In this second test gamification was introduced, however, the feedback given by the users do not point towards this as a direct prompt of participation. Therefore we can conclude that although competition can encourage users to take part, the way of ensuring this is through providing reward in form of personal growth, knowledge and skill acquisition, sense of achievement and proud etc. This again is normally achieved through content. Nevertheless, actions such a competitions with material awards that fall in the above mentioned categories could be also proposed occasionally in a later stage of the community development. These awards could be events happening outside of the digital such the exhibition of the winner pieces of work, the celebration of an auction and the attendance to certain course to improve specific skills.

In other words competition can be used to maintain participation and as a decoy but not so much as the basis to create a long last community.

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A question of time

As pointed out above building a community is a question of time. The reviewed literature suggests a minimum of 6 months to be able to develop a healthy community.

Time is necessary to get use to the platform and also to the rest of the users. The feedback given by the participants of the prototypes suggests in the majority of cases that not knowing other members of the community is not making them feeling uncomfortable. However, the activity of the users shows that interactions among users that do not know each other took a little more time to occur.

As time is needed to build and to consolidate here it is suggested that organisations implement the creation of the community with enough time before the users leave. This will allow not only the conducting of the initial MiniMe customization workshop and to solve enquiries about the use of the app for the less tech savvy, but also the encouragement of people to participate in the online community directly, with the running of actions combining both off and online participation.

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After having taken into consideration all the aforementioned next steps and conclusions, it can be affirmed that MiniWorld is a potential answer for capturing users over time that will enable the organisations to find out the real impact of their activities in the long term. This is essential not only to design new activities and to improve the organisation performance, but also to make arguments for getting funding and institutional support.

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Catterall J et al (2012) The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth: Findings for four longitudinal studies. Research Report 55 National Endowments for the Arts. Washington

DORST, K. (2010). The Nature of Design Thinking. Proceedings of the 8th Design Thinking Research Symposium.

DORST, K ; CROSS, N (2001). Creativity in the design process: co-evolution of problem–solution. Design Studies, 22(5), pp. 425–437.

DUBOIS, D: (2013) Three Steps To Shape Social Media Success. Forbes 28 January. Blog Post available from http://www.forbes.com/sites/insead/2013/01/28/three-steps-to-shape-social-media-success/ [Accessed 4 July 2014]

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FOX, G (2014) The Re-Emergence of the Private Social Network. Forbes 4 July 2014. Blog post available from http://www.forbes.com/sites/gretchenfox/2014/04/09/the-re-emergence-of-the-private-social-network/ [Accessed 8 July 2014]

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APPENDIX 1INDEX CARDS

Some of the Index Cards used during the research in order to arrange the information and to make its use easier

Images taken from theorganisations’ websites or from the articles

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