It finally week 8, final week to prepared and complete our presentations. We were given a presentation on ways to present our work but group 6 is one step of the game. Our presentation and script is near completion but we came across one issue. We recently discovered that the length of the presentation has to be maximum of 5 minutes but we preparing to present a 10 minute presentation. We had to restructure and reduce our content to fit into a 5 minute time period. We also assessed out current presentation and realized it was not very original as we just used a popular template, so we came up with a more original theme that will fit nicely with the reduced content we now have. Because our presentation has to be a developing story, our new idea is to have a train ride and each section of our presentation will be divided into train stations until we get to our final destination. We are also working on using animations to make it more interactive and enhance the experience of our viewers.
Class was very productive, as we all seemed to be more motivated to finally complete this project. We all had our certain task to complete. We had some reducing the current script, others finalizing the proposed advice and myself with Gregory were generating ideas and creating our new presentation format. Final task is to record the narrator's voice and put it over it and fit our reduced content onto our new presentation platform.
From the 8 weeks, the most important theme or idea that I have meant is to take advantage of online communities and network. I believe to be successful you have to start to develop your online community before advancing with your project.
It is apparent that your online community is just as or even more important than your offline community. The new world and society are rapidly advancing and moving into the cloud within the digital age. It has become mandatory to seek your customers, stakeholders and other community members over the World Wide Web. It allows for another method to hear from more customers and stakeholders. You always have the ability to communicate and share with your online community where and when ever. Because of the shear size of the Internet, your audience is greater and has the capability to always grow at an unprecedented rate with the aid social media (communicating and sharing). With this greater audience, the chances of success are higher as your ideas become for accessible and help is always there. It is almost like a free marketing fool. You are provided with a rich, vibrant and versatile society giving you a greater option of choice. It doesn't matter what method (crowdsourcing, crowd funding online marketing) is used to aid your project, the main message is to use them to their full potential with the aid of online communities and networks. It is a faster, simpler and more accessible method of connecting with your community. I believe that this is the future of successful innovative design and development.
Considering all you have learned and experienced through our classroom time and your work for your clients, what are your design principles for designing and fostering online communities or networks? Don't know what design principles are?
Even though the community is over the Internet, it is important to understand that technology does not develop communities but helps create a framework that shapes the community toward the specific goal. My design principles that I would implement include: Maintainability, Accessibility and Simplicity.
All product and services require updated and improving, as the design process is a cyclical procedure. Too keep your current customer base and grow your community at the same time, advances have to be applied at a regular bases to enhance your product. This will develop your online community and will request your community to keep on asking for more.
Accessibility is an important principle as this determines how easy it will be for your community to get their hands on your product. The more accessible your product is, the larger your community will be.
Simplicity is a major factor that must be taken into consideration when trying to develop your online community. Customers are not willing to in effort to learn how to use your product, so the simpler your product is, the rate in which your community with grow will increase.
The beginning might be confusing and unclear, Try to get a grip on what the task as soon as possible. Ask your tutor as any question as you can as they will guide you though most of the course. Since there will be a great number of members in each team, set yourselfs roles and targets. The key is to be vocal and communicate with your group member and tutor and much as possible. Learn to work as a collective team.
As this is the last blog for this module, I like to say thanks to my fellow group members for putting in their effort and working collectively together. Also thank you Maarten for helping us with your advice and guiding us through is project.
It's already the last week of Project Community and so this is the last blog post. By looking back at the beginning of this project I was extremely confused and I had no idea of how we should go about this challenge. Now, when we are at the very end, I feel almost stupid as how disorganized and chaotic I went on about it in the beginning. I think that if my group and I could start over with this project now, we could probably make an exceptional project. However, we can't do that, we simply have to deal with the mistakes we did in the beginning and learn from them. But our struggles each week did actually pay off as we now managed to come up with our end video… Or at least we will finish it by the end of this week!
So, every week we have gone through different topics; crowdsourcing, technology stewardship, work teams, marketing…And what do all these have in common? - The concept of sharing ideas, collaborating and communication between people from all over the world. The online communities and networks that exist today are all about this idea and we use this social aspect to innovate and solve many of the contemporary complex problems that we face every day. The most important thing I have learnt about using online communities and networks in innovative design is therefore the concept of SHARING.
I believe that what we are looking for today in design or the creative process is to accept people's own ability to create their own solution instead of basing it on their need for help or a new product. I don't think that we should focus on designing new products but instead use these design methods (design principles) together with the rest of society to create new services that can change people's life for the better. This is at the same time building a more sustainable future, as if people engage each other, share their ideas, give feedback etc. then communities can grow by themselves. These communities and, let's say, collaborative services that we have been looking at are not based on any particular technology, but function of existing technology, especially information technology that connects people and other artifacts; particularly the Internet. This technology allows for people to collaborate, synchronize, share customize and so on. All this ties together with the terms we have worked with during this project, such as crowdsourcing and crowd-funding.
Our groups NGO, Solidaridad, are looking for a social platform that has these kinds of attributes. A way to collaborate, communicate and share ideas and so let "a development cycling of continuous improvement and experience".
I truly agree with this quote from Sandi Wassmer and her Ten Principles of Inclusive Web Design. I think this links together with the "sharability" world that we live in and how to use online communities and networks in innovative design. With the use of online communities we can easily access information; we can open our mind to other people's way of thinking and so get new flourishing inspirations.
What I would tell the next year's class about the course? Don't freak out in the beginning as it might seem confusing and unclear. Instead tackle it with Nancy White's word – confusiasm! Things will become clearer as long as you work with your team and your tutor. Ask questions. And be open to different ways of thinking. It is only now by the end of the project that I have realized how much I have actually learned and that I can take this with me through the rest of the IDE program. Firstly, I will be an experienced team player. Working together in a group of nine is very challenging, but because of the "work teams" week I have learnt the most efficient ways around those challenges. Secondly, by working towards helping an NGO, we increased our understanding of how it is to work with a client and meet their needs …And thirdly, I have gained a lot of insight into the online community world. This very valuable knowledge is part of the future and how we actually more often communicate with each other.
My principles for designing and fostering online communities or networks would be: minimalism, accessibility and convenience. All networks that I use share these three principles and I love it. To be honest when I enter websites which are overloaded with information or hard to use, I just turn them off because I get tired and bored very quickly. Also it is important to use right text, images, layout, bars and even colors because all this can depend on whether the network will be a success or failure.
Don't forget to buy all the strips and then sell it for double or triple price, if you will get an assignment to make a necklace on an introduction week. Just kidding! To answer question what would I tell next year students about Project Communities I have to answer one question for myself: What would I do differently if I had a chance to start all over again? Besides being more involved and doing more work probably nothing… Even though I catch myself thinking pretty often what if the last minute I wouldn't have gone from team 4 to 6 (Our group was made from one person from each team). But probably it turned out for the best because I met 8 amazing people, with different talents and personalities. What tips would I give to prospective students? Be prepared! I don't want to freak them out but I felt like a puppy thrown into the water in order to learn how to swim… There is an enormous difference between high school and university especially if we compare East Europe to West. 2 months have passed and I still feel lost and uncertain what should I do… But the bright side is that you will learn one word that would perfectly describe the mixed feeling you will have inside you- CONFUSIASM!!!