11/13

This week we scheduled our own “design jam” for our team.

First, we outlined some considerations:

• Increase visibility/impact of local organizations
• Centralize the efforts of local organizations
• Focus on trust in healthcare → relationship-based, community-centered
• Smaller, pointed solutions
• Where design isn’t → Meeting people where they are
• Democratizing technology (considerate of low-tech users)

Then, we broke apart for a timed hour and brainstormed some possible solutions. Here is some of our (messy) work:

We definitely pushed ourselves outside of the main realm we were thinking in. One big thing we kept asking ourselves: who is the audience at each stage? What does outreach mean when there are multiple stakeholders in a complex, broken system?

We then synced back up and started iterating off of the ideas we presented:

It seems to us that we can really push the form our messaging takes, but in order to centralize all of the different organizations in Pittsburgh, we need to create some sort of online “north star” where everything is contained. But, this exercise allowed us to restructure our thinking from website-centered to more of a two-pronged approach, where the outreach campaign and the site have equal weight and different roles. We started to consolidate this thinking:

Through methods of guerilla advertising, our mission is to raise awareness about the work that these organizations are currently doing. Our brainstorms led us to reprioritize ‘centralization’ in order to increase visibility and access for the many existing groups. Mapping out the connections between the website and its advertising helped us to narrow our scope. By simplifying the site’s contents and expanding into physical touchpoints, we hope to incorporate technology as a resource and not a barrier. Interactive stickers act as simple visuals and messaging that can live in community spaces. We really wanted our intervention to try and meet people where they are, a point emphasized by both Chaton Turner and Paula Davis, in order to make accessing resources as simple and seamless as possible.

After breaking for a day to stew on this, we came together and did some really critical mapping. Here, we’ve outlined the jobs and audience for our entire proposed system. There are two audiences/users: The organizations themselves, and then the public they want to reach.

After refining our ideas, we decided to revisit our messaging. In line with our objectives, we started working around the language of ‘champions of the community’. Our messaging ideas are…rough. This is our next big hurdle!