Studio Forward X Google Global Youth Design Sprint
In March 2023, I was fortunate enough to participate in the Studio Forward X Google Design Youth Design Sprint held at the prestigious California College of the Arts. This intensive weekend event brought together more than 20 teams, all competing to pitch their proposed strategies in the final presentation.
As a participant, I had the unique opportunity to engage with fellow designers and gain insights from experienced mentors in the industry. The experience was invaluable, and I am grateful for the chance to be part of such a remarkable event.
Designers
Rushabh Kulkarni, Sharvil Ghanekar, Charice Woo, Jonahtan Rabago,
Nabhya Parmar
Collaborators
Google, Studio Forward
Duration
2 Days
Critical feedback on intervention scoping
Context
The contemporary generation is defined by new technologies like the internet and social media. Social media is particularly influential among global youth, creating a subculture and shaping their perceptions, attitudes, and practices through popular culture. However, this can exclude marginalized communities, who often have different views, interests, identities, and behaviors. How can we ensure the safety and inclusion of these communities, considering their non-conformity to conventional social patterns?
The Brief
Design a new social network platform / social solution for the rest of us.
The goal is to explore social-graph spaces and paradoxical problems for under-represented / marginalized users (users who do not conform to existing social-graph patterns) in the current technological climate.
Google Design Sprint held on March 4th and 5th 2023 at CCA
Our process
This being a design sprint, the process we took was extremely lean and fast paced. We followed the social innovation playbook to help us reach the minimum viable product stage as early as possible.
Generating Crazy 8s
Initial User testing
The product
"Echo"
The current social media platforms are filled with rich media which cannot be accessed by visually impaired individuals. So we pivot. We want to empower the visually impaired by designing with them, not just for them.
Echo is a social media platform that uses short form audio as the primary form of content. It introduces new realms of interactions that are accessible while keeping the users engaged.
Echo uses tactile affordances rather than vision based affordances, that can help users interact with the platform seamlessly regardless of sensory dependencies or limitations.
Audio content screen
Option for text to speech
Voice to Text for content creation
With the initial prototype created, we tested out our MPV live with users in a controlled environment to get insights for our next steps and the future scope of our platform, Echo.
Testing the MVP
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