Phase 1 — Discover:

CIVICS LEARNING AND SOCIAL MEDIA IN GEN Z’S WORLD 

Before speaking with our users, we researched online to see where civics currently stand in the classroom, and how Gen Z interacts in online social platforms. This information helped us write our user interview questions.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the articles we read:

• Although civics learning is declining in the classroom, civics are being taught to understand the democratic process and how to engage.

• “I want to feel supported.” In a virtual space, kids need to know that they can express their opinions, feel supported, and they’re not going to get a lot of negative feedback.

EMPATHIZING WITH OUR USERS

To understand the needs and pain points of our target user, we interviewed 8 students ranging from the ages of 13 to 18. This consisted of asking qualitative questions that ranged from civics experience to social media interaction.

We discovered that:

DRAWING INSPIRATION

Next, we wanted to see who would be Novelly’s competition and conducted a comparative & competitive analysis with apps and websites that specialize in reading and civics. Our goal was to gain further understanding of what our users might expect, and how Novelly can improve that experience.

From our competitive analysis, we discovered that:

Seeing these discoveries, we asked ourselves “how could Novelly be a combination of both civics learning and reading to engage a community of young adults to discuss the most pressing issues of the 21st century?”

With that question in mind, we looked into other apps that compare indirectly to Novelly, Wattpad, and Generation Citizen to draw inspiration.

Some of the apps and key features that sparked interest were:

MAKING SENSE OF THE RESEARCH 

Our goal creating an affinity map was to uncover trends and patterns amongst our users. What we discovered was, when passionate about social change/issues, youth will...

• Take action for social change when they 1) can freely express themselves, 2) feel safe, 3) and receive positive and encouraging feedback.

• Step back from social issues when they 1) see negative feedback, 2) feel they receive no feedback or direction, 3) and fear criticism or judgment.

Phase 2 — Define

MEET OUR CHANGEMAKER, BETH

Beth, helped guide our design decisions to solve her needs and frustrations so she could achieve her goals.

FINDING THE RIGHT COMMUNITY FOR BETH

Beth wants to find others who share a vision to challenge injustice, start a dialogue, and take action for a just cause in the real world. 

How can we keep her motivated to grow within the Novelly community as an evangelist for young civic engagement?

Phase 3 — Design

FIRST DRAFT

Our client joined us for a design studio to begin sketching solutions for Novelly’s community. Here we saw what caught our client’s interest and what didn’t.

THE RIGHT CONTENT

After seeing what our client liked in our design studio, we brainstormed features that would help solve Beth's problem using the "MoSCoW" (Must-haves, Should-haves, Could-haves, Won’t-haves) method. Our energy was focused on items within the "Must Have" section. We categorized based on two factors:

• Features that were most integral in solving Beth's problem were given priority.

• Features already developed in the current beta app were also given priority.

SECOND DRAFT

As a team, we strived to think of how we could achieve the desired demographic to become more openly engaged in talking about relevant topics. The first initial sketch was to have an image of a roundtable where the users could enter either using their profile or anonymously with a six-number maximum.

EDITS

During user testing we discovered:

Phase 4 — Deliver

THE END

With our client already having brand guidelines for us to follow, we made sure we designed an experience that welcomes new members into the community. The new community feature featured community guidelines to follow when discussing a topic, a roundtable to safely express one’s thoughts and opinions to learn from other participants and connecting users to opportunities to take action on an issue. You can click through the final prototype below.

THE SEQUEL

Given more time, I would’ve liked to conduct more usability tests and test other ways to bring Novelly members together to discuss social issues outside of the roundtable. 

After working on this project, I now truly understand how important it is to create a safe virtual space where young adults can express their thoughts and opinions freely to learn from their peers and create change for their future.

COMMUNITY

I am thankful to have worked with Luna and Joey who were passionate about the project from beginning to end and contributed each of their expertise to create an experience that pleased our client, but most importantly our target user.