Designing a platform to capture, visualise and quantify the social capital created between individuals to be used by communities, social enterprises, local authorities and developers.
Client
AKOU
Year
2018-2022
Services
UX & UI Design
UX Research
The problem
AKOU required a simple solution for a complex problem. The AKOU product was intended to help people to understand, map and demonstrate the social capital they create in their network. This data is desired by a number of clients to demonstrate their social impact and to also better design initiatives, places and spaces.
Discovery
User research was carried out with a range of potential clients and users. Qualitative and quantitate research techniques where applied at various stages from 1-to-1 interviews, surveys, focus groups and discovery workshops.
At this stage we also reviewed the usability of existing relevant products (such as network mapping tools, surveying platforms dashboards and social networking products).
Define
A series of user personas, user stories and user journeys were created to be utilised across the product development stage.
Design
Wireframing and paper prototyping was first undertaken to test out concepts and features relating to data capture and visualisation requirements. Low fi and high fidelity designs were iteratively created for all elements of the product (including complex data visualisations).
This was undertaken alongside the development of a system wide style guide which included the design of the AKOU user interface, typography, colour palette and iconography. Designs were constantly tested within the AKOU team and with a range of users.
Testing and Delivery
Very close collaboration between the design team and development team happened throughout the various stages of development of the product. From scoping and feature prioritisation through to testing, debugging and client deployment.
In-depth user testing was carried out with a range of client and community users.