Design For America

INTRODUCTION

Leading and experiencing the growth of a social impact driven design studio

Design for America (DFA) is a national network of interdisciplinary student teams and community members using design to create social impact. Through collaborative projects, DFA empowers students to address local and global challenges, fostering innovation and community engagement. By leveraging human-centered design principles, DFA drives meaningful solutions to pressing issues in areas such as health, education, and the environment.

DFA at NYU took a hit as a repercussion of the Covid-19 pandemic and participation died down. Redesigning the brand of DFA is one of steps we are taking to make it an active, vibrant and engaging student organization again. Our goal was to provide a platform for all future, past and present DFAers to stay connected and continue to work towards creating an social impact while learning design thinking.

RESEARCH

Immersing in the student experience

Survey

Our starting point was to send out a survey to the DFA NYU community. When colleges reopened after the pandemic for in-person classes, we noticed a significant decline in participation. Despite the transition back to campus, attendance remained low as many classes continued to be conducted online.

We wanted to understand the underlying reasons for this drop in engagement and sought feedback from our community this survey. This aimed to re-establish a sense of belonging and reinvigorate interest in our organization, ensuring that our efforts would resonate with both past and current members.

Focus groups

We conducted several rounds of focus groups, where participants spend time interviewing, analyzing and documenting all of their (different) experiences with the DFA NYU community. The keywords from all the surveys, interviews and focus groups were collected and put up on post its.

Synthesizing the observed data to derive insights

Affinity clustering

The best way to make sense of large amounts of data is to group them based on similarity. We performed two rounds of affinity clustering to concise and clear groups that speak of what students experience when engaging with DFA.

GOALS

Forming clear and concise goal statements.

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Generate interest and attract NYU members to actively participate in the DFA community.

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Create opportunities for students to engage in real world design projects, access professional development resources, and network with industry professionals.

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Increase the visibility and awareness of DFA's activities to a wider audience.

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Develop effective marketing and advertising strategies to attract new community partners, mentors, and organizations to collaborate with DFA.

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Maintain and regain trust and appeal of DFA among old members

Journey mapping

After clustering our data and identifying significant problem spaces, we loosely organized the clusters into stages of participaction with DFA

Information architechture

Using the defined goals and journey map we mapped the information architecture of the website.

DESIGN

Let the ideas flow : Digital Wireframing

Make the hero section attention grabbing, a large image that conveys the collaborative nature of DFA.

Need a call to action in the hero.

A map to show location on the footer.

Calendar should have a place for people to add to their calendar and rsvp.

The featured projects shows a highlight of DFA's mission and vision.

The project toggle adds interactivity to the page.

Section showing projects, community and years is highly appreciated as it shows credibility and attracts people.

The impact section does a great job at showing the brand of DFA. Like the wording "humble brag".

The hero section images are not attractive and don't say anything about what DFA is.

The page titles aren't clearly communicating the contents of the page.

There should be a separate network page for students to connect with alumni.

REFLECTION 1

Test with all users archetypes involved

While testing a wireframe intended for diverse user types, it is crucial to include all user groups to gather comprehensive feedback and ensure inclusive design. During the testing of the home and "What We Do" pages, which will be browsed by mentors and community partners, we prioritized obtaining valuable feedback from these users. This input was essential to enhance their confidence and create a strong, positive impression.

Exploration to create a brand aesthetic

Moodboard

The versions of all pages designed were not uniform and up to our expectations. I took the initiative to have a meeting to decide on the visual design, feel and vibe of the website with the help of a mood board.

REFLECTION 2

Moodboards: A great way to set brand identity and vibe.

When deciding the UI of the page in a team of designers that are working on different pages of the website it is a good idea to set an initial expectation of what the look and feel should be.
A great way to come up with themes that everyone agrees on is to create a mood-board with your team. It is also a fun and creative outlet for all the creative minds involved.

A/B Testing

- Sharp edges with simple backgrounds of curvy doodles.
- The heading has echo affect and high contrast cards.
- Abstract illustrations on the hero.

- Bold colored shapes in the background to separate areas of the page.
- Rounded organic shapes and low contrast cards.
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Optiom B for deisng studio website design

Colorful curvy backgrounds

The bold colors and shapes in the background give the website a fun and welcoming look.

Low contrast cards

The low contrast between cards and the respective background is for readability.

Rounded smooth edges

All the cards, calendars and block will have rounded edges with shadows and interactions.

Abstract illustractions

These convey a sense of creativity and playfulness.

Visual design

The color scheme should invoke a sense of fun, innovation and creativity.

Background: Pastel gray and cultured white for a simple pastel background.
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Secondary: Space cadet (deep blue) to show innovation and toolbox (pastel blue) to show creativity.
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Tertiary: The Maize (yellow) and NYU violet act as fun accent colors for our tertiary shades.

REFLECTION 3

Journey maps: Identifying proper stages is the key for proper information flow.

Creating a good flow of information is a vital part of user experience. When we initially performed the journey maps with our focus groups the painpoints were not properly assigned to each stage. When performing user testing we realised there was a gap in where the user wants to reach from a given point.

For example, "View schedule" button should be a part of the events calendar on the homepage and the project cards in the projects section since users feel overwhelmed with the time commitment while getting started and also struggle with sustainability after joining a team.

Reworking information architecture.

From the feedback of the previous iteration, I changed the wording of the page headings to simple words that convey the contents in the page. I also created a separate network page with all the important contacts for members' professional development.

SOLUTION

A brand new (literally) website that is fun and interactive.

Home page

The home page is interactive and has bold designs to capture users attention. Students can browse the featured projects and understand the purpose of DFA.

Event calendar

An event calendar that visualizes the upcoming events with the details of the location, time and summary of the event. Students can also RSVP on the calendar.

Project repository

A project repository of current and past projects. The current projects have the next meeting time, description, community partners, domains and resources on the card. On selecting a project, the page contains a set timeline with respective resources.

Application form

An application to join DFA with different domains illustrated below. A form for potential community partners to contact us and an idea box for people to be creative.

A new and full-proof organizational structure

Outlining the year long timeline