Design for Change was a user experience (UX) hackathon organized by Wilfrid Laurier University. Participants had 30 days to develop a response to the following question: “How might we create social transformation that shifts users towards greener behavior and sustainable practices?”
Maddy enters the hackathon with Value Collective as the focus, hypothesizing that the desire to respond to impending ecological collapse far outweighs the range and depth of actual opportunities to do so; the problem is not a lack of interest, nor a lack of ideas, but rather a lack of capability due to systemic constraints. To better understand her intended users, Maddy develops an interview method to determine the motivating factors, enabling conditions, and systemic constraints experienced by people undertaking personal projects/voluntary work, and conducts 5 in-depth interviews.
The resulting data influences Value Collective’s structure and offerings, leading to the establishment of 5 ‘pillars’ to guide Value Collective’s development. Each corresponds to a foundational premise and productive question. See the 5 pillars here.
This research also forms the basis of 6 personas created to represent Value Collective’s potential users.
See the Personas here.