PROBLEM

The 2021 Adobe Creative Jam hackathon partnered with Creative Reaction Labs to ask designers to develop an app that helps Canadian Youth Leaders engage with their communities, and by extension, become Re-designers for Justice to bring equity into their communities and existing systems

CHALLENGE

How might we mobilize youth leaders to promote equity in their communities?

SOLUTION

Youth Network is a social networking and event planning app for mobile, that allows Canadian Youth aged 13 to 26 to connect with other youth leaders in their community, attend workshops and events, and reach out to existing resources such as sponsors and businesses with a shared goal of promoting equity.

DESIGN PROCESS

EMPATHIZE

Research

Ideation for this problem began with secondary research on the stakeholders involved in Canadian Youth programs, themes of influence and the types of events that influence communities and their potential outcomes. The team spent nearly half of the deadline learning about diversity in design, equity design and examples of Youth Leadership programs and their effects on communities and systems

Stakeholders

• Canadian Youth
• The Private Sector
  - Smaller businesses encouraging youth early in their careers (often experience a lack of resources)
  - Succession planning in a precarious labour market / multi - generational workplace
  
• The Non-Profit Sector (School Programs Included)
  - Positive Perception of the charitable sector however - It is not often sought as a viable career option 
  - Average age of a non-profit employee is 43.
  - Aging population of volunteers and donors - 28% of Canadian volunteers are aged 55+ as of 2017
  
• Government
  - Lay the groundwork for youth to succeed 
  - Have resources to invest 
  - Age of average government worker: 44
  - Youth issues are being overlooked due to lack of representation 
  - Government plays a role in encouraging youth participation
  

Challenge Examples

• Courage, empathy and creativity
  - Employment gaps left by retiring baby boomers
  
• Innovation and Leadership
  Transformation of social systems through some combination of behaviour change, culture shifts, public policy changes, and cross-sectoral collective impact
  
• How to implement specific feedback
  - Getting indigenous perspective
  - Getting a diverse / black / Latinx / international perspective to share thoughts and feelings when developing strategies 
  - Taking histories of these groups into account 
  - Inviting indigenous leaders to speak at the event in question 
  - Reconciliation ceremony (hosted by indigenous group) added to the beginning of the event in question
  

Youth in Canada today are in a somewhat contradictory position: they are inheriting difficult societal issues (e.g. precarious employment and growing debt; diminishing access to higher education; increasing environmental un-sustainability), while also having access to sophisticated technologies and forms of digital communication that are revolutionizing the world

- Studio Y. 2016 National Youth Leadership and Innovation Strategy Summit (NYLIS)

DEFINE

Users

Canadian Youth aged 13 to 26, primarily including high schoolers and young adults.

Persona 1

Persona 2

User Journey Mapping

User Journey of new Youth Network User

IDEATION

User Flow

A user flow was created to determine all of the pages that would be necessary to design, the decision points for the user, and the actions involved on each page

PROTOTYPE

Mockups

High-Fidelity mockups allowed for a polished user experience, with images, colours, and finalized user flows and branding. These designs can then be used to create an interactive prototype for further user testings and final iterations. The visual design was created with affordances in mind, so the team utilized existing concept art from the game, and used simple drop down and search fields to allow for a very simple and familiar user interface experience.

Splash screen for new and returning users. Includes actions for sign up and login, and some introductory text to accompany the app logo.

Account page for a returning user. The account features links to a contacts list, messaging, and a calendar as well as created events, and all attended past events, created resources and community posts. Users can also select "interest tags" that will help personalize their event recommendations.

The sign up page, available after the splash page. Simple design, with the option of signing up with an existing social media account, or email and password.

Homepage. This is the first page new and returning users will see upon entering the app. This page allows for immediate access to popular or recommended events for that person's profile, as well as a type of event filtering option.

Community posts allow users to post about their life experiences, events, and share information in general. From an event post, users can contact the poster to talk further, if they do desire.

Chat function. After finding someone through the community section, users can then contact each other through the in-app text function.

Beyond events and community posts, the app also features a Resources section. Resources encompasses business, organizations and sponsors that are involved in equity design and youth leadership. Users can also use this section to request resources such as sponsers for their events.

Creating an event post is very simple, and contains 4 steps on Youth Network. Anyone can create an event, and events can be located physically or on-line.

Youth Network contains an in-app calendar to track upcoming events that a user is attending or has created. Dates with events scheduled will be highlighted in purple, and selecting the date will bring up the date and time details, with a link to the full event description.

The saves section displays all saved events, resources, and community posts. Users can save posts by clicking the heart in the bottom right corner of post cards.

Style Guide

Buttons

Tags

Roboto Regular 20px, 10px

Interactive Prototype