closeknit app presentation

closeknit is designed to help you find and connect with other knitters in your area. whether you’re just looking for a friend or two, a quick meet-up while you’re already out working, or a formally organized circle, closeknit can help you find companions so you can chat, teach, get advice, or anything in between.

closeknit skins

after wireframing the closeknit app for content, it was time to take it into the fitting room with some outfits to see what might be the most flattering. we chose three important and very different screens to try out three aesthetics on. these are the home screen, the "who's knitting where" feed, and a personal profile.

 the first and last looks were working better than the middle, so it ultimately came down to preference. in order to create something with a cohesive feel alongside the research book lillie and i made, i ended up going with design number one.

closeknit progress

the final project in information architecture this semester has been the creation of a tailorable iphone application for the culture we spent the early part of the semester researching. that brought me back home to knitting, and the young folks lillie and i had worked with, who use technology in their knitting practice... well, they're a perfect target audience for an iphone app, and i was excited to work on it.

in our interviews, one struggle that came up over and over again was how hard it was to find other people to knit with, and how difficult it was to find, start, or join a knitting circle. knitters love to talk about their work, but if they don't know anybody else who does it, then they have a hard time fulfilling that need! i knew from the start of the term that when i had the opportunity to create an app for knitters, i wanted to help them connect with each other in real life, not just online through sources like ravelry.

the first real step was to flesh out a user scenario through hand-sketched notecard wireframes, which i've done a little like the following. 

what occurs is this: a new user opens the app for the first time, and gamely decides to "get started" rather than jumping ahead to the other buttons. they are prompted through a questionnaire to help match them with knitters in their area. the idea is that the app could be used to find individual friends, or to join up with established circles, or to find a collection of people who aren't a circle yet but should be. once our user fills out his information, which includes things like whether he needs help, wants to teach others, or would be more comfortable just hanging out, he is taken to a screen full of search results, based on his gps location. from here, he can view someone's profile, message them through the app, or add them as a buddy. additionally, if a person has chosen to share their phone number with the app, it will also facilitate phone calls and text messages. intrigued by a person named lillie schenk, our user messages her to see if she wants to hang out sometime. she replies that she does! the scenario continues once they're already together, moving through another way to use the app. this time when the user opens the app, he has more options, because he has already started tailoring his experience. he says he's "knitting now!" and is asked a series of questions about his circumstances such as where he is and whom he's with. having filled that out, he can see the live feed of knitters in the area, and view their entry, with the potential to invite other app users directly.

user testing with real, live families!

saturday, the junior class spent the afternoon following families around the nelson sculpture park as they attempted to utilize our maps for wayfinding and motivation to navigate to and from the sculptures featured in the "hand built"festivities. these folks here were great sports and marched all over, looking for the right sculptures.

on the whole, they commended jumper's/my map experience as being fairly clear and thorough. they appreciated the amount of information we put about each piece inside the info booklet. they had lots of trouble finding "fountain," which was not a surprise, and which means we need to reconsider how we're rendering the building so that people realize it's actually inside. other than that, the map seemed effective! i did receive a request to put the locations of other recognizable pieces on there, though, like the shuttlecocks and the thinker, to help orient the viewer. 

as for the play-clay (play-dough?) experience... this part was the fun part. we'll need to take into consideration the need for a handwashing station on site for between colors and for when kids get squicked out, for sure. it's funny to see kids simultaneously giggling and being completely mortified by mixing the stuff up. probably also a good idea to have popsicle sticks or something on hand in case they don't want to mix with their hands. couldn't help but notice all the other kids looking longingly over at my table... 

"hat trick" collection site

http://design.kcai-sites.com/students/jrw/hat_trick/index2.html

tailored communication

what is being advertised?

Citizens in Charge is a "citizen-powered advocacy organization" that supports and educates people about their right as American citizens to participate in their legislative proceedings through petitions, ballot initiatives, and referendums. They offer information about each particular state's policies regarding public legislative action, and provide a forum for networking and making contact with others that can assist in the process of lawmaking.

why target this audience?

Research has shown that urban chicken farmers frequently must keep a careful eye on their local laws and ordinances due to the fact that raising chickens in the city is frowned upon by those who don't understand the benefits of their lifestyle. Even when chickens are permitted, there may be unnecessarily stringent regulations that should be rewritten. Given these circumstances, it is in their best interest to be well-informed and well-connected in their local and statewide politics. Citizens in Charge, while not directly related to chicken farmers in particular, is a great resource for the politically active and those who want to take action but need backup. This makes a relationship between chicken farmers and the Citizens in Charge organization a very useful idea.

how does this ad communicate this message to that audience in particular?

This advertisement uses the rhetorical methodology of pathos to strike a chord. First and most obviously, the use of the constitution as imagery, particularly with the upward slant, is a reference to American optimism and the democratic way; in one motion, it acts as shorthand for the political process and also delivers an emotional response in the form of pride and nationalism. The use of green and brown as the predominant colors speak to the naturalism inherent in a lifestyle of urban farming. The tailoring of the message comes not just in the chicken silhouette, which anyone can comprehend, but in the targeted messaging of the copy. I am appealing to the protective nature of chicken farmers by demanding that they step up to defend their chickens against the political obstacles they face. By comparing the call-to-action of utilizing Citizens in Charge to a common behavior specific to chicken farmers (ie: locking the henhouse to keep out predators), I hope to help them realize that collective civic action is just as important to keep chickens safe as keeping out foxes and coyotes. When describing the organization itself, I was careful to expound upon shared values between them and the farmers, such as hard work, grassroots effort, protection of the family, and well-informed sustainable living.

hat trick pages

today, we are supposed to be presenting our progress onscreen to the class for critique, but i am taking advantage of a unique opportunity to participate in a willoughby design workshop today instead.

so as not to bog down my blog with all twentythree pages, i'm just going to post my macro sorts and one page per infograph. here's what hat trick is looking like!

things in particular i'm wondering about are:
• the type lockup on top (are the two different sides compatible? should they be treated the same way instead of differently?)
• the overall designiness of the infographics (was i able to steer them out of sketch phase?)
• the size of the images in the sorts (still too big? or small enough?)

thanks so much for any feedback!