Sustainability Project - reflection on the process and outcomes

Successful aspects of the processI thoroughly enjoyed the process of this digital design project and here are my musings on why:

• Perhaps because of the entrepreneurial or enterprising aspect to it or perhaps it was the sustainability focus.
• The potential for creativity was vast and broad and there was opportunity for it to manifest in a number of ways: the concept, execution, structure, the way the design solves problems and/or integrates with society...
• The brief enabled a very personal response which meant it was easy to engage with the process.  Beginning the project by examining my own sphere of influence and where I could realistically make a difference was a great place to start to ensure engagement with the rest of the project.
• The blogging side of things was a great way to record ideas and research and something I think I will continue to do for my own personal projects in the future.  It becomes like a process diary.  At school we called them V.A.P.Ds (visual arts process diary) and I always got 100%! ;)
• Although a challenge I thoroughly enjoyed mapping out and planning the interface.  My rudimentary coding skills meant I was limited to using Wordpress templates, yet again, but the fact they exist and I was able to mold them (with some help!) to what I wanted is actually a real blessing.  Even a few years ago this would not have been possible, or at least a lot more difficult for me to achieve.
• The power of harnessing the collaborative aspect of the process was enlightening.  If Art Mine is ever going to be a successful platform the concept of collaboration will be at it's core; even when developing the functionality of it.  I might be the designer, but it is for others to use so involving other people in the design process was, and will continue to be,  critical.  This project cemented my idea that it is impossible to design in vacuum. Unlike a purely visual design, if you are designing an interface to be used by people it needs to be tested and tweaked and tested and tweaked to make sure it works for others the way you intend it to.  Watching people use the platform for the first time was very informative.  It was also extremely helpful to get feedback and ideas from other users in the form of a questionnaire.  This is something I would need to do more of if I am to get the platform to the point of launching it to the public.
• The research side of things has been really interesting, although often a little depressing when delving into statistics on the environment.  Connecting with James Moody was especially helpful and in the future I would like to meet up in person.  He was happy to share valuable insights into his own process of establishing Tu Share and had ideas for the future of Art Mine and Tu Share working together which  reinforced the idea of collaboration and working towards the common goal of sustainability.

Less successful aspects of the process included:

• The Skype meetings with the class were essentially helpful but it was often difficult for me to understand what was being said and as a result I don't think I benefited as much from them as I would have in person
• The presentation was a challenge for me because it takes me a relatively long time to condense all my thoughts into a cohesive logic and I was still working on  Art Mine itself rather than the presentation.  I could have spent a whole week getting the presentation sorted but I felt a better use of my time was working on the platform itself.  I was unsure how important the presentation was to the project and found it hard to drag myself away from fine tuning the interface.

Outcomes- strengths and weaknesses

• I am very happy with where I got to with the assignment.  I am really proud to have built the platform rather than just imagined it.  I look forward to being able to launch it one day hopefully.
• Although I am happy with how far I came in the time frame I am also aware that there is much more to do before it is complete to a point where it can be launched.

Next steps - community buildingAt this point in the life of the project however, I have reached a cross roads.

• With a few more tweaks, including sorting out the delivery system in collaboration with Tu Share, the platform could be fully functional and close to ready to launch. However my instincts and research are telling me otherwise.  I sense that before I test it out on the public I need to enable features that will turn it into more of a community building tool.  Whether it be simply users having the ability to converse with each other (think eBay where you can email the seller), or something more along the lines of a bulletin board where users can exchange ideas and help each other out with practical art making tips and techniques; or both.  Whatever it is, I have a sense that this aspect of the platform might have the power to make or break the project.  My research indicated that community and connection are what people are looking for and are big drivers for sustainability, so to ignore this side of things would be silly and lazy.
• So my next step I think it to do some more research into exactly what functionality my target users would like the most.  The target users, in this case, being the artists who are "downloading" or receiving the goods.  I think the time has come to develop another questionnaire that inquires as to exactly what sort of features they would like to see.  I could send this survey out to a select group of artist friends.
• I also want to establish a good way of encouraging businesses to post goods to Art Mine.  In which case I need to do another questionnaire that targets businesses and asks them about whether they would consider using this platform and what might entice them to do so.  The company I work for, Squiz, would be the perfect place to start.
• Although I find this type of field work nerve wracking, when I am actually out there engaging with real people it is obvious how invaluable this type of exchange can be.
• The other thing I need to work on is making the platform more self managing.  Although I might have to forget about making any money from it I don't want the running of it to take over my life and what little spare time I already DON'T  have!
• Before launching Art mine to the public I need to do a closed test run with people I know to get more feedback on functionality.  It will then need a final stage of tweaking and updating.
• There is also all the publicity and social media marketing and integration that needs to be planned.  This is also an area where I am sure James Moody could offer me some more advice.

All in all I have found the project to be very interesting and rewarding.   The presentation was the most frustrating part of it for me because I wasn't sure exactly how to be positioning the project.  Was Art Mine a great idea or just an experiment ...? And I found myself conflicted when spending any time working on the presentation when I still wanted to be working on developing the platform itself.I do hope to get the opportunity to work on Art Mine in the future so I can finish it off properly.