Lack of meaningful and interpersonal connections in online design communities
While there is an abundance of online communities and resources catered to design, it is often difficult for budding designers to build solid connections with fellow designers. This problem was rooted in the difficulty of approaching others and forming friendships in a digital context. Through interviews and competitive analyses, it was found that many designers feel apprehensive to make the first move due to the fear of awkwardness or maintaining conversations. Meanwhile, there is also a lack of engagement on these digital communities where the total number of members does not correlate with the activities or prompts that are posted.
How might we foster an environment where designers of different fields connect and grow together?
In bringing together designers from all walks of life, Design Village was built on the following pillars:
- Bonding, Friendships, and Connections; Community-building
- Learning and Growing; Skill-building
- Support and Comfort; Inclusivity
Design Village is an online social community that gathers designers together to grow friendships, skills, and experience. It cultivates a safe and inclusive space where everyone, whether beginner or advanced, is wholeheartedly welcome. It encourages individuals who share the same passion for design to freely express themselves and connect with one another.
A home for one, one home for all
Upon entering Design Village, designers are able to see posts from fellow designers ranging from queries, events, and even showcase their own works. By interacting with these posts, designers can share interests and ideas, fostering a sense of community among designers.
Design Village is a collaborative environment where designers can keep track of their goals and build good habits together. On their profile, they can create personal and shared goals with others. When users work towards a shared goal, they become more motivated and inspired to complete them.
Socializing doesn’t always have to be scary at The Village
Design Village has various pathways for designers at different stages of their design journey. Be it 1:1 mentorships, buddies, groups and project-based opportunities, designers are welcome to find the support and engagement that suits their needs. These allow experienced designers to share their insights and knowledge with budding designers. Similarly, designers can find buddies and groups that may be on a similar level as them. By giving designers the opportunity to collaborate with one another, they can move towards a more guided design journey. Designers may also tune into the fireside chats and hear from industry leaders sharing advice and expertise. This way, one’s design journey evolves from a solitary to a social and collaborative experience.
Ensuring lasting connections and relationships beyond design
It's easy to get caught up in work and other responsibilities and forget about maintaining connections. To help sustain long-term and meaningful relationships, Design Village nudges its users to check up on buddies they haven’t interacted with in a while. This ensures that users support and care for the buddies and friends they have made within Design Village.
Building blocks of Design Village
Design Village centers around the values of collective growth and passion of every user. It emphasizes on creating a comfortable and homely digital environment rather than a formal one. Hence, the name was derived from the idea of a “village,” a place where individuals come together, support one another, and share their experiences. As Design Village values the collective growth and passion of every user, we utilized green and pink as the primary colors as it symbolizes these. Throughout the app, Work Sans was the typeface used as it is sans serif and is legible for mobile screens.
Things I would have done differently in this project
Conduct more in-depth user testing sessions. Gathering feedback from designers would have been helpful to identify gaps in our design and opportunities for more novel features to be included.
Further develop the matching system for buddies and mentorship. The current iteration for this feature emphasizes on designers seeking these connections by themselves. However, future iterations can include a more automated system where users are matched based on their interests and level of expertise at onboarding.
Integrate learning modules to ensure a guided learning process. To solidify the idea of design growth, having learning modules on design basics such as UI design, prototyping, and UX research methods would have been a great addition.
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