Task 3 coolness

Team Name

Digital Fix

The organisation

North Shore Women's Centre

Mission/Vision (of organisation)

There is still a need for women to have a place to challenge the assumptions and promote debate, in order to better the lives of women. Our vision is to provide services which enable women to empower themselves to lead fulfilling lives.

Identified Goal (of yMedia project)

To help the women's centre reach and engage with a broader audience - especially young people by having a larger digital presence and a more interactive, stylish and helpful website. Adding more interactivity will hopefully attract people to become more involved in the cause, especially discussing contemporary issues of gender inequality.

Current barriers/difficulties in achieving this goal

A lack of understanding about digital media within the organisation. A large part of the project will involve teaching the NSWC staff how to use the technology implemented on their own website. All of them are very passionate about their cause and have to much to say, they simply need the skills to be able to turn those opinions/knowledge into instant posts on the website.
Another barrier is the fact that the organisation has a very involved board of trustees with very strict guidelines. If they do not like a particular aspect of the project then it will not go ahead. This could easily lead to wasted time, and therefore clear communication between Digital Fix and the NSWC is absolutely crucial to a succesful project.

Typical client/Target audience

Women. One of the main ideas the NSWC has tried to get through to us the the importance of diversity. They are very adament that no-one can be left out. Whatever digital solutions we implement will need to attract a diverse range of women. This could be construed as another difficulty in achieving the goal, but we look at it more as a challenge. We realise the importance of reaching out to as many women as possible and the reasons why.

Possible/discussed digital solutions/options

Social networking sites, website forum, interactive form for signing up to classes and the e-newsletter, a brand new look for the website included in a rebranding of the entire organisation.

Evaluation of solutions

The NSWC had already decided that a rebranding of the entire organisation had to be performed and are very excited about it, this is one aspect of the project they had already been thinking about before meeting us. From our point of view the interactive side is equally important, making the site more useful to get people to visit the site again and again. Finally, we will look at ways to advertise the NSWC and it's website through the idea of an icon which people can put on their websites as a sort of 'badge' to say they support the centre, and also via social networking sites + "the word of mouth" effect they produce.

Proposed solution

Our final proposed solution involves first the rebranding of the website and the organisation itself. We will endeavour to create a logo and font/colour combination which attracts as many women as possible and creates a sense of diversity around the NSWC. We shall present the centre with many concepts from which the trustees can choose from as soon as possible so that we can get the project underway. After a choice has been made, one of our team members will focus on design while the other two find solutions to the aspect of interactivity. Once we have worked out what we need, we will again communicate with the centre about the structure of the site, and how the new interactive elements will fit in with existing content. One member will also focus on possible ways of advertising the NSWC digitally.

Focus of solution

The overall focus of the whole project is to create a website which will incite women to be informed about contemporary gender issues, and also show them ways in which they can empower themselves through courses etc. By creating a website where women can share opinions, sign up for courses, and hear latest news from the North Shore Women's Centre, we will make it easier for them to help themselves. Of course, a website is useless if no-one knows it exists, so it is important for us to get to where women already converse and that is on social networking sites. Many women also have blogs, and we will encourage them to place an icon there to inform other women that this website exists.

Design approach

Elements - A diverse range of women. We have come to an agreement that the new 'brand' design for the centre needs to refer to different cultures/ages/occupations of women. We have discussed ways of achieving this and have decided that either silhouettes or profiles would be effective. After extensive research we have agreed on a tangent for logo concepts to go on, which involves flower imagery and women silhouettes as petals. Other design elements which has been discussed is the colour scheme, at which point centre members explicitly stated they did not want too much pink in the design, as this is one of the main problems with the current design.

Look/Feel - An important factor of the project is that the site needs to feel welcoming to a diverse variety of people. Therefore the design will be very clean and simple, and will be implemented in a way so that it does not alienate the current users of the site, but it also invites younger people and others to become part of it.

Scope of work (work that will take place)

Design: New logo; colour scheme; fonts; website; business card; pamphlet; , Usability: New domain name + redirection from old domain name; forum; application forms online; opportunity for staff to update website e.g. latest news section, Advertising: Social networking; website badge/icon,

Outside of scope (work that won't take place)

Video, Internal operations, content,

Technology to be used

Photoshop, Illustrator, Forum software, Facebook, Bebo, Myspace, Blog, RSS?

Proposed structure

There will be things and stuff

Timeline Dates

Logo concepts will be presented at a meeting on Monday 28th of July and one particular logo will be chosen. From there Miles will continue designing a concept for the website, the business card and the pamphlet.These will be presented via meeting or email by Friday 1st of August so that a final copy of each is finished by Sunday 3rd. At the meeting on Monday, we will also discuss the research done into the possibilities for forums, online forms for courses, and the blog icon idea and get an ok on all of those. Aurelie and Katherine will then attempt to implement the forum by Sunday 3rd and the online form by Wednesday 6th August, seeking help along the way from digital media tutors if absolutely needed. The icon imagery will be created by Miles by Sunday 3rd at the very latest, as a version of the NSWC logo. The icon will need to be distributed as quickly as possible as it is a viral idea and will hopefully spread exponentially. It will start with 3 or 4 blogs from people we know, and we predict it will be taken up by people reading those blogs, and so on and so forth. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday will be used to finish off anything that has run over time, and fix up any glitches within the code etc. These days will also be there to showcase the project so far to the NSWC staff and have their input on any possible changes. Once all is done we will dedicate a day to teaching how to use the new site elements and possibly even write a summary manual in case they forget. However, all along the way we will endeavour to use the simplest technology available for all our digital solutions, so that the NSWC staff can learn to use it instantaneously.