Design Strategy & Touch Point System
Summary
Drawing is a fun and relaxing activity that has the potential to bring out the best in people. Draw, a small organization in the Twin Cities, seeks to use drawing to build community. Through in-person events, Draw facilitates drawing activities at local venues and with various organizations in an effort to build bridges between communities and strengthen relationships.
My design team and I worked together to develop a design strategy to help concisely communicate the value and mission of Draw, make participant drawings more powerful and far reaching, and ultimately to increase the visibility and awareness of Draw to users and participants.
My Role
I collaborated with a team of designers to create a design strategy map and system of touch points. I was solely responsible for designing the “Communicate & Educate” touch point, which consisted of choosing new language for Draw’s mission statement, redesigning Draw’s homepage, and creating a high-fidelity prototype of the redesign.
Design Team
Don House · Zöe Mangum-Herriage · Luke Rivard · Heather Scheil · Travis Wilds
Methods & Tools
Stakeholder interview · competitor audit · touch point strategy map · rapid touch point ideation · Sketch · iMovie.
Deliverables
Touch Point Map · Client Presentation Video · Annotated Presentation Deck
Stakeholder interview
As someone who loves to draw and sketch myself, I was excited to dive into this problem space to find ways to increase Draw’s visibility and effectiveness as an organization. My design team and I met with each other to do an initial overview of Draw’s current site to identify what we know and don’t know about the organization.
Findings
Going into the stakeholder interview, my team and I had a few questions about Draw’s purpose and mission. Current messaging suggests the goal is to compile participant drawings into one children’s book, however there were supporting materials that suggested other purposes, such as providing coloring therapy, raising funds for nonprofit causes, and connecting communities.
Through our interview it became clear that the client is open to ideas that help clarify Draw’s messaging, activities, and tools. The client made it clear that within 6-12 months, Draw hopes to:
Organize an event every 1-3 weeks,
Have something tangible to sell,
Have a sustainable business model.
Competitor Audit & Deep Dive
My team and I wanted to learn more about the space that Draw exists in. What are other small organizations doing to bring the community together? How do they communicate their mission and get people to participate? My design team divided our research workload into five ways: mission statement & messaging; nonprofit vs. for profit; site usability; and marketing. I dove into learning more about mission statements and messaging.
I conducted a competitive audit on six other local organizations that work with the community to see what makes for an effective mission statement, as well as how clearly their websites communicated their mission. I researched various blog articles that described effective strategies for developing a strong mission statement to see what patterns others have already identified. I concluded that a mission statement for a small organization should be able to answer the following questions in a concise yet memorable way:
What?
How?
To who?
What’s the value?
Coming together
From the client interview, my team’s competitor audits and deep dives, we synthesized our findings into key focus areas to target our design efforts:
Discovery - Since walk-in participants are the most common user, we can focus on designing a touch point for this user to increase visibility.
Participate - There is opportunity to craft design prompts that purposely encourage participants to connect with each other. Additionally, we can design touch points to direct the user to Draw’s website to learn more about the organization if they enjoy their experience.
Culmination of activity - After participants finish their drawings, we found it important for there to be some sort of showing for their work. Our team suggests partnering with local artists and businesses to create murals based on the submitted drawings.
Messaging & Brand - There is room for opportunity in Draw’s messaging; we recommend a new mission statement, logo, and redesigned homepage to facilitate clear messaging.
Marketing - Our research showed that Instagram marketing campaigns do well to raise an organization’s social media visibility. Our team recommends a Draw branded t-shirt campaign through Instagram to increase visibility both online and in-person.
Guiding Strategy Statement
Working in a design team on a tight deadline can cause confusion and tension. Before prototyping a design strategy, my team wrote a guiding strategy statement ground us as we rapidly ideated and prototyped our design recommendations.
“All user experience touch points for Draw will help Minneapolis Draw participants feel connected, engaged, and relaxed so that they are able to meet new people, engage with new communities, and contribute something bigger than themselves.
We will do this by focusing on clear messaging and engagement with events.
As a result we hope to see increased engagement (through social media and in-person) and community partnerships.”
Touch Point Map
Visualizing my team’s various touch points within our design system helped facilitate the direction each touch point prototype would take. The client can use this touch point map to reference where along the user experience each feature, idea, or strategy suggestion falls.
Using this framework, my team and I designed touch points within each phase of our design system, all interconnected in order to meet our client’s goals. We used consistent branding (logo, mission statement, website links/QR codes) to bridge our touch points together.
My Contributions: Mission Statement Revision
My Goal: Improve Draw’s messaging through a new mission statement.
Key themes arose regarding Draw’s inspiration, purpose, and goals in our client interview. Words and phrases such as “unity,” “collaboration,” and “healing” were often repeated. It was more than coloring therapy; it was building bridges between people from various backgrounds, elevating participants’ moods, and providing a creative outlet for the community.
I designed this new mission statement:
“Drawing the Twin Cities community together through free and inclusive drawing events.”
My Contributions: Website Landing Page Redesign
My Goal: Improve Draw’s messaging and engagement by redesigning its homepage. Design all other touch points within our design system to lead the user to Draw’s website, a home base for learning about the organization.
Based on my research and previous experience, I made sure to include and position the following on Draw’s recommended homepage:
Logo in upper left corner
Why: Consistent branding is important for building trust with users.
Broad yet clear menu language
Why: Participants, partners, and first time viewers should be able to easily find events, learn more about Draw, volunteer, or purchase merchandise.
Photo of participants at Draw event
Why: Draw’s goal is to bring the community together, so it’s important to visually demonstrate that happening at a real event.
Call to Action button
Why: Provides a clear path for users to find out how to participate. In addition, users gather that this organization has to do with participating in drawing quickly and easily with the “Come Draw!” call to action button.
New mission statement
Why: With an improved mission statement, users will gain a better understanding as to why it is they would want to participate in a Draw event.
Personal statement from Founder
Why: Draw’s purpose and mission are noble. Our team agreed that a personal statement from Draw’s founder, Steve, would leave a positive impression for users, increasing their likelihood to engage.
Visible upcoming events
Why: Draw’s main product is an event. Making upcoming events visible on the homepage increases the user’s understanding of the main purpose of the organization.
Client Presentation Video
View my design team’s client presentation video to learn about how our system of touch points work together to meet the goals of our client.