DeeDee.K
Type
Project Overview
Mobile Application
"BLOB" is a social media app geared towards Gen Z users and fosters inclusivity for marginalized communities. It provides a secure space for the anonymous sharing of personal interests and ratings without relying on words as a form of communication, eliminating hateful or harmful speech. Users are represented by non-anthropomorphic “Blobs” to avoid reinforcing stereotypes based on human characteristics.
Team
Contributions
Lucia Pineda
Amaris Gil
William Choi
My participation in Google's Design Sprint was an incredible experience filled with creativity, collaboration, and inspiration. Throughout the sprint, I worked diligently alongside my team members to develop our prototype, ensuring that our ideas materialized into a cohesive and effective solution. This collaborative spirit was essential in the face of a real-world problem. As a result, our team BLOB won the award at the Google Design Sprint.
Date
Objectives & Goals
March 4th - 5th
The project's objective is to create a safe and inclusive social media platform for marginalized communities by fostering a space that promotes shared interests and eliminates the harmful effects of cyberbullying and stereotyping. BLOB aims to create a diverse community that values differences and celebrates diversity instead of perpetuating harmful stereotypes and discrimination.
Final Prototype
Explore the interests
Enables users to explore a world of like-minded individuals who share their interests. This functionality allows users to effortlessly discover Blobs from around the globe who have similar interests, fostering connections that transcend borders.
Meet other Blobs
Provides users with a Blob matching percentage, offering them valuable insights into the extent to which their interests align with others, facilitating more meaningful interactions and relationships.
Engage
Once users click on another Blob, they able to explore their page. If they come across something that interests them, they can rate the content using a 5-star rating system and automatically add the post to their own profile.
Explore
Users not only interact with other Blobs but also they can discover and add content from various online sources to their own profile, allowing them to personalize their experience in their own unique way.
Which this feature gives users the freedom to curate their profile with content that truly resonates with them.
Evolve
Users actively engage with Blob, their own blob will thrive and grow. The color scheme of their blob is generated based on their specific category interests, creating their own personalize Blob color
Also user can track the analysis to see insights into the categories they are most interested in.
This feature allows users to reflect on their own growth and engagement with the platform, fostering a sense of accomplishment and motivation to continue exploring and expanding their interests.
PROMPT
Before moving forward the design process, Google Design Sprint provided the prompt.
PROCESS
1. UNDERSTAND
The first step we took is to understand our marginalized communities through research:
Who are they? And why are they feeling excluded?
Marginalized communities include (to name a few):
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People of color
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Low income individuals
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People with disabilities
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Women
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LGBTQ community
Factors that lead to marginalization online:
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Cyberbullying
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Lack of representation
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Negative stereotypes
2. DEFINE
Our team researched keywords that bring people together such as security, support, and similar interests.
We then created a bunch of "How Might We" statements to help frame our insights into questions that can be solved
We picked the questions that we thought had the most potential such as:
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How might we connect people with similar interests?
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How might we monitor content to ensure non-toxic behavior?
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How might we prevent negative stereotypes online?
3. SKETCH
Utilized "Crazy 8's," a brainstorming technique involving rapid sketching of wild and imaginative ideas, to create diverse concepts for further development.
4.DECIDE
After sketching our concepts, we presented them to each other and other teams.
Each member voted for the best concepts through dot voting and combined the ideas that we liked the most. This helped us construct our final problem statement
HMW
HOW MIGHT WE..
create a fun way to explore common interests in a safe online space for everyone?
PROPOSED SOLUTION
In our quest to tackle the fundamental issues leading to online marginalization, we made a deliberate choice to completely eliminate considerations of physical attributes and harmful speech from our solution.
To accomplish this goal, we strategically selected a mobile application as our platform of choice, as it not only resonates with the predominant preferences of the Gen Z demographic but also provides a user-friendly and accessible experience.
Anonymous representation and sharing
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To avoid reinforcing stereotypes based on human characteristics
Content sharing & ratings as a form of communication, not words
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To steer clear of cyberbullying and harmful speech
Shared interests as a basis for exploring profiles
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By emphasizing visual expression and interaction, we aim to minimize the risk of cyberbullying and promote a more positive user experience.
PERSONA
To gain a deeper understanding of our target audience, we developed a persona representing our ideal user:
KEY FEATURES
STYLE GUIDE
Our style guide draws inspiration from the captivating colors of space. The moodboard we created reflects a sense of excitement, universality, and otherworldliness.
As the Blob community evolves, these colors and categories will grow and shift, serving as a starting point. The design aims to infuse fun and wonder for a visually engaging and memorable user experience.
DESIGN CONCEPT
We brainstormed a range of initial ideas that showed promise in creating the interface. We meticulously filtered these concepts to craft multiple designs that streamline each feature. Ultimately, we introduced interactive elements and features to enrich the overall user experience."
BLOB CONCEPT
Our team developed this concept based on the idea that BLOBs provide a wide range of visual representations. These representations serve as a compelling and inclusive alternative to using actual human images or avatars. By using BLOBs, we can effectively showcase and the diversity found among our users, fostering a more inclusive and representative environment.
