ALAGU CHOCKALINGAM
IDEO.ORG
OVERVIEW
I spent 4 months as an Intern on the Communications team at IDEO.org SF. My role included providing design support to all the core teams of the organisation. I worked on projects ranging from .org's website and fundrasing docs and collateral to creating icons and doing brand exploration for the talent search video.
Spring Internship
DESIGN RESEARCH | UX DESIGN | PROTOTYPING
INTERN PROJECT
THE PROBLEM
When team members go to the field they take a ton of photos - zillions of them - but the people using these photos on outfacing comms are not the ones on the field - they don't have context. If the fundraising team or I for example wanted a photo we had to run to the team heads and the others who are walking libraries in the organisation to get them. At the explosive rate that IDEO.org is growing this way of doing things is not ideal.
I asked, How might we ease the burden in finding the right photo? Also when teams are out in the field - what should they know about photography? what is the voice? what are ethical and legal issues they should be aware of? (eg.Photo release forms and when to use them)
THE FINAL CONCEPT
I concentrated on photo release forms and creating a system to manage photos. As I spoke with various teams I realised that each team faced a unique set of limitations. One solution would not work for all. So I created 3 different prototypes to answer the needs of each scenario.
One is an audio enable digital placard for iphone or ipad where a person who cant read can hear the content of the form and signify consent by holding it up in a photograqph. The second was an internet reliant form that can be filled out digitally and its contents along with the photograph of the person giving consent is saved in the cloud to be accessed later. And the third was a printed form in black and white for low tech environments.
For a photo managements system, I realised IDEO.org was using Flikr to upload some photos - but were not utilizing it's full power. I created a system of meaningful and relevant tags that would help anyone in the organisation narrow down the field for images they are looking for.
The photo release form prototype was taken to the field to test out and the reccomendation for overhauling the taggin system were met with a very enthusiastic response.
THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES
The challenge was trying to balance this project which was not time sensitive or high priority with all the other work that needed to get done immediately. It was also challenging to get people in a room together, everyone is busy, so was I. I had to learn to make the most of snatched time.