Based on comments we have received following our first product iteration. We have compiled a list of the three most important and general issues for us to consider in developing our 2nd iteration:

1. Which parts of our proposal we will pursue in the time period of this class? Who will be collaborating, and how will each partner contribute (what inputs will be provided by who?)

2. How will this be promoted?

3. Logic Tree complexity

After some initial discussion, though still not completely solidified, we have concluded that we will be aiming to produce 3 final products: A logic tree to be used in the implementation of the hotline, the characters and episode content for the hotline, and corresponding SMS message updates for subscribed users.  We will not, however, be focusing on the promotion and implementation of the hotline, as that would be project outside the scope of this class.  Lastly, one of our main goals in regards to  the hotline logic tree is to maximize simplicity. Through integration with SMS message updates, we hope to significantly remove any unnecessary confusion and complexity from the system.

UPDATES:

From reflections on possible paths toward failure. We have also come across issues involving confusion, offensiveness, relatability,  skepticism, in regards to our episodes and characters.  Hopefully, through collaboration with BIC and from user input we will eliminate these possible breaking points.  Overall, we felt this exercise was very enlightening, as it’s  easy to forget or ignore problems in each other’s designs, and being forced to acknowledge them will really help us create a sturdy and well thought-out product.

It is difficult to imagine a more diverse group than ours. Law, design, community organizing, development, storytelling… Our large team gathers all expertises! As my colleague Christian said in a previous post, we do not have one partner. We have four: Brazilian Immigrant Center, REV-, The NuLawLab at Northeastern University, and TerraVoz.

Naturally, it is awesome to count on such a rich set of skills. Nevertheless, it is an enormous challenge to coordinate all efforts. I am sure Marisa feels sometimes that she is herding cats. So far, I tell you, she has been successful!

Our project proposal has also helped us to figure out our roles in this project. On Saturday, we received useful advice from Sasha/Codesign team to improve our proposal. One of the suggestions was to assign more specific tasks to each member. Thus, we can have a clearer idea of everybody’s responsibilities. An ongoing updated version of our project proposal can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VlispRgeNGESqzbXjL8ZKjjKr32oMi3CMM3rlDwZO6s/edit#

Another advice was the need of bringing all community partners together to discuss the design of our hotline. In fact, we have been talking a lot about this topic in our meetings. This drawing (by Marisa), for instance, illustrates the concept of “audio postcard” that we invented and that will be used in our project:

We also got inspiration from New Day New Standard Logic Tree:

We already have a rough draft of our voice tree:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xpXNy5MA1s4su7pMO8gUB50BI8hfbXYTh9XB1f5qSl4/edit

It is one of the outcomes from our first project iteration. However, we know that it is not good yet. We need more meetings with our community partners to discuss it (and improve it).

Another outcome from this first iteration was a group of characters and stories that are going to be used to convey our messages on safety and environmental issues to housecleaners. Marisa and Anjum organized an amazing collaborative storytelling session! First, we had to invent characters for the stories. The idea was: the funnier, the better. We drew our ideas and presented them to the group. After that, we began to create stories… with the characters that other members of the group invented. At first, such approach seemed a bit chaotic… but after some time the convergence of ideas was astonishing!

Finally, we started a research on safety, health, historical and legal issues related to domestic house cleaners in Massachusetts and elsewhere. That research inspired many discussions in our meetings and will provide the theoretical background for the messages we are going to convey.