General UX Direction

[november9]

Any additional input on these rudimentary wireframes would be great!

https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/18aKq4ts9mo3d7j8q8ND-WAyaTnrhyrEH23iaM0WSb94/edit

Feel free to make a copy of this Google Doc, or edit it directly, as it keeps track of revisions, so we can always roll back. Or, if you have another UX Design tool you prefer, by all means, use that!

[bripenney]

Added a version of wireframes: https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1Mi6vL2gACz1YvoRYBmPBoe7xK70fAazZbMi_mAK2hMo/edit

I have some thoughts on features that would make this a better user experience, more sorting capabilities, featured events, social integrations, etc. Of course all of this could be ways we could make this better in the future as well. I would love to meet up in person to discuss more since I can only get so much of your thoughts from the descriptions. :)

[bripenney]

Here's a presentation of the wireframes with more explanation. I'll probably move towards working on some rudimentary mockups now based on the architecture you created. Democracy_pres.pdf

[november9]

Wow, that's awesome, and would make for a very powerful platform!

Here's what I'm thinking right now - the super-cool ideas you have in your wireframes will take a good amount of work, and could take months to get out into the wild. I am of the "start small and keep iterating" mindset. This way, we can quickly get a sense of what our user base really needs, and then gradually update the application so that it actually satisfies those needs, and also allows us to pivot before we go too far down the wrong path.

Since my idea was to get something live ASAP, as the need we're addressing is pretty urgent, for the first iteration, in terms of a design, I was just thinking that we'd:

1. Add a logo and header
2. Change the color scheme
3. Clean up the font sizes and spacing throughout the interface

What do you think about starting with the much less ambitious design plan I outlined in my 3 steps above?

[bripenney]

Yes absolutely! I think we can clean things up without doing huge layout changes like you were wanting to avoid in the original post. 👍

[november9]

OK, cool! I'll try to be at one of the next hack nights (not this week unfortunately) so we can discuss in person as you mentioned.

[bripenney]

Saw an event on this site: https://actionnetwork.org/

Seems similar to aspects we're trying to build.

[november9]

Yeah, I saw that yesterday. Thing is, it seems to be for organizers, so they are the ones determining what is offered to the individual looking to choose activities, and it will be specific to their particular cause. What I'm thinking is a sort of "Google" for political actions, where people can choose actions from the entire spectrum, and come up with their own personal program of activism. So what we're doing is more geared towards the individual than the organizer.

Who knows, maybe that platform could be used this way, not sure. I'll try to play with it at some point and see what sort of overlap there is with what we're trying to do, although my hunch is there is still a big need for the type of solution we're creating.

[bripenney]

I agree. Plus on the action network you only have access to actions of groups you're a part of. You have to request access and even then that whole process is pretty difficult. It's all about organizers sending messages to people, not activist driven. Mainly I thought it was interesting that so many groups were on there. It's strange that they haven't made it easier for individuals to search for actions they would want to be a part of.

[november9]

Totally agree!