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New Ground Survey Responses

1. Do you think the aesthetics of the New Ground webpage design fit the content (community composting)? View the current design at brichlen.tumblr.com

"I love the asthetics of New Ground. I thought it was pretty easy to navigate. It is tough to make composting look attractive but I think this site did just that. The pictures were vibrant and detailed and told a story that accented the content." - 11/26/2012 8:50 AM

"the website looks nice, I like the bright vibrant colors which draw me into the site, one thing I think there should be more of is a community feel. maybe just pictures of people of different ages having fun together or something instead of so many pictures of the ground. you get the composting, just not really an inviting community feel. I also think the green of the main text box should be different than the navigation bar. maybe more orange and yellow. i really like the main composting photo, pull some colors from there!" - 11/25/2012 10:44 PM

"yeeeeeeeeeesh" - 11/25/2012 9:02 PM

2. How much do you, as a consumer, care about whether or not the businesses you support in your community are committed to sustainability practices?

Very Much - 33.3%

Somewhat - 66.7%

Indifferent - 0.0%

3. If a local business were contributing their compostable materials to community composting sites through the Kompost Kids would it make you want to support their business more than another business sending all of their food waste to the landfill?

Yes - 100%

4. Do you maintain a compost bin for food waste in your home?

Yes - 66.7%

No - 33.3%

5. Would you be interested in getting involved with community composting and supporting sustainability in your area?

Yes - 66.7%

No - 33.3%

6. If so, in what capacity?

Educating the public about the benefits of composting waste food - 100.0%

(1 skipped answering)

7. If not, why?

"I would do it for my own home, but do not have the time to be involved in volunteer work." - 11/25/2012 10:44 PM

8. Would you be willing to start a community compost site in your area if there isn't already one?

Yes - 100%

9. Would you be willing to register and create an account within the New Ground site, specifically to view posts and respond to others in the discussion forum to coordinate your sustainability efforts in your community by partnering with businesses, gardens, and other volunteers? If not, explain why.

"yes. I love the idea of an open forum where people across various neighborhoods can share experiences." - 11/26/2012 8:50 AM

"yes, I would like to find more about community gardening and what businesses are involved. it would be interesting to me if there was more info about starting your own composting bin for your house." (taken by Amy M.) - 11/25/2012 10:44 PM

"shuuuree!" - 11/25/2012 9:02 PM

Personas from long ago I forgot to post!

2012 UWM DES Experience

On Thursday 12.6.12 rom 5 to 9 PM I presented the current design of my New Ground site at the UWM Design Entrepreneurship Showcase with the rest of the students taking Design II this Fall 2012 semester. Although initially I did attempt to code the site for the showcase, after realizing I wouldn’t be able to get everything looking and functioning properly in time for the show I used a free online service from invisionapp.com to mock up my site. Using invision I was able to upload png’s of the various sections of my site and make specific portions of these images clickable so they link you to the correct pages and content on specific pages were the site actually live. Here’s a link to the mockup so you can explore the functionality of my New Ground design for yourself:

https://projects.invisionapp.com/share/JE9T2RPT#/4152111

Although not all of the pages are actually completely mocked up you can finally see how the forum would actually look. There are different tabs for each of the three types of users (Community Sites, Contributors [Businesses], and Volunteers) and each of these types of users can only create new posts in their own tab in the forum. However, they can view and respond to posts that other users have created in the tabbed sections other than their own and coordinate pickups, relay information about how and where to get involved, and discuss topics pertinent to other members of the composting community online. Detailing exactly how this was going to work was easy to do using the invision mockup, it just required a bit of explaining and showing on my part during my pitch to relate this piece of functionality.

I was able to show my current piece to the Melissa Tashjdan, the president of the Kompost Kids (the group of people that I was essentially creating the forum for and will most directly be working with it to repurpose food waste once the back-end coding and full design is finished) and also a member of my design team. The feedback I received from her and the Kompost Kids’ Treasurer (whose name I believe was Jeff) was nothing but positive. Other than that it seemed to me that the most interested people I spoke to at the showcase about my site were individuals who compost themselves, mostly on a smaller scale in their home and would possibly like to get involved with community composting in their area. I also spoke to a number of people involved with community gardens in the Milwaukee area and the idea of community composting struck them as an innovative and necessary step for our Milwaukee community to take because of the lack of clean soil these projects often face. Unlike many of the other students that surrounded me at the showcase I still do not think that my product should be used for any monetary gain, that is, unless people may want to donate some amount to help strengthen the community composting movement in the Milwaukee area by supporting the site and the efforts of the Kompost Kids. I wanted my piece to be about the creation of a cleaner, more unified, and sustainable Milwaukee.

Brad

Final New Ground promotional video.

Promotional video featuring members of the Kompost Kids picking up, dropping off, and turning compost bins at the community composting site behind Sweet Water Organics, all activities members of the New Ground site would participate in as New Ground members and Kompost Kids vounteers.

New Ground Survey

Take my survey about New Ground and community composting at

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QK6P8CP

Thanks!!

New Layouts!! The main slider on the homepage will have different states similar to what it looks like now for each section of the site. The "Community Partners" page will have two main states, either showing the gardens that are involved or businesses. The "Join" page will branch off into different registration pages depending on which type of user the visitor to the site is. The "Discussion Forum" page will either prompt users to login or register if they haven't been on the site before.

New Ground logo final

Homepage mockups, each page represents a different state of the slider which corresponds to the seperate sections of the New Ground site.

Near final.

The Secrets of Generation Flux

Fast Company’s article “The Secrets of Generation Flux” by Robert Safian describes the ever-changing state of business and commerce in our modern world economy and how those who are able to adapt, be open to learning from a myriad of sources, and a kind of decisiveness tempered by the understanding that business life can change radically in relatively short periods of time; “every 3 months or so” according to Aaron Levie, founder and CEO of Box, a cloud-computing firm. Safian explains that this chaos is largely due to the development of technology that can make a small startup just as, and if not stronger and relevant than a giant like Coca-Cola or Apple. “The companies that succeed will be nimble and ever-changing” and demonstrate “efficiency and openness, thrift and mind-blowing ambition,… and a workplace that fosters creativity” (Safian). However, not everything needs to change in the traditional business model. In any and all models there is a need for rules and hierarchy in order for business to run efficiently and without error and, more generally, move forward. However, these ideals can hinder progress in that they are threatened by change and may react against it.

The Generation Flux leader must be able to discern where and how to implement these new creative strategies and make them relevant in this flux environment. This requires working with the entity as a whole, creating a network of connected individuals rather than separate levels in an organization. Distinctive ideas are key, and in order for the these ideas to be found Generation Flux leaders must be willing to listen to their underlings. Also “change” is a keyword in what Safian is saying. He speaks of a “cadence of change” being an integral attribute of any Flux organization. Today's leaders prize hard experience over formal, expensive training and there exists no single model that leads to success. I feel like all of these ideas were pertinent to the kind of creative culture we saw at Translator when we went to hear the co-founders speak. They are being truly innovative in the way they treat their designs and work to make the business entity more of a “living being” in the marketplace than ever before; their recent rebranding of the MKE Brewing Co. and the process that entailed was a prime example of that. Make the brand about the people of Milwaukee and they will embrace it more so as their own than ever before. This was an definitely an interesting read.

Read the article at:

http://www.fastcompany.com/3001734/secrets-generation-flux

Prototype Critique 10.22.12

Not the best quality photos, but these cards and groups of cards represent the wireframe contents of the prototyped New Ground site.

Above are some wireframes for different portions of the New Ground site. Images with multiple cards represent different layouts for the same content, but at this point these are just some of the basics that would be on the site. The sections would be pages concerning "What is Compost[ing]?", "Why Get Involved?", "Join the Movement", an "Emissions Avoidance Calculator", "Partners" (i.e. local community composting sites, restaurants etc.), as well as "What to Compost" (with the same information be distributed on posters to restaurants involved with the initiative). Elements that link to other elements will have the same name as the page they are linking to or should be otherwise annotated in the drawing.

Prototype explorations [10.17.12]

Still a little new to web design, so I understand my mockups are not necessarily prototyped correctly in a content based way, but rather are directed more towards the aesthetic and feel of the site; more content-oriented explorations to be posted soon.

Icon and Identity Critique [10.15.12]

Post-It Key:

Pink - Pursue

Yellow - Potential

Orange - Avoid

"New Ground" Mood Board

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