Launch Social Design Academy [SDA]

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem.

We co-design UX 3.0 with Communities & Brands. We are evolving software designers into change makers by building Digital Story-based Chat Assistants for personal and collective development goals.

[GENERAL] Summarize your relevant experience.

Founder Social Design Academy [Website] 24 yr. UX/UI [Li], Instructional Designer & Digital Governance Innovator. Funded F6: In-wallet Onboarding for ADAholders; Combining utility, education, and hospitality in a chat-like interface, making Cardano ready for family and friends

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

[reference 1 - Meaningful Brands - 12 year study]

Slide:19, sum of personal (32%) and collective (29%) benefit percentages.

Source: Havas Group, n=350K+

1 - How you perceive the problem you are solving

Introduction

This proposal seeks your investment to launch the Social Design Academy and start helping communities and brands become a force for good using UX3.0 training.

We close the gap between web2 and web3 by designing digital conversations instead of pages, creating a social layer across legacy systems and Cardano.

Blockchain gives us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to design Software for the people by the people. But our current wallet software separates utility and education, creating barriers for people to enter and trust the crypto space and partake in meaningful use cases.

Catalyst has its challenges. To effectively work with people you might never have met before, and break out of discovery talks only, we need a new approach to our way of working. 

We need a new social design approach turns everybody into a designer, unlocking the power of our human potential through cognitive diversity.

 New UX 3.0 method & Social Design Instructors

Last few years, I designed new Social UX tools that brought me closer to the vision of developing Software that has positive impacts on our daily lives. But I must admit, I have been trying to put this on the Catalyst agenda since Fund2 and resources are running low. Rethinking systems using Design Research takes a lot of time and packaging these outcomes for a larger audience are two different things. That why I ask for your investment to launch the Social Design Academy.

To assist people in their Cardano journey, we must upgrade how our Communities and Brands interact with their audiences & clients. We must elevate the repetitive, harsh, static page-based Software using UX 3.0 in which we transition from 'Designing for convenience' to 'Designing for wellbeing' using engaging digital storytelling. Humane software asks people what they need instead of telling them what to do. At Social Design Academy, we are mindful of what we build with Blockchain in our social live classes.

"Together, we design a new category of Social Apps that deliver personal and collective development goals using Story-based Chat Assistants. " - NK.

With your investment, Social Design Academy launches a new UX3.0 program that turns communities & brands into forces for good. [Check our SDA budget and roadmap]

Let's discover these new perspectives together.

2 - Your reasons for approaching it in the way that you have;

Most of us have seen the slide in Catalyst Townhall once or twice; "Catalyst disorients, overloads, and inspires." The decentralized nature of the space causes adverse effects, mainly because people don't know where to start or progress, often reaching out to family, friends & Social Media for help.

**The Functional/ Strategy Perspective*

 Page-based interaction design for the web is getting old; we need to rethink the front-end UI for Blockchain to unleash its full potential. Why? Pages are passive and reactive; they don't pro-actively inspire and encourage people to join the Cardano ecosystem.  

Social Design Academy focuses on distributed software design (we also call it real social software). Redefining how we build distributed software doesn't happen overnight and needs some serious unlearning and relearning, we develop and streamline what and how we make by capturing design research, having live classes and re-imagening what software can do for us as humans.

Social Design Academy believes in coordinating live classes and workshops around distributed software that compounds in a Conversational UI Toolkit leveraging bright minds in the Catalyst, Cardano, and broader software development space. 

 By rethinking how we design and develop our front-end and node-systems together, we can not only create a bridge between our web2 and web3 worlds; we make the web fun and meaningful again. By using moral imagination, we deliver true social impact. 🔥  

Everybody can join collaborative our design workshops, we turn people into civilian design thinkers and doers.

3 - Who your project will engage, or who its stakeholders are;

Social Design Academy is already engaging with the Catalyst & Cardano community daily in our Discord and by having weekly live classes that use these new design tools like; UX reviews, Pain & Gain Personas & Experience mapping. And from July '22 forward we want to intensify our online events.

 Niels Kijf is Social UX Advisor for Consenz and provides the Cardano ecosystem with new design tools to find product-market-fit, of which Emotion Mapping and Pain & Gain are the most effective. Design with emotion, not for emotion, is a core Social Design Principle and simplifies how we connect with our audiences. 

In our latest workshop, we concluded that the new Ideascale proposal template triggers anxiety and stress—[Reference 6 - Emotion mapping] Our Proposal Assistant will be an iterative design research to show novel proposal writing processes using the distributed collaboration mindset. [Reference 7 - Design research Chat Assistant for Cardano].

 'If you don't design with your customer, you are not designing for your customer.'

 To boost our outreach, we coach Social Design Instructors that using Social R&D tools within communities & brands co-create experience maps [Reference 8 - XP map example] that are self-explanatory, stress-free, and meaningful. Together we unlock the true potential of Cardano using our new Social Design tools and Story-based Chat Assistant techniques. 

4 - How will your project be implemented?

Visualise to Realise; We can do it!

Catalyst is missing Iterative Design Circles, UI design groups that engage and encourage blockchain communities with mockups, fresh ideas, and directions by showing UI designs for Digital Governance solutions. Using modern design tools, we get people excited about design, and by asking for feedback on social media, we show people potential directions. 

In my almost 25 years of experience as a Digital product designer, people get excited when you show potential approaches and directions in UI design mockups. 

People become creative, asking questions like: "Is this also possible? Did you think about this?" This shift the mindset from seeing obstacles to creating a yes-and environment for future design iterations.

We train social UX basics in our live classes [Reference 9 - RSVP Channel] and excite people through loom recordings discussing design. We democratize and humanize our software design, a mission with only winners. [Reference 10 - De-colonize Design thinking.pdf]

Social Design Academy wants to step into the Civilian Design Space using the following Japanese proverb;

  Tell people, and they Forget,

  Show people, and they Remember,

  Involve people, and they will Understand.

5a - What you will produce (i.e., your outputs)

Monetize Digital Storytelling

By co-designing UX 3.0, together with the Social Design Academy Pitch/Co-investor deck, we engage with Communities & Brands with a new Social Appstore concept. Monetizing Digital Storytelling in new Social Apps outside of the walled gardens will drive adoption for the Cardano Ecosystem, as our world is in desperate need of new hope narratives.

Our Proposal Assistant will be used as example project in our Live classes. From September onwards we will bring these topics to our live-classes and partners, while I button up F6: In-wallet Onboarding for ADAholder, before Sept 1st, 2022. Learning and building together is our core philosophy, as we believe unlearning and relearning in groups work best.

We make Communities & Brands Blockchain Ready™ by introducing a new way of developing their business client interactions using Story Based Chat Assistants. Instead of social media creating our world views, we are transforming our phones into remote controls for our reality. 

 Doesn't that sound refreshing?

For our complete approach, check our Budgets, Milestones, and design program, see our SDA budget/roadmap and program spreadsheet.

Production Overview

 Stage A & B - Social UX & Digital Storytelling Workshop | Gitbook Instructional Materials WIP

  Through Social R&D, we are co-producing two workshops: Social UX & Conversational Interaction Design that redefine how we ideate and co-design real social Software using our distributed software mindset. These workshops use Miro boards & Discord as communication tools. [Reference - Levels of participation.]

Stage C - Design Culture & Governance

Miro template board.

We will create a social design tool, governance schematic, and personal & collective development goal worksheet.

1. Asses your current design culture by by placing your heart in the Triangles of Trut
2. There is more to governance than voting; Co-creation as governanc
3. We create new worksheets that help set up personal and collective development goal

Stage D - SDA Live classes / Workshops | Gitbook Live classes WIP

 We guide and train communities and brands to develop mesmerizing Social Apps that boost personal and community development goals. We believe looking inwards and outwards is the answer to true social impat, because system change is a responsibility of us all. D1 - Has a focus on Proposal Assistant (Inward focus) and D2 focus outwards on Social Apps for communities (outward focus.

Stage E - Social R&D - The Future of UX | Gitbook WIP: Social R&D | Design research documentation

 We believe in the power of collective genius, and by training SDA instructors, we can scale our new software design approach within the Catalyst, Cardano, and broader software design communities. By logging our findings in our Design research documentation, we create one source of truth for our Social Design Academy members. 

Stage F - SDA Presentation Miro Board | Gitbook WIP

 Upon completing the instructional materials, we need to create a concise SDA Pitch that promotes UX3.0, resulting in new Use Cases through Digital Storytelling on Cardano. A sponsor/co-investor deck [Rough version here] already has a ton of community feedback; master to reduce (Remove 50%) turns this material into a solid Pitch deck.

Stage G - SDA Website Project Website | Client website (In development) | Gitbook WIP

The last part is bringing all this together by upgrading our current project-based website, into a personal / brand-facing website, with pages for our core tools, solutions, and services, making Social Design Academy ready for launch in March'23. (Not not worry, we give live lessons all to way there.)

5b - What will happen as a result of your work (i.e., your outcomes).

Our workshops and instructional training enable communities and brands to compound true social impact through Digital Storytelling, resulting in a new category of humane Software.

 The outcome of our work;

1. We help Communities & Brands define their personal and collective development goals, giving them more clarity on their Social Impact and helping them attract people into their communities.  
2. Our Conversational Interaction Design approach has created a novel way for Communities & Brands to engage with their audiences by developing new Social App
3. By co-designing a Conversational UI Toolkit, we redirect our energy from software delivery to value deliver
4. We promote brands that are in the process of becoming a force for goo
5. By creating the Conversational UI Toolkit with partners*, we want to leverage what we can build on the Cardano blockchain.  

* We are currently talking with LITTLEFISH, ADAO, HANDSHAKE, and KONMA as production partners for this Cardano UI Toolkit. We hope other communities join us in this exciting digital storytelling journey, making Cardano streetwise and the Social Impact chain of choice.

6 - Explain who will benefit.

 The delivery of this project benefits the Catalyst, Cardano, and broader software development communities as we venture into the world to create a bridge between our web2 and web3 world using a humane software design approach. 

 'Together we stand, Divided we fall.'

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

Social Design Academy addresses the Dapps, Products & Integrations Challenge because:

1. We see a strong alignment with Cardano's and Social Design Academy's mission: "Build Together" & "Future Realities Today," as we both want to be a force for good, driving meaningful use cases and adoption.
2. By training individuals and meaningful brands in building personal and collective development goals in game-like Social Apps, we drive adaption through education.
3. Our Exercises make it easier for self-steering groups to drive adoption by effectively working together.

Charles pointed out that UX is the biggest Onboarding driver for Catalyst/Cardano in his keynote for Fund9.

Challenge link for quick access:

https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/campaigns/26595/about

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

Risk - Coaching SDA Instructor to boost our reach.

As you can see in the budget [Reference 2 - See our budget/roadmap and program spreadsheet. the more significant chunk of money is for Live-classes and to coach UX 3.0 instructors, as we don't currently have the man/women power to fine-tune the educational project and tailor directly to external clients. 

 We mitigate this risk by co-designing these materials to onboard more people in our co-production team and coach SDA instructors, enabling us to have outreach potential.

 In the future, we want to create education as a service license. Together with Social app revenue, we fund a professional-grade curriculum for our youth and provide the accompanying Social Technology Stack for Digital Conversations. 

Risk - A new way to approach user interaction.

 Because of the new nature of Story-based Chat Assistants, we need specific knowledge and Motion UI front-end skill. Because Conversational Interaction Design is a new front-end UI approach for Blockchain, but re-imagining pages into conversations simplifies things considerably, because the dependencies are less complex.

 We coordinate with production partners and use our Social R&D tools to learn and build together using the user experience perspective. We are taking away risks because many eyes, expertise, passion, and way of working come together in our Live classes.

 By co-designing with our Partners, the Catalyst, Cardano, and Broader communities, we incorporate honest feedback captured in social design sessions, fine-tuning the design tools and instructional materials even further.

The best way to learn is to teach and iterate. We consider social design a peer review method for iterative UI design, removing the churn we experience in Catalyst today.

 Risk - Lack of research / live class participants

In web2 it's often hard to find research candidates or participants, but the web3 community is earger to learn, participate and provide feedback. 

We concur with the finding of Oliver/IOHK, especially #2 about finding participants.

"The community is supercharged! There’s no shortage of interest to gain #UX insight. I used to struggle finding users willing to participate in feedback but in web3 it’s the opposite. We even actively test analysis methods to gain insight from the sheer volume of feedback." -OE

We also have low to no cost to find participants because of cross-promotion in Discord and partner servers. Growth is also not our key driver at the moment, small groups that can use and provide feedback on our materials is really valuable at this stage, and people can learn new UX3.0 approaches in return.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

UX 3.0 is new and not well addressed, our focus on distributed software design from the user experience perspective is unique. Our design tools are a consolidation of over 2 years of design research, and our live-classes combine learning, building and research using real world use cases.

We want to point out that the live-classes during the Launch Social Design Academy phase (Sept-Feb '22) are to educate the new materials, but also are used to tune the instructional materials or copy. We want to use Sept-Feb to put a solid foundation in place. Niels is closing out F6-Inwallet Onboarding for ADAholders, so that project is finished when results of F9 come in.

Our Products and Services are unique and self-developed, we will introduce new design tools for the web3 space Sept-feb '23. By connecting communities around design for blockchain, we create a force for good.

Our pilots in May/June and presentation about our Live-classes (Event burned on Cardano chain) showed that people are really interest in a meaningful new learning environments. People know it's important to decentralize, and participation of just a few tryout is encouraging, as we did no active promotion at all for 34 participants.

APPROACH IN STAGES

We set up seven stages to launch the Social Design Academy.

Check our SDA Budget/Roadmap spreadsheet for a concise, more visual overview.

==========

Stage A & B - Workshop & Instructional material production

Work Category: Workshop Design / Instructional Material Design

Deliverables: Social UX/R&D Toolkit & Conversational Interaction Design workshop

Stakeholder: SDA-crew, Live-class attendants

Period: 2 Months, Sept-Okt '22

Budget: 308 hours 

Workflow:

1. Consolidate Materials in Abstract Version control
2. Social proofreading / Copy corrections
3. Visual Design / Brand Alignment & Instructional Worksheet Design
4. Export visuals and bring them to Miro
5. Create a placeholder page on our website

Key Milestone Sept '22

Delivery of the Social UX workshop materials;

A1 - Human Activities & Routines

A2 - Activity Pairs & Activity Packs

A3 - Experience Mapping / Pre-prototyping

A4 - Emotion Mapping

A5 - Engagement Formula

A6 - Visual Governance Mapping

Key MilestoneOkt '22

Delivery of the Conversational Interaction Design workshop materials;

B1 - UX Review

B2 - Dialog Writing

B3 - Conversation Design

B4 - Module UI Design

B5 - Module Production Template

==========

Stage C - Design Culture

Stakeholders: SDA-crew, Partner communities, External Brand (Strech goal)

Work Category: Workshop Design / Instructional Material Design

Period: Oct 22'

Budget: 60 hours

Workflow:

1. Consolidate Materials in Abstract Version control
2. Social proofreading / Copy corrections
3. Visual Design / Brand Alignment & Worksheet Design
4. Export visuals and bring them to Miro
5. Create a placeholder page on our website

Key Milestones Delivery Nov '22;  

C1 - Triangles of Truth 

C2 - Co-creation as Governance 

C3 - Personal & Collective development goals definitions

==========

Stage D - SDA Live classes / Workshops

Stakeholders: SDA Instructors, Catalyst/Cardano Attendees, Partner communities 

Work Category: Design Method / Live Class / Social UX/UI

Period: 6 Months, Sept-Febr '22'

Budget: 204 hours

Compound effort and Insights workflow:

1. Class preparation
2. Miro preparation
3. Live class

Key milestones Live class events Sept-Febr '22-'23; 

D1 - Live class - Iterative Design: Proposal Assistant (12x class)

D2 - Conversational Interaction Design Training (12x - Stage B)

==========

Stage E - Social Design Instructors - The Future of UX

Stakeholders: SDA, SDA Instructors, Community Members, SDA Members  

Work Category: Library Member section

Period: Nov-Febr '22-'23

Budget: 150 hours

Workflow:

1. Class Pre
2. Miro Pre
3. Live class

Key milestones Delivery Nov-Feb 22-'23; 

E1 - Design Research Documentation

E2 - Community / Instructor training (12x training) using A,B & C

==========

Stage F - SDA Presentation

Stakeholders: SDA, Partner communities, Extern brands (Stretch goal) 

Work Category: Pitch Material

Period: Jan-Feb 22'

Budget: 64 hours

Workflow:

1. We reduce this board by 50% and take on board the gems
2. Slide Design / Cleanout
3. PDF & Loom creation
4. Website placeholder

Deliverables Nov-Dec'22: 

F1 - SDA Pitch + Loom video presentation

F2 - Potential partnerlist

==========

Stage G - SDA Website

Stakeholders: SDA-crew, SDA-Instructors, Partner communities, Community Members, Extern brands (Stretch goal) 

Work Category: Website Upgrades

Period: Jan-Febr '23

Budget: 182 hours

Workflow:

1. Consolidate content / Copy revie
2. UI Design
3. Website implementation
4. QA

Deliverables Jan-Febr '23';

G1 - New Homepage  

G2 - Member Landingpage

G3 - Social Design Terminology Glossary

G4 - Service : Social Brand Landingpage + CTA

G5 - Service : Social UX/UI Landingpage + CTA

G6 - Service : UX review + CTA

G7 - Design Research Documentation (Gitbook/Blog)

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

SDA uses a 50$/hour co-production rate.  

Check our SDA Budget/Roadmap spreadsheet for a precise overview. 

Stage A & B - Workshop & Instructional material production

Budget: 308 hours x 50$ = $15400

Stage C - Design Culture

Budget: 60 hours x 50$ = $3000

Stage D - SDA Live classes / Workshops

Budget: 204 hours = $10200

Stage E - Social Design Instructors - The Future of UX

Budget: 150 hours x 50$ = $7500

Stage F - SDA Presentation

Budget: 64 hours x 50$ = #3200

Stage G - SDA Website

Budget: 182 hours x 50$ = 9100

TOTAL BUDGET REQUEST: $48400

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

Co-production Team

The main objective of this proposal is putting a solid educational foundation and instructional materials in place, and create materials for outreach. We will put a co-production pipeline in place, in which I (Niels) takes lead, and the co-production team and other social design layers can really help make the materials better. Create, Use, Tune is our mindset.

Niels Kijf - Founder of Social Design Academy 

Responsibilities: Niels - UX 3.0 Instruction | Exercise/Workflow Design | UX&UI Design | Partner Outreach

Niels (Master Digital Media Design, Oxford) is a social technology innovator. He started the Social Design Academy to deliver UX 3.0 education. Our current software design is still targeting the individual, yet web3 is designing shared experiences for groups, a fresh new field that needs a new educational program and technology stack. Leveling up UX into Social UX is one of the SDA missions for 2022 and beyond.

Portfolio | Linkedin

Harsha Gullapalli - UI/UX designer, Digital Storyteller & Educator 

Responsibilities: Social UX Instructor | UX&UI Design | QA

B.Tech in Production Engineering, MFA in Digital Cinema Harsha started his career in educational product design and then transitioned to UI/UX design. He is an ardent believer in collective genius and this let him to join the blockchain revolution. After having understood SDA's goals, he joined in their mission to reconfigure web3 UX and unlock the highest potential of human collaboration. He has been a part of the Cardano ecosystem for 2+ years and is a part of DAOs Love Cardano CT team for F9.

Linkedin

Beck Kanno - Frontend Design/Development

Responsibilities: UX&UI Design | Conversational Modules | QA

UX Designer and Frontend Web Development with knowledge in React and TailwindCSS frameworks, Figma, InVision and AdobeXD. He's currently exploring 3D graphics with Blender and curious about Web3 applications with his current skillset.

Portfolio1 | Porfolio2 | Linkedin.

Quasar / Deryck Lance

Responsibilities: Butterfly / Partner Coordination / QA

Cross -pollinator, connector of all things. Heart of gold.

Linkedin

Community members / Social design layers

Because we combine learning and doing, our live classes give us access to unique cognitive diversity which results in great design research. We piloted five live classes within three weeks (May/June 22)', and 34 people attended. In this short period, Social design / Live classes are already proving to be effective and people are curious, with the need for active promotion.

Proof in our RSVP channel

See levels of participation in our Gitbook (WIP).

Partner network

• Konma
• Littlefish
• Blockchain Learning Center

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

Funding this proposal will create a solid foundation for the Social Design Academy as unlearning / relearning platform. By coaching instructors, we make a positivity virus that helps people and communities build humane and pleasant Software.

If we return for funding it will be to attract more developers around the Social Technology stack, because the foundation is in place. 

So yes, we probably will have to return to Catalyst, but we do so with good intent for people and our planet. 

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

We track all metric totals weekly and monthly from project start.

 Stage A&B - Proof of Production & Engagement

1. Instructional Materials created 
2. Instructional Materials usage by people and communities 

 Stage C - Proof of Socal Design Cultures & Development Goals

1. Personal / Collective Development goals set 
2. People & Communities served 

 Stage D - Proof of Live class Attendance

1. People engaged around iterative design 
2. Increasing Attendees & Cognitive Diversity
3. Social Apps for personal/collective development goals identified

 Stage E - Proof of Success

1. Pages/Topics created in Gitbook
2. Group Instructor Training 
3. Solo Instructor Training
4. Certification given 

 Stage F - Proof of Production, Partnerships & Investment

1. Pitch Slides created 
2. Partners index/onboarded 
3. Co-investors / Impact investors found 

 Stage G - SDA Website - Proof of Production

1. Web Pages created  
2. Current visitors website, New website visitors
3. Gave end presentation (Proof of Closure)

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

WHAT IS SUCCESS FOR THE SOCIAL DESIGN ACADEMY?

 Together we stand, Divided we fall. 

 SDA, Communities & Brands successfully:

1. We are humanizing & democratizing distributed software design, proving conversational interaction design works.
2. Added Personal/collective development goals to their proposition
3. Adopted Design Principles in their workflows, mastering moral imagination before code becomes law.
4. Cultivate Social Design Cultures and promote the use of Iterative Design, redefining a chat-like front-end for Blockchain together with our partners. 
5. Boost collaboration across communities and raise the Catalyst/Cardano UX maturity through UX3.0 live classes.
6. We launched the first Social App, which uses our Cardano Digital Storytelling stack, leveraging the 'Lego toolkit' for Hope Narratives worldwide.
7. Gains traction, and we start charging for live classes outside of the Catalyst ecosystem because of the availability of Social Design Instructors.

Our mindset:

" Aim for Mars, land on Mars!"

Let us build software Humanware that combines Utility with Personal and Collective Development Goals and ditch the careless, repetitive functional Software we make forever because we are not robots.

We are looking forward to working with Littefish, Konma, and others on an Ikigai Social App, for which we ask your attention in our Social Appstore MVP Proposal.

Social Design Academy - Future Realities Today

We evolve software designers into change makers.

Join the conversation →

Related Proposals:

Catalyst Proposal Assistant [SDA]

Social Appstore MVP [SDA]

Social Design Academy Proposal [You are here!]

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

Yes, this proposal is related to F6: In-wallet onboarding for ADAholders, but not a continuation.

The focus of the F6 proposal is design research how to make Cardano ready for family and friends using a chat-like interface.

This proposal focuses on putting a solid foundation in place for the launch of Social Design Academy itself.