Brave Space

The Screaming Emus jumped right into ideation. We had three days to come up with a genuine and worthwhile solution to a big prompt. We knew this would be a difficult task, with our collective privilege and course work, that pushed us to say “"There must be organizations out there better equipped and actively working to address a lot of these issues." How did people go about finding these types of organizations and communities? How did they get the funding they needed?” That was when the seed of our idea began to take root.

For our research we primarily talked with close friends about some of their experiences they'd had while trying to either break into a creative industry or establish themselves as a creative. We found existing organizations and events online that helped us understand what was currently available and how our project could theoretically connect with those resources. One example I connected with was Sporas, which is a platform for cinematographers and film technicians of color working to create a more inclusive film industry. These organizations' stories helped shape our design process and decisions.

Armed with research, we split up to work on sketches. When I'm sketching I like to make sure I'm thinking through how a user would go about a task, making a user flow at the same time. I start with the core task of an app, the "What's the point of making this app?" For Brave Space I started with a home screen and then built each screen needed to get a user to a certain goal. Then started the sketching process again with the second most important task.

Our group walked each other through our ideas and sketches. Together we picked the best bits and combined them into what we would use to build our initial wireframe. Our idea was looking pretty sweet when we brought our sketches together so we got to work making wireframes in Adobe Xd. We connected our wireframes up into a simple prototype and we were able to easily see some of the gaps in our flow. I worked on adding a few more screens to the low fidelity prototype as my team members did some initial visual design.

This was everyone's first jam of any kind and time sure sneaks by really fast. We got a medium fidelity prototype done around 8pm. We asked some of our family members, "Heeeeyyy do you think I could test another prototype with you?" During their tests of the prototype we were able to spot barriers and change them quickly. 

With our deadline fast approaching, and it being a little too late in the night to get more users to test, our best course of action was to push our prototype to the high fidelity the Jam was expecting of the teams. I worked on adding motion to our prototype while my other partner brought all our colors into a homogeneous look.

We knew since day one of this Jam that we wanted to leave at least an hour before the deadline to make sure to get everything turned in properly, so that's what we did. Two hours before the deadline I sent a prototype to my father to proofread, make sure the connections worked, and just see if the app made any sense to someone that had a full night of sleep. Though we did not win, or place in the top 20, we were all immensely proud of our collaboration, prototyping understanding and our final product.