Design Thinking and Co-creation for Platform Design
Client: Health Canada (HC)
Challenge:
Health Canada was given the mandate to explore the benefits and opportunities of designing a platform that would facilitate citizen-based science. However, HC has limited guidance on what to build and what would be most valuable.
Services Provided:
Jumping Elephants developed a research-based approach, focused on a four-phase Design Thinking methodology, to first understand the problem, then define options, refine the concept and validate the prototype through usability testing. The specific research and design activities include:
A comparative analysis to analyze similar digital systems to pinpoint crucial strengths, limitations, and possibilities that may be applied in the development of the citizen scientist solution
A series of interviews with citizen scientists to understand their needs
Three design thinking co-creation workshops which were used to define and refine the problem, generate ideas, and then design a series of possible solutions
Based on the research and the workshops, Jumping Elephants developed information architecture, wireframes, and a clickable prototype in the Canada.ca format, which was then validated through a series of remote, one-on-one moderated usability testing sessions
Results:
The evidence-based approach generated several important insights that were then incorporated into the final information architecture and solution design. The new concept provided citizen scientists, researchers, and administrators with a clear model for designing and administering citizen science projects.