*Just like with your ethnographic research, you will want to capture video, photos, and direct quotes.
Category: Boys & Girls Club – Team A
For the last four decades, Boys & Girls Clubs of St. Joseph County has provided more than 20,000 at-risk children and teens from families in St. Joseph County with a safe place to experience life-enhancing programs that offer academic enrichment, health, and fitness, character development, hope, and opportunity. With four school-based sites and the free-standing O.C. Carmichael, Jr. Youth Center, the Club serves children from dozens of local schools, including public, private, parochial, charter as well as home-schooled children. Resulting from 21st Century Community Learning Center funding, the school year will result in a more structured, academically-based program enrolling fewer children but providing more in-depth intervention along specific disciplines, primarily Language Arts and STEM.
Prototype Summary
It looks like the post was interrupted before being finished. We need to go a level deeper on flushing out the ideas and how to invite open communication around them. When prototyping the ideas, you want to invite a discussion around possibilities. If a 3-on-3 basketball tournament came up as an answer to the challenge of engaging more teens, how do you design it to be the most amazing and sought after tournament? What does the ‘entice’ look like? The ‘enter’, ‘engage’, ‘exit’, and ‘extend’. And can you take that idea back a level and present the teens with a menu of different activities they could do at the club and let them rank order what they’d like to do? So think about how will you render the ideas your team has come up with to invite feedback. Cards with images to rank order? A flyer mock up?
For the bus route piece, that is a business discussion. What is the new-to-the world innovation to solve this? Add some creativity around the transportation issue.
Prototype Plan
“High school kids that do not have consistent after-school commitments and/or supervision need a way to get to the Boys and Girls Club to engage in purposeful and fulfilling activities.”
What will you test and how?
- Test the idea of having school buses alter their route in order to accommodate for teens from the high school to the Boy’s and Girl’s Club. How we will test this is to get a map of the current school bus routes from the various high schools and see if there are routes in which the school bus could take and the costs associated with adding a stop.
- Test a small 3 on 3 basketball tournament to only one high school to be hosted by the boys and girls club and then depending on the success, open it up to the other high schools in the area.
- Prototype a Boys and Girls Club Ride app that has the current position of the vans or buses that would be used to pick up teens. They would have the app and see the position and the estimated time of arrival of the ride.
- Similar to the
We will begin testing at the O.C. Carmichael Center, the Boys and Girls Club Flagship site. First running through the teens currently at the program and then possibly promoting it through the various high schools and getting feedback face to face with the teens through renderings of the app and whether they would be interested in the tournament.
The plan would be to develop a rendering of the app, showing a view of the screens that would be shown in its very infant stages.
Also, the plan is to attain the routes of the buses in the area coming from the high schools and show the routes that could be done in order to accommodate every student the best.
User-Centered Prototyping
As you begin thinking about how to get feedback on your ideas, keep your Point of View Statement in mind. From your presentation I understand this to be, “High school kids that do not have consistent after-school commitments and/or supervision need a way to get to the Boys and Girls Club to engage in purposeful and fulfilling activities.”
For your Prototype Plan, think about how you can test the various facets of your ideas. What will you test and how? Where will you test your ideas? Who will you test them with? And when?
Ideation Summary
Our Ideation Summary focuses on 3 potential ideas for not only providing safe transportation to the Boys and Girls Club, but also providing services to make the teen program more attractive and increase the overall attendance of the teen program.
Idea 1: Use ND student volunteers to aid with transportation to the club from local high schools.
Rather than try and work with the public school transportation system, we came up with the idea to try and use volunteers with vehicles to help transport the user to the club safely. This could be an effective transportation method that has very little to no expense.
Entice: Make current users of the teen program aware of the available systems through the clubs social media accounts and other marketing vehicles.
Enter: Gather enough trained volunteers with vehicles to at least cover the high schools that have students who are current users. This will hopefully attract 3 to 4 more students from each school to become users of the club now that there is a way to get there.
Engage: With available transportation, new users can now engage themselves in what the teen program has to offer. Whether it be sports, socializing with peers, or doing homework the hope is that the new users will enjoy the club and want to stay a user.
Exit: The user will exit the service once they find an alternative mode of transportation (possibly have their own car), or when they are too old to attend the program itself.
Extend: The availability of transportation to the club will hopefully benefit a larger number of local teens by giving them access to a safe place to be after school where they can exercise, socialize, and work on school work.
Idea 2: Create a 3 on 3 basketball teen tournament challenge
To think of new ideas to attract potential users to the club, we thought that a 3 on 3 tournament would be a way to utilize their up to date basketball gym as to create some excitement around the club and potentially attract users from local schools.
Entice: Offer an opportunity for local teens to be competitive with their peers. During our interviews, a big draw for the current users was the ability to play sports with friends after school in a nice facility. This will hopefully get more bodies through the door and potentially more members for the teen program moving forward.
Enter: Their can be a tournament registration online or on the Clubs social media pages.
Engage: The tournament will allow the teens to use the facilities and potentially get to know and befriend some of the current users of the program and potentially become users themselves.
Exit: The participants leave the tournament more comfortable with the club and having met new friends.
Extend: The hope is that a enjoyable time at the tournament will convert some of the participants into users of the teen program.
Idea 3: College prep tutoring given by ND volunteers.
Not only is it important to attract the teen users, but it is also important to raise awareness of the program to the parents of the local South Bend teens. We think an effective way to grab the attention of the parents is through an established College Prep course.
Entice: Attract new potential users through club social media platforms. Social Media could also be an affective way to reach out to the parents of the teens. A good prep course could possibly entice parents to spend the money for the program.
Enter: Their can be sign up sheets and schedules posted on the clubs social media platforms.
Engage: With ND volunteer students, the users can effectively engage in quality college prep. This could be a way to attract more users to the club if they know that the prep courses are quality and worth while.
Exit: The users leave the program with a prep course and will hopefully use what they have learned to pursue a college education.
Extend: The former users obtain college degrees which allow them to get jobs and establish careers.
Interactive Ethnography
Date: 3/9/17
Mark, Olivia, and I took a visit to the Boys and Girls Club main campus to gain further insight on the issues that they are facing. After walking into the facility, I realized what a great place they have for these teenagers. Unfortunately, the attendance is at about 20 kids a night compared to more than 100 some years ago.
We had the chance to interview Camille, an important leader of the club. During our talk, we asked the following questions:
“How many kids currently attend the club and what do they partake in when they are here?”
“What do you think the biggest problem is for kids attending the club?”
Regarding the first question, Camille stated that the number of kids is usually around 20 a night compared to over 100 when they had better transportation. She showed us the different rooms within the club where kids have a chance to do homework or go and partake in athletic facilities. My favorite part of the club from what I have seen was the big basketball court that they have. Having a court like that should bring in a ton of teenagers from around South Bend.
Camille answered the second question by stating that transportation is by far the biggest problem that the club is facing. She currently drives a van that is able to pick up a few students but she is only able to make one trip every day because she has responsibilities at the club as well. She told us that if we could figure out a way to get better transportation for these teens, the number of attendees will sky rocket.
Gallery Day Reflection
The gallery day was a huge success for our group. We were able to talk to a couple of the leaders within the Boys & Girls club, and show them what we have worked up thus far. We started by showing them the many different views people have on the club, focusing mainly on the current teenagers that either do or don’t attend. We came to the conclusion that transportation is the biggest issue that the club faces in trying to get more teens to attend. They currently have only one van that is able to make a single pick up. Our goal moving forward is to find out a way that the club can get more vans or have a bus system work in order to get these teens to their destination.
Moving on to ideation
Team – You have captured great feedback from the experts and from the kids. For your Guiding Principles, add more user quotes and note some user characteristics after each quote such as age, race, if active with the club.
We are looking to move beyond the obvious now. As we being building prototypes and getting feedback, how can we solve this problem in a new-to-the world way? How much will you need to work with parents? Schools? The transportation company? The Club? In the Design Criteria, we need to call out that the solution needs to be easy, convenient, and be a status builder for the teens.
Guiding Principles
- Give me a safe place to go after school
Offer an environment that allows teens to have a safe place to go after school when they are usually unsupervised. Give parents peace of mind knowing that their child is tended to and safe when they are not around.
Teen 3: “I get bored at home by myself, Boys and Girls Club allows me and my sister to have fun after school until our mom gets done”
2. Provide me with a way to get to the club
Provide a bus service or pick up with the local school buses that will drop off at the Boys and Girls Club after school. This would give children an effortless option and place to go after directly leaving school, verses walking or getting a ride with someone.
Teen 1: “I ride with Camille in the van from Adams but I know others that go to different high schools would go if they had a ride to the club”
Teen 2: “It would bring more kids to the club if the school bus dropped off at it every day”
3. Surround me with friends
Promote the club so that teen attendance will grow exponentially as more kids join the club because their friends start going there.
Teen 1:”I wish more of my friends came here to play basketball after school”
Teen 2: “I might stop coming now that I’m older and non of my friends are here with me”
Teen 3: “I come just because some of the boys and my other friends come here after school”
4. Give me a place to do my homework and get help
Hire tutors or volunteers that would be able to assist the teens with homework while also motivating them to excel in school. Having the right resources that the teen wouldn’t normally have at school or home at the club.
Teen 4:”I’m glad there are people here to help with school work sometimes when I need it”
Teen 2: “I don’t usually do homework after but I know if I need to there is always a computer I can jump on”
5. Give motivation to stay out of trouble
Motivate the kids to the idea that being in a safe place, rather than out on the streets unattended, gives them a better chance to do well in school and not get caught up in bad situations.
Teen 1: “I don’t want to be home by myself”
Teen 3: “Some kids already do sketchy stuff after school and I don’t want to get caught up in that”
Design Criteria
Design Goal: What have you learned about the target customers? What ends (functional, emotional, psychological, social) does the design need to fulfill for the target customer?
From our research, we have found that teens will attend the Boys and Girls Club for a multiple of reasons. Whether it is to get some homework done or take part in athletic activities, many teens see the biggest benefit of attending the club is the social aspect. Instead of being home alone and bored, these teens will go to the club to hangout with friends and meet new people. Our design is focused on getting more teenagers to ultimately attend the club by creating more awareness and finding out a solution to their current transportation issue.
User Perceptions: How important is your proposed offering to the target customer’s well-being? Are there aesthetic attributes necessary to succeed with the target customer? Are there reputational aspects involved? What are the key research insights?
As we market the Boys and Girls Club, we wish to show teenagers all the different benefits they will obtain by joining. It is important for kids to join because instead of being bored and possibly making bad decisions, they can instead better themselves and meet a ton of new friends. Regarding the reputational aspects, we asked some teenagers why they don’t attend the club. One of the most common answers we received was that “It is for little kids.” We weren’t very surprised by this, noting the name of Boys and Girls Club. As a proposed solution, we stated to Camille, the head of the Boys and Girls Club in South Bend, that they should try changing the name when you are dealing with teenagers so to not scare them off. After gathering an abundance of research though, we found that transportation is the biggest issue in getting more teenagers to attend the club. Camille stated that when they were supplied transportation, more than 100 kids would be coming to the club every day. As of now, the club only has one van that can make pick ups and the number has dropped to about 25 kids a night.
Problems/Needs/Opportunities: What are the target users preferred outcomes as they engage with the offering? What pain points does the target user experience with existing options? What gaps exist with existing options that may hamper the target user’s ability to achieve preferred outcomes? What are the newly emerging needs or aspirations of the target user?
The target users in this case are the teenagers that want to attend the club. Their preferred outcome is that they are supplied with transportation so they are able to get to the club. Some current pain points that these teenagers have to deal with are having to pay local transportation in an attempt to reach the club, while some will even have to walk to try and get there. Camille told us about a teen that once got jumped on his way to the club. We know that kids are not going to try and walk to the club if they feel that their safety may be in danger. Next to that, the weather in South Bend tends to error on the side of horrible and no kid should have to be walking in the freezing cold or rain just to try and attend a club. In regard to paying for local transportation, no kid at such a young age has a job that could be constantly be paying for bus fares. While a couple kids are fortunate enough to have a car, they aren’t legally allowed to be driving more than one passenger, which causes a serious problem for these teens. Ultimately, these teenagers need to have transportation that they could use immediately after school in order to get to the club.
Functional Attributes: Does the design of the offering need to accommodate specific use-case scenarios? List them in order of importance to the target customer. Does the design need to address compatibility or standards issues?
Our design offering will attempt to find a way to get transportation to these teenagers in need. This transportation will need to accommodate the following: free of charge, straight from school, and a safe ride. In the eyes of the teenagers we asked, they see the transportation being free as the most important thing. Our solution to the transportation issue will have to follow a few standards. Some standards may include a safe seat for every teenager that gets on the bus or van, as well as making sure that every teenager that gets on the bus has their own seat and are not doubling up in an effort to get more people in the bus.
Constraints: What are the confines of our project work? What limitations might there be based on costs or requirements?
While attempting to find a solution to the transportation issue, we must be aware of some of the related limitations. As of now, these teenagers don’t have a productive way for getting to the club. We can’t just go and buy vans or buses for the club because it is simply too much money, which the club can also not afford. One of our proposed solutions to this problem that we are working on is involving Notre Dame on the issue. Students can currently ride local buses for free when showing their Notre Dame identification card. We believe that Notre Dame can put forth some effort and pay the bus organization a set amount monthly, stating that they must allow these teenagers to ride the bus for free if they show them their student ID.