Graduation Studio Project
Goal: To design a digital community platform fostering local engagement and connecting niche subcultures across Australia as part of ABC’s “digital-first” strategy.
Final semester graduation project, developed as part of the Master of Interaction Design and Electronic Arts programme at the University of Sydney.
10 Weeks
Completed October 2024
A1 Poster
Design Report
Client Presentation
Minimum Viable Product
Lynn Lin
Krisan Faraetty
Sammy Lagman
Dayal Sebastian
Dr. Ricardo Sosa
Helena Pitko
Eliza Tame, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
Ange Quizon, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
Coordinating the Double Diamond approach
Problem Framing
Concept Development
Persona Development
User Journey Mapping
Creating User Testing Frameworks
Double Diamond Design Framework
Design Thinking
Design Documentation
Persona Development
User Centred Research and Testing
Team Collaboration
Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) Framework
This project was a collaborative effort between the Master of Interaction Design and Electronic Arts graduate studio at the University of Sydney and the Digital Product Team at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). As part of ABC’s goal to transform into a “digital-first” platform by 2028, they introduced six briefs for academic exploration within our graduate studio unit. Our team selected one of these briefs, titled “Fostering Local Community Engagement.”
We were drawn to this brief as a team of international students aged 20-30, each bringing a diverse range of expertise—from business management and architecture to visual communication. The topic of community participation resonated with us both professionally and personally, especially as ABC’s target audience for this initiative closely matched our own demographic. Tackling the challenge of enhancing community engagement within ABC’s audience felt like a meaningful pursuit.
To address this brief, we applied the Double Diamond design process. The following sections outline our approach and insights gained throughout this journey.
"Double Diamond" framework (Design Council, 2024)
Step 1
First, We Took the Client Brief and Organised Our Research Based on Key Areas of Focus
Client Brief
ABC, with over 50 newsrooms across Australia, wanted to build a digital space to cultivate and celebrate local communities and subcultures, moving beyond traditional news coverage and superficial online interactions. The goal was to integrate new media formats and interaction patterns to foster engagement, with minimal reliance on moderation or journalistic resources. Key challenges included ensuring user safety through self-moderation, maintaining relevance without intrusion, and respecting user consent through an opt-in model.
Step 2
To understand the terminology and concepts outlined in the brief, we conducted background research using existing literature on online communities.
Social Capital: The value generated through networks and relationships, enhancing access to resources, support, and opportunities. Greater social capital correlates with a more effective online community (Joinson et al., 2007).
Community and Online Community: A community is connected by shared interests, values, or relationships. Unlike traditional communities tied to physical locations, online communities bring together geographically dispersed individuals through internet technologies (Preece & Maloney-Krichmar, 2005).
Subcultures: Distinct groups within a larger culture with unique norms, practices, and a sense of community, often feeling marginalised by mainstream society (Hebdige, 1979).
Group Size and Member Retention: Smaller groups tend to foster stronger engagement and retention through trust and shared norms, whereas larger groups may struggle with cohesion and active participation (Panek et al., 2018).
Step 3
To Understand the Existing Landscape of Online Community Platforms, We Studied the Following:
We reviewed “ABC Local,” a discontinued ABC product, to understand its role in the ecosystem. This platform had previously aimed to foster local engagement, offering lessons in integrating community aspects within ABC’s broader digital framework.
Major platforms operate on ad revenue models, largely catering to content creators (whom we labelled “Poster” personas) while the majority audience (the “Lurker” personas) remains underserved. These platforms prioritise increasing ad views by promoting poster-created content, rather than focusing on lurker engagement. This gap presented an opportunity for enhancing engagement specifically for the lurker persona.
Smaller local platforms show a stronger sense of community with smaller group sizes and higher trust among users. Their alignment with local events and government affiliations enhances community collaboration and engagement, blending online and offline interactions effectively.
Step 4
We Formulated the Following Questions to Guide Our Research.
How do users define an online community?
What are the concerns and challenges of participating in these spaces?
How do online interactions affect their offline relationships?
Why do users seek out online communities?
Using these questions, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 participants aged 20–30, aiming to explore their perspectives on online community engagement.
Step 5
Using the insights from our interviews, we refined our questions for a larger survey with 70 participants. This survey aimed to understand user behaviours, platform features they value, and the specific purposes for which they engage with each platform. Through this combination of surveys, interviews, and research, we validated our assumptions and uncovered several key insights:
Trust in Online Opinions: Users trust and value opinions from strangers on online platforms, assuming others have minimal incentives for deception. However, they approach information cautiously.
Validation Through Credentials: Users are more likely to trust opinions based on the poster’s credentials and demonstrated knowledge.
Alignment with Personal Perspectives: Users tend to accept responses that align with their own views, reinforcing the “filter bubble” effect.
Desire for Exclusive, Interest-Aligned Content: Users prefer content that closely aligns with their interests, yet existing algorithms on large platforms don’t always meet this need.
Step 6
Using the insights gathered from the Define phase, we identified two core user personas:
Step 7
With these personas in place, we applied the Jobs to be Done framework to evaluate each persona’s goals and challenges. Using a scale of 1 to 10, we assigned weighted scores to each persona’s needs and opportunities, helping us prioritise design elements and refine our problem space.
Problem Space
Design a digital platform that enables users to engage in niche communities through high-quality interactions, while ensuring a safe, judgement-free environment.
Step 8: Generating Ideas
We held three separate idea-generation sessions as a team, using a variety of frameworks such as Crazy 8s, Worst Possible Ideas, and 6-3-5 to brainstorm as many ideas as possible. After generating a broad range of concepts, we used our two personas, The Lurker and The Poster, to evaluate and organise these ideas, identifying product features that would best suit each persona’s needs. Click through the following slideshow to see how our initial brainstorming evolved into wireframes and, eventually, our MVP (shown in the next section).
Step 9: Integrating a potential solution to the broader ABC ecosystem
During our review, we realised our ideas were still too broad and lacked integration with the broader ABC ecosystem, which was crucial for the platform’s relevance and sustainability. We mapped out the ABC ecosystem, studying how our platform could connect with ABC products such as Triple J and ABC News, similar to how ABC Local had previously integrated. This led us to add an additional goal to our problem space:
Updated Problem Space
Design a digital platform that enables users to engage in niche communities with high-quality interactions, fosters a safe and judgement-free environment, and seamlessly integrates with other ABC products
Mapping the ABC ecosystem
Step 10: User Testing and Refining Features
To refine our concept, we conducted five rounds of user testing with five community platform users, including professional designers. Each session lasted one hour, focusing on the usability and relevance of our proposed features, now expanded to include integration with the ABC ecosystem. With limited time remaining, these sessions helped us prioritise essential features that would deliver the most value to users.
Step 11: Delivering the solution
Our MVP was designed to answer two core questions:
How can users find their niche online and discuss topics in a safe environment?
How can this platform seamlessly integrate into the broader ABC ecosystem?
The following slideshow illustrates the key components of our solution, crafted to address these questions.
There is no one-size-fits-all in design. Each project is unique, and ours came with specific challenges. While the steps here may suggest a linear process, there was considerable back-and-forth as we revisited steps to clarify the problem space and refine our solution. Within a tight ten-week timeline, we couldn’t fully test all assumptions, meaning some remained unverified. This left us uncertain about whether certain features truly meet user needs.
Personally, my vision differed slightly from the team’s. I wanted to focus on fostering local engagement and subcultures, with a blend of online and offline interactions to encourage more holistic connections. However, aligning with the team and collaborating with ABC required flexibility—a valuable learning experience.
Our initial ideas were broad, and narrowing them down took significant effort, underscoring the importance of experience and the adaptability needed in design. Working with ABC added further complexity, as feedback came from multiple stakeholders, making it challenging to incorporate all perspectives. This taught me the importance of close coordination with clients from the outset, ensuring alignment and involving them in each design decision to build a product that satisfies all stakeholders.
References
Design Council. (2024). Framework for innovation. Design Council. https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/our-resources/framework-for-innovation/
Hebdige, D. (1979). Subculture: The meaning of style. Methuen.
Joinson, A., McKenna, K., Postmes, T., & Reips, U.-D. (Eds.). (2007). The Oxford handbook of internet psychology. Oxford University Press.
Panek, E., Hollenbach, C., Yang, J., & Rhodes, T. (2018). The effects of group size and time on the formation of online communities: Evidence from Reddit. Social Media + Society, 4(4), 205630511881590. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305118815908
Preece, J. (2001). Sociability and usability in online communities: Determining and measuring success. Behavior & Information Technology, 20(5), 347–356. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929011008468
dayalsebastian@outlook.com
Dayal Sebastian - Design Portfolio 2024