{"id":4734,"date":"2022-11-02T21:24:53","date_gmt":"2022-11-02T21:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admc.austincc.edu\/viscom\/?p=4734"},"modified":"2023-01-05T16:52:15","modified_gmt":"2023-01-05T16:52:15","slug":"austin-studio-tour-design-a-thon-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admc.austincc.edu\/viscom\/2022\/11\/02\/austin-studio-tour-design-a-thon-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Studio Tour Design-a-Thon 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The ACC Highland campus is both beautiful and functional, with state of the art facilities and plenty of gorgeous gathering spaces for students to study, hang out, and relax between classes. With so many new opportunities packed into over 200,000 square feet of the former Highland Mall, it\u2019s no surprise that navigation on campus is a challenge, a fact not lost on visitors, faculty, and students alike.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A lost visitor identifies the problem of way-finding at Highland.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

At the ACC Austin Studio Tour Viscom Design-a-Thon, three teams of student designers had four hours to prototype a potential solution to the problem of how to help people find where they are going. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Student designers get to know each other before the event kicks off.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

To do this they followed a four step User Experience design process, and ACC Viscom alumni provided mentorship throughout the event.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Design-a-Thon mentors, Cameron Primm, Cimone Almestica, and Kim Aland show off their Riverbat pride.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Empathize<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before students could think of a solution, they first had to empathize with the needs of the users navigating the building. With hundreds of visitors pouring in to visit ACC on the Austin Studio Tour, this was a unique opportunity for our teams of designers to get real-time user feedback about the challenges of navigating Highland. Some teams conducted interviews with Austin Studio Tour visitors and Viscom faculty, others recorded their own experience using the current way-finding tools to navigate the campus.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Team Neon Flamingos conducts a research interview with Professor Spence.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Define<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After conducting research and gathering user feedback, students defined their audience by creating an audience persona: a detailed description of someone who represents their target audience.

Team Red Pandas introduced us to \u201cJamie,\u201d a shy art major attending ACC to help pivot in his career.

Team Purple Honey Badgers identified \u201cBillie,\u201d a 35-year old introverted first time college student who also has a full time job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Neon Flamingos chose an animal persona, “Frank Flamingo” who is visiting campus for the first time to meet with their professor.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Team Red Panda’s Elizabeth Solis creates a persona.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

After identifying personas, they then created a journey map: a visualization of how an audience persona might interact with the product. For example, Team Purple Honey Badgers identified that when Billie enters the building for the first time he might get lost, check his phone, and then ask another student for directions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ideate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After the teams empathized with and defined their audience, it was time to start brainstorming ideas. Teams employed a number of strategies to do this, including white boarding, sticky matrixes, and dot voting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Teams brainstorm potential solutions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Prototype<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Teams then put their ideas to the test by either building physical representations of their product or a digital mock up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Team Purple Honey Badgers create a physical mock up of their design.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Teams also had this time to prepare their presentations for judging. ACC alum and former Viscom staff member Kim Aland acted as a communications coach to help students prepare their pitches.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Kim Aland coaches team Purple Honey Badger’s Menwoe Gbalea and Brian Dekle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Present<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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At the end of four hours, each team pitched their ideas to a panel of judges from the Austin design community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Judges Jeff Schanzer<\/strong>, UX Managing Director at Slide UX<\/em>; Tina Gada, Sr UX Designer II Digital Advisor Team & Vanguard<\/em>; Christopher Specht, ACC Alumnus<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The judges reviewed the work based on the following criteria:<\/p>\n\n\n\n