Student Action Portal

ROLE Design Strategist

TEAM Tia Thomson, Shannon Reilly, Nathan Hostert, Joe Annis, Jocelyn Zhu, Dilara Sisman, Aidan Flynn

TAKEAWAY Students want to lead meaningful civic experiences and connections when given helpful tools and classroom support.

student action portal

A design research and development project to help connect Boston Public School students with experts within City Hall who can support them in their civic action.


context

The Boston Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics (MONUM) partnered with our team, Scout Labs, to research civic issues in our city and prototype creative solutions. For this year-long project, we explored a new civic education bill implementation.

In 2018, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts passed a civics education bill (Senate Bill 2631: An Act to Promote and Enhance Civic Engagement), mandating that public school districts provide opportunities for students to partake in action civics projects. These projects allow young students to learn about how they can effect change in their communities and solve social issues by engaging with government and community organizations.

 

my role

  • Conduct user research and plan user testing workshops

  • Develop UX/UI design for the website prototype

  • Write curriculum and craft tools for teachers distributing the website to students

  • Highlight qualitative insights into the nuances of teacher to student relationships

 

objective

The Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics and the Scout Labs team saw the mandated civic action projects as a wonderful opportunity to increase student engagement with the government. We wondered how we could help Boston Public School students work with the local government on their action civics projects and have a meaningful experience. Throughout the Fall 2019 - Spring 2020 school year, our teams conducted research and built a website and service system to help these students better engage with people in City Hall and the work that they do.

challenges

  • Students felt disconnected from government, and felt like they weren’t invited into City Hall -- that it was this inaccessible, intimidating place filled with people who didn’t care what they had to say.

  • Disparities came up in our data when comparing unevenly-resourced schools. For example, almost double the amount of students at an exam school felt that they could create change in their community as opposed to a public school in Jamaica Plain. Our full research findings can be found in our Fall 2019 Research + Discovery Report.

 

“How might we help Boston Public School students work with the local government on their action civics projects and have a meaningful experience?”

 

process

Visit the case study to see our year-long, in-depth process! Below you can see the Journey Map and Personas I worked on.

 

outcomes

STUDENT ACTION PORTAL

Our team designed an informative digital tool that could guide and connect students to department ambassadors within City Hall, which we called the Student Action Portal. You can visit a pilot version of the live site at https://monum-site.netlify.app/home

SERVICE SYSTEM

Explore the Service Blueprint. As the year progressed and we continued to test the website prototype, we deepened the sustainability and scope of the tool by designing a broader service system. This system included feedback forms, email templates, and resources for teachers like lesson plans, videos, and worksheets.