Community Workshop and Design Crit Topics from 2019

Topic

Meeting format

Facilitator

Date

Links / Notes

Topic

Meeting format

Facilitator

Date

Links / Notes

Coding to Learn and Create

Design Crit

Lisa

December 4, 2019

Figma Wireframes

Notes

We will be looking at some early work on accessibility annotation for the Coding to Learn and Create prototype. You can review the Figma file here:https://www.figma.com/file/S2slfoXt8yJifGFO1WaF8t/C2LC-V0.5?node-id=0%3A1 . Accessibility annotation is a way to communicate the desired accessibility functionality from a design to implementation.

Interactive Holograms

Community Workshop

Michael Carter

November 27, 2019

https://youtu.be/MxhZhwFDqNE

Meeting Notes

https://youtu.be/v2oHv4qVVpw

I utilize a holographic display to create new ways of visualizing 3D artifacts for learning, in addition with creating interactions using RFID recognition. Right now I have a heavy focus on designing for Museums, but ultimately I'm trying to conceptualize new ways of engaging students in educational content to help with distractions in classrooms.

Translating Design Wireframes Into Accessible HTML/CSS (Webinar)

Community Workshop

Harris Schneiderman via Smashing Magazine

November 20, 2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gFSru8yGaU

Webinar Page

Annotation Iconography

Meeting Notes (Google Doc)

IDRC Website redesign - Get involved section

Design Crit

Jon

November 19, 2019

Notes (Google Doc)

We will be taking a look at a mock-up for the “Get Involved” section of the IDRC website redesign.

Storytelling Tool content authoring

Design Crit

Gregor, Jon, Justin

November 12, 2019

Notes (Google Doc)

We will be talking about the Storytelling Tool. Specifically:

  • Revisiting the original design idea

  • Compiling some participant feedback and design issues

  • Brainstorming new design ideas and to address these issues

Platform coop co-design “potluck” dry run

Community Workshop

Cheryl Li

October 30, 2019

At this design crit, we will be participating in the Platform Coop co-design “potluck” dry run where we will spend time identifying common inclusive design challenges and needs. This “potluck” will continue into the Community Meeting on Wednesday October 30 2:30pm to 4pm ET where we will collaboratively come up with ideas to address these challenges. You can choose to attend either Tuesday or Wednesday meeting, or both.

 

The meeting will be hosted in the Collaboration room at 205 Richmond Street West (IDRC offices) in Toronto, and online in this Vidyo web conference room.

 

For more information on the Community design crits, please visit the Design Crit wiki page.

 

A description of the “potluck” follows below:

 

Come and join the Platform Coop project for a dry run of the co-design workshop we are running next week at the PCC conference. The goal of this co-design is to:

  • Identify shared needs and challenges across different people

  • Collaboratively develop designs and requirements

  • Create an action plan of how to go forward while leveraging our shared resources

 

To recontextualize the workshop for our group, we’ll be asking you:

 

  • What do you need from this potluck? What are some of the common challenges and needs we encounter in our inclusive design and development practices?

  • What can you bring to this potluck? What tools or practices can we design to support our needs?

 

This will be a double bill, meaning that there will be two parts:

 

  • Tuesday October 29 2pm to 3pm ET - We’ll use this time to identify common challenges and needs

  • Wednesday October 30 2:30pm to 4pm ET - We’ll use this time to collaboratively come up with ideas on how to address our challenges, and create an action plan on how to move forward

 

Note that you do not need to come to the first one to come to the second one! Drop by one, or both.

Platform Coop co-design potluck dry run

Design Crit

Cheryl, Ned

October 29, 2019

At this design crit, we will be participating in the Platform Coop co-design “potluck” dry run where we will spend time identifying common inclusive design challenges and needs. This “potluck” will continue into the Community Meeting on Wednesday October 30 2:30pm to 4pm ET where we will collaboratively come up with ideas to address these challenges. You can choose to attend either Tuesday or Wednesday meeting, or both.

 

The meeting will be hosted in the Collaboration room at 205 Richmond Street West (IDRC offices) in Toronto, and online in this Vidyo web conference room.

 

For more information on the Community design crits, please visit the Design Crit wiki page.

 

A description of the “potluck” follows below:

 

Come and join the Platform Coop project for a dry run of the co-design workshop we are running next week at the PCC conference. The goal of this co-design is to:

  • Identify shared needs and challenges across different people

  • Collaboratively develop designs and requirements

  • Create an action plan of how to go forward while leveraging our shared resources

 

To recontextualize the workshop for our group, we’ll be asking you:

 

  • What do you need from this potluck? What are some of the common challenges and needs we encounter in our inclusive design and development practices?

  • What can you bring to this potluck? What tools or practices can we design to support our needs?

 

This will be a double bill, meaning that there will be two parts:

 

  • Tuesday October 29 2pm to 3pm ET - We’ll use this time to identify common challenges and needs

  • Wednesday October 30 2:30pm to 4pm ET - We’ll use this time to collaboratively come up with ideas on how to address our challenges, and create an action plan on how to move forward

 

Note that you do not need to come to the first one to come to the second one! Drop by one, or both.

Sketching for Coding to Learn (C2LC)

Design Crit

Daniel

October 1, 2019

C2LC

The purpose of the sketch session is to come up with ideas to make interaction with the coding robots more fun and engaging like gamifying the interaction (like a RPG with stories), and maybe talk about some system design too.

Learning Circles

Community Workshop

Grif Peterson

September 25, 2019

P2PU

Meeting Notes

This week, we'll be joined by Grif Peterson, executive director at Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU). For the past four years, P2PU has been developing and supporting learning circles: groups of people who meet in public spaces like libraries to learn something together using online courses. Learning circles began at Chicago Public Library, and have since spread to more than 100 cities and towns around the world, including Toronto. Grif will briefly introduce the project, sharing some insights on how P2PU's conceptions of public space, online education, and peer learning have evolved during this project, with plenty of time for questions and discussion. He and Jutta have spoken a little bit about possible collaborations, and he'd love to explore that with others as well. 

Sustainable Dev Goals Action Guide

Design Crit

Liam

September 24, 2019

TakingITGlobal is developing action guides for youth based on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. On September 24, join us in brainstorming and discussing the design of an accessible online version of these guides. 

Related resources:

 

IDRC Website wireframes

Design Crit

Cheryl

September 18, 2019

Notes

We will be taking a look at some new IDRC website wireframes. We will be looking for feedback into the early designs and functionality of the website.

Google slides:

Figma file:

 

As you can see, things are still pretty rough and low-fidelity right now, and we don't have all the pages designed yet.

Please feel free to leave comments on both applications, especially if you won't' be able to make it tomorrow but still want to take a peek / provide feedback!

 

For some context, some of the questions we're trying to answer with the website are:

  • What projects does the IDRC work on?

  • What is inclusive design, and how to I learn more about it / apply them to my own practice?

  • What are the approaches, methods, or processes that the IDRC takes?

  • Are there opportunities to get involved with the IDRC? If so, what are they?

  • Who is on the team?

  • What exactly does the IDRC do?

Strategies for accessible notifications on changed content

Design Crit

Justin, Gregor

September 17, 2019

Notes

We will be talking about strategies for accessible web notifications for changes of web content. This discussion will likely be technical and will involve talking about different implementations of code.

Inclusive Analytics

Design Crit

Everyone

August 20, 2019

Questions to provoke discussion:

  • How do you design metrics and data tracking in such a way that it encourages collaboration?

  • How do you avoid the divisive competition that often results?

  • How do you support challenging yourself, for example, without engendering the feeling that you are being judged (from above or by other team members)?

  • How do you avoid telling only the part of the story that singles people out and fails to reflect the circumstances of the anomalous numbers?

  • If the goal of the data monitoring is to increase efficiency, how do you avoid nudging people to bypass the “difficult” clients?

  • Are there ways of capturing measures, monitoring measures, and using the measures to make decisions within the workplace that don’t look and feel like the corrosive form of surveillance management we hear about in places like Amazon fulfillment?

  • Are there things we can design into the data system that can help to encourage collaboration and a cooperative ethos, or is that dependent on what is done with the data system and beyond our control?

 

These questions are broad-reaching in its impact, and can apply across many domains: the workplace, within a classroom, deployment of services and products, etc.

C2LC co-design recap

Community Workshop

Sepideh, Crystal, Kendra

August 7, 2019

Website

The Coding to Learn and Create (C2LC) team would like to share some of their experiences, challenges and insights from four co-design sessions with kids with complex learning needs. We would like to hear your feedback about our process and activities in order to improve our co-design approach for similar events in the future.  

IDRC Website Information Architecture

Design Crit

Cheryl

August 6, 2019

Cheryl will be leading a discussion on the information architecture of the IDRC website redesign.

I am hoping to split our hour together with two main chunks:

 

  1. Open discussion around questions such as:

  • Who are the people coming to our website?

  • What do they come here to do?

  • What sorts of problems do they encounter when they try to do these things? (May help to think back to any support requests you’ve received)

  • Bonus: Any ideas on how to address these issues?

 

  1. Critiquing a first draft site map

Link here, if you'd like to look in advance:

While this discussion should stay fairly open, if you're someone who likes to have a few questions to guide your feedback, you can consider these:

 

  • What should stay?

  • What’s missing?

  • What is a potential red flag?

  • What are areas for further exploration?

Here is the wiki page for the IDRC website:

And here are the notes from the crit:

"Big Data" and "AI" for Africa's Voices Foundation

Community Workshop

Luke Church

July 31, 2019

Africa’s Voices Foundation

Luke Church will speak to us about his recent work on big data and AI with Africa’s Voices Foundation and his research as a human-centric programming language designer.

Adding new features to UIO Part 2

Design Crit

Justin

July 30, 2019

We will be continuing our discussion on new UIO features.

ILDH design refresh critique

Design Crit

Caren Watkins

July 24, 2019

Presentation Slides

We’ll be doing a design critique of the upcoming redesign for the Inclusive Learning Design Handbook (ILDH).

Video: Graphic Means

Community Workshop

Lisa

July 17, 2019

Website

We will be watching the film Graphic Means.

Description:

It’s been roughly 30 years since the desktop computer revolutionized the way the graphic design industry works. For decades before that, it was the hands of industrious workers, and various ingenious machines and tools that brought type and image together on meticulously prepared paste-up boards, before they were sent to the printer. Graphic Means, explores graphic design production of the 1950s through the 1990s—from linecaster to photocomposition, and from paste-up to PDF.

Adding new features to UIO

Design Crit

Justin

July 16, 2019

Examples:

Notes

 

We will review the new Prefs Framework and UIO+ preferences (letter spacing, word spacing, syllables, text-to-speech, simplify, captions, localization) to determine which should be added to the standard UIO configuration.

 

We will also discuss the “prefers-color-scheme” and “prefers-reduced-motion” CSS media features in relation to their use with the preferences framework.

ILDH

Design Crit

Caren Watkins

June 25, 2019

Structure maps:

Existing 

Proposed 

WireType or ProtoFrame (wireframe and prototype hybrid ) mobile layout early iteration of navigation and organization for feedback: 

We will be taking a look at early redesign work being done on the Inclusive Learning Design Handbook including changes to navigation, information architecture, and discoverability.

Usability testing

Design Crit

Cheryl

June 25, 2019

Notes

We will be talking about usability testing in an inclusive design context. This hour will be dedicated to critiquing usability testing, and discussing questions such as: What exactly are the problems with usability testing? Are there certain contexts that are better for usability testing than others? What is usability testing good for?How can we re-imagine usability testing to be more inclusive?

Designing for Contrast Themes

Design Crit

Cheryl

June 18, 2019

Notes

We will be talking about contrast themes and how incorporate them into designs.

Accessibility at TPL

Community Workshop

Winona McMorrow

May 22, 2019

Description:

Toronto Public Library is committed to providing equitable access to library service that meets the changing needs of all Torontonians including people with disabilities in a welcoming environment. This talk will offer information about accessibility at TPL and invite the inclusive design community to share perspectives and ideas about accessibility and inclusion in the public library.

Feedback for upcoming co-design session

Community Workshop

Ample Labs

May 15, 2019

Website

Presentation Slides

Description:

Ample Labs is a nonprofit group creating technology to empower those experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness. They are co-designing their projects and products with the community and have a session coming up with Sherbourne Health Centre’s Supporting Our Youth program for LGBTQ newcomer and immigrant youth. They’re hoping to get feedback from IDRC on the facilitation and activities for this upcoming session.

Coordinating and communicating design crits and community workshops

Design Crit

Jon, Gregor, Lisa

May 7, 2019

Notes

We will be talking about how the community design crits (hosted on Tuesdays) and the community workshop (hosted on Wednesdays) are organized and conducted. We will talk about the current state of these meetings and come up with ideas to improve them.

Guru app

Design Crit

Michelle

April 30, 2019

Description:

"Gooru Learning Navigator with particular emphasis on learning differences. The Learning Navigator is a “GPS for Learning” — a way for each student to follow their own path to mastery. Schools ask every student to achieve the same level of proficiency, but each student begins with a different set of knowledge and skills. The Learning Navigator meets each student exactly where they are and navigates them to their learning goals."

Clinic for Open Source Arts

Community Workshop

Christopher Coleman

April 24, 2019

Clinic for Open Source Arts

Description:

The Clinic for Open-Source Arts explores, supports, and celebrates local and global efforts to make free and open-source tools that allow people to be creative with digital technology.

Sign to text / audio

Design Crit

Ade

April 16, 2019

Ayoade (Ade) Adetokubo from the University of Cincinnati will be sharing a project supporting pharmacists with sign-to-text / voice.

An interface to assist pharmacists with hearing challenges communicate with patients. The concept is to have a two way translation system:

  • takes spoken words from patient and translates it into text for pharmacists to read

  • takes sign language from pharmacist and translates it into text and audio

Project is inspired by the story:

We have a conceptual design of how the system might work, looking for feedback on following

  • possible precedents

  • challenges and concerns around sign to text, voice to text systems

  • any input on what 

  • general usability and experience feedback

Various topics relating to inclusive design and design management

Community Workshop

Johan Verstraete

April 3, 2019

Presentation Slides

Johan Verstraete will be joining us to discuss various topics relating to inclusive design and design management. We will have a sign-language interpreter available to facilitate communication.

National Young Farmers Coalition beta app

Community Workshop

Lindsey Lusher Shute, Michael Parker, Dan Stone

March 27, 2019

Meeting notes

Description:

The National Young Farmers Coalition (NYFC) is an American national advocacy network of young farmers fighting for the future of agriculture.

Co-design activities discussion

Design Crit

Sepideh, Cheryl

March 26, 2019

We will be having a discussion about our recent co-design activities and sharing our experiences and discover possible ways to improve or do things differently.

Beverley School staff visit to IDRC

Community Workshop

 

March 20, 2019

 

More than a feeling? Scientific evidence on perceiving music through a sense of touch. 

Community Workshop

Sean Gilmore

March 13, 2019

Meeting notes

Description:

With advancements In technology the idea of inclusivity within music has become more possible than ever before. This talk discusses the technology and science behind the idea that deaf communities may be able to experience music through a sense of touch.

CBC digital documentary series Red Button

Community Workshop

Jonathan Jude

March 6, 2019

Meeting notes

Description:

Red Button is a ground-breaking and innovative CBC digital series where young Canadian documentary subjects become the filmmakers, providing remarkably honest perspectives of marginalized and misunderstood communities

The Why, Who, What, When, Where & How of our Inclusive Design Theory and Practice: making it easier to find, navigate and apply our inclusive design guidance.

Design Crit

Jutta

February 26, 2019

Jutta will be talking about: "The Why, Who, What, When, Where & How of our Inclusive Design Theory and Practice: making it easier to find, navigate and apply our inclusive design guidance".

Tech-Inclusion: Developing Coding Classes for Deaf Youths.

Community Workshop

Claudia McKoy

February 20, 2019

Meeting Notes

“Tech-Inclusion: Developing Coding Classes for Deaf Youths” will be facilitated by Claudia McKoy of Creative Amnesty. Creative Amnesty is an UpSurgence initiative that focuses on finding practical ways to include marginalized communities into our emerging tech-based economy. Last fall, the Creative Amnesty’s team worked with community leaders, interpreters and coding educators to design coding classes that were accessible for Deaf children.

At this Wednesday’s Inclusive Design research Centre community meeting at OCAD University, we are inviting the community to join in a discussion to explore how to best develop our coding classes to ensure that they are highly accessible, impactful, and cost effective. We are also seeking insights on the best tools use and what resources we ought to access to scale the project to ensure as many children as possible can enjoy the benefits of the program.

Our discussion will include three key areas of focus:

  • Providing general and basic coding class for young children

  • “iSee Me” – a program that trains Deaf Individuals with a tech background to become tech educators. Such a program allows young learners to see themselves and their community as members of tech community. Thus, fostering a sense of belonging and inclusion within the students.

  • Career pathways – an initiative that established in partnerships with tech employers to create programs for Deaf individuals seeking employment in the field. The initiative would seek first to identify what skills are needed by the businesses to then train the learners in those desired skills and well as how best to prepare and assist organizations that would wish to include Deaf employees, but may lack the experience or the knowledge of the best practices.

Chronopoetical Systems of Sounding Vision, All at Once: a residency at Signal Culture

Community Workshop

Colin Clark

February 13, 2019

Meeting Notes

Platform Coop Website

Design Crit

Cheryl, Dana

February 12, 2019

Dana and Cheryl will be sharing the designs for the platform coop website.

Website prototype on mobile:

 

Feedback spreadsheet:

SEWA Home Beauty Services Coop

Design Crit

Dana

January 29, 2019

Notes

Dana will be sharing the latest website designs for the Self-Employed Women's Association (or "SEWA") home beauty services coop. These designs are a result of co-design sessions that took place in Ahmedabad in November 2018.

Ample Labs: Using technology to empower individuals experiencing homelessness.

Community Workshop

Cheryl Li, CG Chen, Matt Wong

January 23, 2019

Meeting Notes

Ample Labs

Presentation slides

Presented by Ample Labs, a social startup committed to using technology to empower individuals experiencing homelessness. 

 

Ample Labs was born out of a pilot project called HomeTO and a desire to contribute to our local community here in Toronto. Their work was originally inspired by social initiatives like San Francisco’s Link-SF as well as broad research showing that even when experiencing homelessness, most people rely heavily on smartphones to find vital information.

Since then, the team has grown to include a dedicated and diverse group of designers, developers, researchers, consultants, public servants, and community members—all united by a common commitment to using tech for social good.

Website: https://www.amplelabs.co/

Ontario Standard Form Lease Redesign

Design Crit

Francesca (Law & Design Colab)

January 22, 2019

The Law and Design Co-Lab will be sharing a design and asking for feedback related to the Ontario Standard Form Lease redesign. 

Ontario Standard Form Lease Redesign

Community Workshop

Francesca (Law & Design Colab)

January 16, 2019

Meeting Notes

In January 2018, the Ontario government released a Standard Form Lease for residential tenancies. This was a great step towards promoting fairness in residential leases. However, we believe the document itself can be better-designed and made more accessible.

Inspired by the UK’s redesign project for residential tenancies in 2014, we are engaging legal experts, advocates and community members in a co-design process to develop a digital-first re-design of the Standard Form Lease that is accessible, interactive, and grounded in community concerns and realities.

Website: http://lawdesigncolab.ca

Storytelling Tool Demo and Feedback

Design Crit

Sepideh

January 15, 2019

https://pad.gpii.net/p/storytelling-testing-o6p4nsv

conducting some user testing of the latest version of the Storytelling Tool and discussing the outcomes of that process.

A wireframe of the design can be accessed here (Image PDF).

GSoC 2019 Brainstorming

Community Workshop

Alan, Cindy

January 9, 2019

Google Summer of Code 2019 with the Fluid Project

Meeting Notes

SJRK Web Accessibility Review

Design Crit

Lisa, Silvia

January 8 2019