Project Updates - Platform Cooperative Development Toolkit
April 2020
Summary of Activities
Start of implementation of tool library
Directory/Map
Accessibility design crit
Design and implementation of individual profile creation
Design of search/filter flow
Planning next co-design steps with CoRise
March 2020
Summary of Activities
Launch of resource library
Directory/Map
Continue refinement of profile creation flows
Filter taxonomy design
February 2020
Summary of Activities
Implementation of map using Django
January 2020
Summary of Activities
Co-design
Resource Library
Refinement and development of the resource library
Accessibility testing
Further UX/UI design refinement
Development of visual elements
Design System
Refinement and development
Accessibility testing
Further design refinement
Directory/Map/Index
Technical exploration
Labour platform hub
Labour platform tools
December 2019
Summary of Activities
Co-design
Resource Library
Development
Further UX/UI design refinement
Development of visual elements
Design system
Further design refinement
Directory
Labour platform tools
exploration into scheduling tools
November 2019
Summary of Activities
Co-design
Ran Co-design potluck at the conference
Coordinating co-design efforts with partner co-ops (CoRise, SEWA)
Resource Library
UX/UI design
Conference
Tech panel presentations -
Open and ethical source development
October 2019
Summary of Activities
Co-design
Coordinating co-design efforts with partner co-ops
Resource Library
UX/UI design
Expanding screens to multiple viewports for responsive design
Development of resource importer
Design system
Supporting volunteers in contributions to the website
September 2019
Summary of Activities
Co-design
Continue to coordinate co-design efforts with partner co-ops
Resource Library
Synthesis co-design chats
Definition of IA and taxonomy
UX/UI design
Development
Website updates including changes to the conference page
August 2019
Summary of Activities
Co-design
Coordinating with new coops to start co-design process (Suara and Equal Care)
Continue to coordinate co-design efforts with CoRise, SEWA, and Cataki
Resource library
Second round of community co-design chats to gather feedback on the wireframe prototype and taxonomy
Continue with wireframing of learning commons
Website
Sent out survey to gather feedback
July 2019
Summary of Activities
Website
Launched: https://platform.coop/
Resource Library
Sketching and initial wireframing of the learning commons
First round of community co-design chats with members of the platform co-op community, to seek input on input and ideas for the learning commons
Co-design
Continue to coordinate co-design efforts with CoRise, SEWA, and Cataki
June 2019
Summary of Activities
Website staging site is up and being finalized for release
Learning commons preliminary sketching
Labour platform preliminary sketching
May 2019
Summary of Activities
Website development continues for the initial release
Learning commons
Planned the UX strategy for the Learning Commons
Conducted a horizon scan of other learning platforms for the Learning Commons
Co-design
Continued planning co-design sessions with partners, and developing specific activities to do for the embedded co-design efforts
April 2019
Summary of Activities
CMS selection
Refinement of website designs
Completed the UX and UI of the pages
Start of website implementation based on initial scope
Connecting with project partners about co-design process
Submitted Research Ethics Board proposal for approval
Developing co-design activities
Initial collaborative meetings with project partners
March 2019
Summary of Activities
Website work
Created visual design for the pages across the website
Created style guide for website UI system
working on Research Ethics Board proposal for co-design with partner
February 2019
Summary of Activities
Start of embedded co-design with partner co-ops
Website work:
Refinement and iteration of wireframes and information architecture
Created copy deck to collaborate on content across the team
Communicated and met with logo designer to align on visual design efforts
Start on the visual design system
January 2019
Summary of Activities
Prototype of Platform Coop site
Focused on:
Building the information architecture of the website
Prioritized features and pages based on content feasibility and website survey done with the community
Created wireframes for mobile and desktop viewports
December 2018
Summary of Activities
Design of Beauty Services website
Design of Platform Coop site
Navigation menu suggestions https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yTBELKwdS8cCXcgFYFjUxZFzObztEwQMxpaDFvHugIY/edit
Sketches:
Landing page call to action on desktop and mobile: https://files.inclusivedesign.ca/s/Aevh5AtK9aYR8Ks
Navigation on desktop and mobile: https://files.inclusivedesign.ca/s/RYTNbxKH4q90cPX
Alternative navigation on desktop: https://files.inclusivedesign.ca/s/dCOpbSeL5Q2JEyB
Search on desktop: https://files.inclusivedesign.ca/s/EQNpNCiVdpf1l0z
Wireframes:
Desktop landing page: https://files.inclusivedesign.ca/s/44qlvRc0eVL4YDn#pdfviewer
Mobile landing page: https://files.inclusivedesign.ca/s/e2Cjtr8aZ7ShmQd#pdfviewer
Exploration of Netlify CMS resulted in decision to use WordPress for the site development
November 2018
Summary of Activities
Two day co-design event centred around the creation of a scheduling tool and labour platform, with beauty workers intending to form a new co-operative
Two day co-design event with women currently part of the SEWA Federation centred around the creation of a governance tool and learning commons
Design of the new Platform Coop website
Research into technical components that can be used for the Kit
October 2018
Summary of Activities
Completed Project Deliverables graphic based on feedback
Gathering contacts and feedback for platform.coop site co-design
Developing survey questions for platform.coop site co-design
Working on a detailed roadmap for the project
Initial mapping of co-operative tool features based on the needs of the partner co-ops
Exploration of Netlify CMS for new project website
September 2018
Summary of Activities
Initial design sketches of Project Deliverables graphic:
Michelle and Dana met with Tais from Cataki to communicate the current Toolkit plans and status
Co-op Requirement Mapping
Decisions on where to focus the project energy
Logistics Platform
Distributed Governance Tools
August 2018
Summary of Activities
First of regular series of checkin meetings
Established mailing list as best internal communication method, combined with wiki for open information sharing
Discussed re-design of existing site (platform.coop) as next step, with a soft launch (re-worked navigation and new look) on October 15
Michelle and Dana met with Namya from SEWA to plan upcoming on-site co-design meetings
on-going conversation to share co-design ideas and plan best approach
SEWA needs a basic site to share information - need a simple and cheap hosting solution
The full team met with Mundano from Cataki, Brazil to discuss design and development requirements for the Catadores (recycling collectors)
Gathering partner co-ops needs/requirements, mapping these out to identify commonalities (and differences)
Continuing research on existing co-ops and platforms
July 2018
Summary of Activities
Launch Meeting
Meeting with SEIU-HCII and the ICA about the CoRise Cooperative
Discussions with CoLab, Loconomics, and Sharetribe to discuss potential collaboration/use of platforms
Research into existing platform cooperatives
Setup Project Infrastructure
Initial user experience mapping—starting a coop
Initial technical mapping of the labour platform's components
Description
In July, the IDRC started formal work on the Platform Cooperative Development Toolkit project. Our activities this month focused on outreach and discussions with prospective project collaborators, technical and user experience mapping, and the establishment of shared design and development infrastructure for the project.
Among others, we had discussions with CoLab, Loconomics, and ShareTribe regarding the possibility of jointly developing open source tools that would be included in the toolkit's labour platform and governance tools, and implementing existing platform services as "scaffolding" to help bootstrap other aspects of the labour platform. On July 20, Colin traveled to Chicago to meet with the SEIU's Healthcare group and the International Cooperative Alliance to assist them in the early stages of designing a technology platform for the CoRise Cooperative.
The initial stages of our design process for the Toolkit followed a explore, map, share cycle in which the project's design possibilities are creatively explored, maps of potential user experience workflows are sketched, and technical components are elaborated at a relatively high level of abstraction. These works in progress are shared on the project's open wiki for feedback and refinement. In particular, our design work this month included:
Research and "cooperative analysis" of existing platforms and cooperatives
Sketching initial user experience maps that look at the toolkit from the perspective of different users—particularly prospective co-op members, founders, and supporters. These maps are intended to help map out the design problem space for the project, and are intentionally provisional and lo-fi during at this early stage of the project's design in order to quickly explore different approaches and ideas.
Mapping out the relationships among technical components of the project's labour platform
Examining the existing open source tools and platforms that may be available for us to use or integrate into the Toolkit
In addition, the essential collaborative infrastructure for the project's ongoing open source and development was also set up, including an issue tracker (Atlassian's JIRA) for tracking tasks and bugs, a new GitHub organization for sharing source code, and a mailing list for discussing technical and user experience issues.