Project Brief
This is my 1st project during my post-graduate study at RCA. We managed to work with colleagues from diverse backgrounds, such as communication design, industrial design engineer, and diplomacy, and deliver delightful outcomes.
In this project, we explored the future scenario for freelancers in the next 20 years.
Year
Oct-Dec, 2019
Background
RCA Service Design MA Term 1 Project
Target
My role
Web design
freelancer
Project Manager
Researcher
Team
1 PM
2 Researcher
1 UX designer
1 Industrial designer
1 Communication designer
Challenge
The enormous freelance workforce will face various changes with the development of technology.
With the development of technology, AI will be developed enough to take over some parts of the designer’s job. Meanwhile, there is the tendency of transforming web design from 2D to Mixed Reality.
In the future, web-design freelancers are likely to lose their jobs.
Final Proposal
We created a job platform for web-design freelancers to improve themselves to catch up with the trend through learning by doing process.
Design Approach
Research- Future Exploration
By 2035, many of the classic web design skills will have been automated by Artificial Intelligence,
and 4th generation Mixed Reality eyewear will have permeated the global market.
Based on the future scenario, questionnaire, and interviews, we create our persona, Xiao-Ming.
As technology advances, this is what future of Xiao-Ming might look like.
Insights
01 Challenging Job environment
Because of the AI development and changing environment of webdesign (2D to 3D), Xiao-Ming would lose her job.
02 Lack of resources
Xiao-Ming works on her own and lacks company resources and money to improve herself.
How might we help web design freelancers improve themselves to adapt to the various ongoing waves of technology?
Ideation
We designed “Ledo”.
A job platform helps freelancers update skills through learning by doing process.
Test and Iterations
We built a 2D and 3D website and tested it with 5 web design freelancers, and gained the key findings from their feedback.
01 For freelancers, work is part of their lives.
Freelancers consider the working time and job type before taking the case, not only the salary and skills.
We had to collect these answers in the registration process so that we could match proper jobs for freelancers.
02 The power of community.
For freelancers, meeting other freelancers can help them exchange information about the industry and boost their motivation to improve themselves.
We had to think about how to use community power to help freelancers catch up with the trend.
Service Concept
To help freelancer keep up with the trend, LEDO includes the 3 main functions.
In the registration process, freelancers register their skills so that we can match courses and cases.
On job board, freelancers will see the required skills for the job and the skills they don’t have.
And we match jobs that fit their
skills and lifestyle.
They also fill in their work preferences
After applying for the job, the platform then suggests adequate courses for freelancers to learn the skills they lack. When they are learning skills, they are also preparing for the job.
After the learning process, freelancers will be the awarded certificates on the skills required
to do the jobs.
Ledo also provides a place for freelancers to create social network.
Users can join several study groups to work on case study, improving themselves together.
They can also get the information about upcoming events to catch up with the trend in industry.
Service Value
Key Takeaways
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Understanding trends. We must move beyond designing for today’s needs, look toward the edge, and make shifts that fit our capabilities and culture. To design a sustainable proposal, we have to get real while keeping an eye on the future and understand how does the service change along with the trend and time
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Identifying the signals and combining with the research. Scenario planning, PESTLE Analysis, speculative design are all good approaches to elaborate on how our target will go through in the future.