Countable
A community engagement tool that connects users with with causes they care about and reinforces their commitment to those causes giving them the option to contribute either their time or their money.
Role:
Project partner
Responsibilities:
Physical design and fabrication, digital wireframing and prototyping, journey mapping, filming/editing
Project Duration:
3 months
Final Deliverable:
Countable was developed to the prototype stage by myself and Lila Cohn during graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania.
Countable is a product that allows you to reinforce your commitment to causes you feel strongly about. Through an ecosystem that includes an online donation service, a key chain and a charging tray it provides both a virtual and physical presence of your selected causes. Glowing lights remind you when an event linked to your cause is taking place nearby, and then prompts a decision to grab your keys and go or stay home and donate instead.
Objective
We began on the topic of civic engagement and after many interviews learning about people’s commutes through their city, their engagement with others in public, and their desire to make a meaningful impact, we came across some common themes.
We heard things in our interviews like:
Research
“When everyone is online, everyone is only a partial participant”
“I like knowing that people are out there for the same purpose as me”
“It’s not useful to just add my name to something. I want to know I’ll have an impact”
Key insights we found through our interviews were:
People want to understand the movement and activity of others in their city.
They desire the ability to build a sense of empathy or commonality with others in public spaces.
People need the ability to take meaningful action, quantify their involvement, and feel confident in the impact it has.
They want a way to bring increasingly virtual interactions into the physical realm.
These themes led us to ask ourselves the following question in taking our next step in designing a product for them:
How might we present users with actionable opportunities for engagement in the issues that are important to them, and then hold them accountable to making an impact?
Countable is made up of 3 components.
An app that acts as the platform for finding events
A table tray that holds on-the-go items and lights up to notify you
A GPS-enabled key chain that travels with you