UPSHIFT, The System

Designing an adaptable visual system to help navigate through the UPSHIFT social impact workshop.

WHAT
The UPSHIFT social impact workshop is a learning experience that introduces adolescents to tools and techniques such as human-centered design, agile development, creative ideation, prototyping and user testing in the form of a social innovator’s toolkit. Participants work side-by-side with a mentor to move from challenge to solution, while engaging in networking and reflection activities in their downtime.

I had the opportunity to conduct research through observing an UPSHIFT workshop in Kosovo and speaking with several other countries that were running the workshops. The workshop is divided into 6 phases, 2 of which take place before the in-person sessions. Each of these phases has a set of tools and templates that flow into each other and could have potential use at the very end of the workshop.

WHY
In 2016, UPSHIFT had started to scale from Kosovo to other countries. The need to adapt the UPSHIFT curriculum to other contexts and languages was increasing. One of the methods for adaptation was to design a visual system for this set of tools that would help mentors and teams easily move through the phases of the workshop. The aim of this design process was to be able to prototype visual elements that would make sense in a setting like UPSHIFT.

WHEN
2016

ROLE
DESIGN RESEARCH
GRAPHIC DESIGN
ICON DESIGN

TEAM
TANYA BHANDARI
TUSHAR GHEI