Engaged Youth » Images of Citizenship and Design Decisions

Images of Citizenship and Design Decisions

November 5th, 2007 at 05:53am Lance Bennett Permalink

Differences about citizen identity and the engagement goals directly shape the most basic design decisions. Thus, a model based on organizations sponsoring issue pages and bringing kids to those orgs (a more conventional civic model) – lead us to wanting kids to see the whole “news” site when they log in.

By contrast, a sense that personal networking better reflects kids identity preferences and describes emerging forms of political action leads to thinking that kids should see their profile page first and move from there into the site.

The challenge is to find ways to make moving out into the site – visiting/joining groups etc.– attractive to the kids. If the site is going to do something new, it is in figuring out how to make this movement attractive.

Entry Filed under: PSO website development, conceptions of citizenship

4 Comments Add your own

1. Sivaldo Silva | November 6th, 2007 at 1:53 pm

This movement on the site is not easy to be done. On the Internet, when you design a Internet tool (like a web-site), you can create a suitable digital environment for a goal, but it isn’t a guarantee. The behavior of the users depend on the user’s profile too. Sometimes, the profile aspects (cultural characters, age, gender, education etc) are essential. In addiction, the most popular web-sites involve a little (or a lot) of the pleasure, to say, users can feel that is nice to be there. In our case, we have to ask what can be interesting for young profile to do there and how can we work that in a civic engagement backdrop. Indeed, it is a huge challenge. But, it is possible and it is very interesting to think about it.
2. Deen Freelon | November 10th, 2007 at 11:50 am

Going through Chris’s list of youth civic sites, it seems like most of them took the latter path you describe—focusing on “my” issues, causes, profiles, etc. But there is a natural connection between a young person’s interest in an issue (AC) and the venues through which they might express that interest (DC). That is, if some civil society organization has a useful outlet for channeling youthful civic energy in a way that seems relevant to youth, they’ll probably be interested in it.

Logistically, if there is any way to provide some checklist of issues that kids could fill in when they sign up or in their profile, we could use that to connect them with orgs they may not know about that are doing good work in those areas. Failing that, I think that kids will gravitate toward the issue pages on the site and find new group-based opportunities there, opportunities that are all the more relevant because they’re all local.
3. Adri | November 12th, 2007 at 12:20 pm

These are good points. You’re right, we cannot guarantee that a site will be used they way we intend, but I feel we can do some things (design wise) to encourage that. This is why I’m concerned that the PSO site navigation is too broad. It doesn’t have enough emphasis on causes/issues regarding civic engagement. I understand that we need a balance though. Too much focus on “causes” may turn off kids from the site. What are your thoughts regarding this balance?

Also, Deen’s idea on having kids selecting from a list of causes when they sign up is good because it sets up the expectation of what the site is for. Last site design meeting we came up with a list selection in their profile but not in the registration. Perhaps this is something to discuss.
4. Lance Bennett | November 14th, 2007 at 7:15 am

I like the idea that Deen proposes — have some checklist of issues/causes that help kids focus or think about their incoming interests — perhaps this can change as they evolve with the site?

Can we bring this into the design meetings — or is is a second level issue?

Speaking of which, I think we need to revisit the passions headline for the profile -page — perhaps just heading it About Me is fine.