Badge Directory: A Yelp for Badges

Over the Summer, I started working (although I haven't gotten super far) on an idea for a Badge Directory - that was kind of like a Yelp for Badges. I have previously talked about this here . This is definitely in the realm of prototyping for a future addition to the Open Badges world, but the general idea is that it's a directory that leverages community input to categorize, group and rate the fidelity of the badges. This could be combined at some point with the idea of a Badge dashboard for users, but independently I see this as having some value as a service or a tool on to itself.

When I initially mocked up the concept for a badge directory, I was smack in the middle of thinking about how cities (like the City of Chicago) might benefit from a directory. At the time I made this sketch:

A mobile - first design made sense as the geographic location was deeply tied to badge or content discovery for participants in the Chicago Summer of Learning. So I could literally imagine a game - like alert notification if a user had geolocation services on their mobile devices. 

 

At some point, I sat down and tried to make this a real thing - which forced me to think about it in terms of a tool or a service that might be more broadly used. When I considered all of the things that I was imagining the tool doing (recommendations based on interest, location, skill, peer group etc) I realized that I needed some sort of way to collect the data. This began my investigation into creating a community crafted directory - aka a "Yelp for Badges." 
  Initially I started by thinking about the structure of the service as a searchable - interactive filter layer for public badges. 



 
Here is what a badge detail might look like (below):

Some features that I added here that don't currently exist are:
  Goal Group - this allows a potential badge earner to build a collection of badges that they intend to pursue and to declare a goal for that collection. This could take the form of badge pathways where someone says - my goal is to become an expert at woodworking and then all of the badges that they add to that group represent the learning map for how they are going to achieve that goal. These groups could be made public and could potentially be forkable.

 Badge Rank - the idea is that an algorithm will be generated that helps to contextualize badges in relationship to one another. The algorithm( in theory) will take into account crowdsourced feedback and evaluate the metadata contained in each badge as well as other factors that I am sure I have not thought about at this point.

  License - think of this as a creative commons license for badges. I am actually really excited about this - but the general idea is that is that like a work of art or a concept, people have different ways that they intend the badge to be used or reused - and this will give the author control over their intent.

  Reviews - users of the directory will have the ability to read and write reviews for individual or groups of badges. This helps us with the possible problem of the badge ecosystem being flooded with meaningless badges - the reviews (hopefully) will force content providers to put out high quality work (and if anything could just keep badgemakers on their toes). As I worked a little more on the UX wireframes, and got some initial feedback. I realized that I needed to  raise the hierarchy for search and make it easy to access, consistently placed and focused on specific forms of output: goals, reviews, badges. Here, I also explored visualizing badges as pure text.
 

Finally, I started to incorporate the idea of a user dashboard and backpack into the directory. If you are making goal groups, and badges and are able to get recommendations - then really, what if the interactions were combined to give a user control over their learning data - before, during and after the act of doing whatever it is that they are doing to learn a skill or concept. 

So, let me take a second to talk about the Backpack sync that I incorporated into the mockup above. Imagine you are logged into the directory - as a user - via twitter (for this example) . As a user, you want to get recommendations on your interactions on the site as well as the knowledge of badges that you have already earned. Here, you sync to your backpack (s) - have your services talk to eachother and eventually earn recommendations for goal groups, learning maps, badges and peers based on this newly expanded perspective of what is in essence, your profile.
 

I still have a lot more to think about, and am frankly writing this post so that I can keep track of my thinking and get some feedback. Some things that need to be thought about here are : how are badges added to the directory? Is there something in the badge specification that would need to be altered to accommodate this? Is there a different view for badgemakers? Can I make a badge directly from the directory? How does this work relate to BadgeKit? How is this moderated? …. and I'm sure much much more.  I look forward to hearing feedback and talking more about this.

What's in a designer 's bookbag?

From left to right: Reading materials, Grow a Game, Grapes, Laptop, Wacom tablette, laptop cleaners, pens, makers, pencils, dice, pencil case, scissors, sketchbooks, dongles, surge protector, ipod shuffle, index cards

At a recent workshop that I gave for a bunch of teenagers,  I was asked "what does a designer have in their bookbag?" by one of the participants. At first I thought it was a funny question and thought - obviously... metrocards, wallet etc. But after a little bit of  discussion, I dumped out my bookbag and watched the teens dissect my stuff.

The first things that they grabbed for (in order) were: my sketchbooks, my Wacom, my laptop, my books.

Although this was a casual interaction , it got me to thinking about a few things:

I am not just Jess, I am "Jess the Designer" 

This might be a silly point, but I realize that I represent some level of a career path that a teen could choose to take. So when they ask to see what's inside a designers bag, they are asking what it's really like to be a designer. They are curious about what putting on that "hat" or in this case, wearing that bag, would really be like.

Tools are personal

Everyone is intrigued by gadgets, but tools are personal. I found it intriguing that these teens who are passionate about technology first grabbed for my sketchbooks. They knew what they were going to find in there, my scribbles- plain ordinary books but they went for it. I think that like me, they crave something tangible. I like having accessible tools- since I design with community members and for participation, I try to have with me things that anyone can just pick up and use- that's why I have index cards, hello kitty markers, dice and paper. The teens asked me if everyone uses macs, or androids (my phone-  not pictured) and I told them that it was just what I used. I've talked about this before, but I am pretty agnostic about my tools: I use Adobe Photoshop and Aviary, I use a little of everything- and I like it that way.

Showing your bag is an extension of showing your process

At Mozilla, and just in general- the way that I work is called, "working in the open." I share the majority of my process- from sketches to interactive final deliverables. I think that sharing what you work with and how you work is just as valuable as the end product. Why? I value the experience and the craft of making something. Much of my stuff is made for the web, but that doesn't mean that I make it all on and with the web, I take my real-life personal and local world and experiences and bring that into my work.

What do YOU have in your bag? How do you share your process with your community?

Think Global, Webmake Local

Recently, Mark Surman (Executive Director of Mozilla Foundation, innovator, cool guy + my boss) recommended that I listen to this Spark podcast featuring an interview with Angel Gambino, who is the co-founder of Rosa Parks- an exciting plan to re-vitalize the neighborhood of Corktown in Detroit.

In the podcast she describes designing a creative hub and what physical communities can learn from online community-building. At the very beginning of the interview she says that Corktown is a " interesting mix of different communities in one neighborhood" and goes on to say that it has "magnificent buildings and no people." Coming from Rockaway Beach, New York, a neighborhood that also fits this description quite perfectly, I was quite taken by the project and the passion that Angel Gambino has for neighborhood renewal. In the conversation she discusses how her skills in online community development translate into activating physical communities. This is a passion that I share. In graduate school, I worked closely with the Rockaway Waterfront Alliance and the Swim Strong Foundation- designing interactive tools to build community awareness and activism around beach safety. While the two projects are obviously quite different in scale, at their core is design spaces that encourage collaboration notably combined with a grass roots LOCAL call to action.

This is me user testing my thesis at the Rockaway Beach earth day festival several years back

Now, if you follow my blog, I am sure you are connecting the dots and seeing the natural connection to the work that I do at Mozilla.  In the online melting pot that is the Web, you naturally have a plethora of communities given the opportunity to collaborate. However, I think that something is kind of missing when we (Mozilla) usually talk about our mission. We discuss our desire to "build the next generation of webmakers" - but really, the crux of that statement is in the word "webmakers". Web Makers - someone who is using the web to make stuff. Sounds obvious? Wrong. This is not obvious. A very small percentage of the schools, libraries, community centers, adults and youth who I work with in and outside of Mozilla actually use the web to make stuff. The web is a place to make things happen, to convene, to organize and distribute information- but the idea of making something is a real call to action! 

Why would you want to make something with the web? I think of my mother, Rose. She is a retired New York public school teacher who is passionate about community development in the real true sense of the word. She has taken it upon herself to learn how to design a website and a facebook group for some of the various organizations in Rockaway that she volunteers for. She makes things on the web and with the web- because she knows that people in her community are of a certain age and aren't running to face to face meetings, but she also knows that her community values those face to face meetings. My mom meets people where they are- and designs spaces for collaboration within the appropriate medium. Because she is a designer of the web, as a webmaker- she is making a mark for how her own community is represented in the virtual and global world, and she is doing on a local level that makes ripples of impact.

 This is my mom, volunteering at one of my hack jams in Rockaway Beach

As Mozilla moves forward with its development of projects such as Hive NYC and its online learning offering in Hackasaurus- it is really thinking about how to build up and support local webmaking, engagement and activism through events, programming and open source resources. The goal is not to build Mozilla's vision for the next generation of webmakers- but for the next generation of webmakers to design their vision for their own local and personal world and ecosystems within the canvas that is the Web.

Remember that the web is a hand made thing, designed by individuals- and without individuals representing and defining themselves within this worldwide online community, the world is essentially missing their voice in the conversation and decision- making that happens in this space. I challenge you, reader, to take action in your community. Make local change and impact by making the web!