Autodesk University Social Strategy

Type of Work	FrameworkModel - DiagramStrategy

Project goals

Help the Autodesk University product and design team create a robust, active and engaged community around Autodesk University class content.

Project Activities:

Advise the product and design team of the kinds of social features that help make a robust community

Model the system looking to blueprint future states and all concepts to consider

Give feedback on new designs and interaction decisions

Provide feedback and advice for the beta period including which features to roll out first and where to wait

Provide competitive and best practice analysis for specific features.

Modeling the system

I began my understanding of the ecosystem of the social offerings and needs for Autodesk University by brainstorming with the client and then modeling the different facets of social interactions both on and off AU.

A spiral diagram looking at the relationships between contributors, the site and the community within the ecosystem of Autodesk University. — *The models show desired states and inter-relationships of the social framework in different configurations.*

A spiral diagram looking at Reputation and the Virtuous Cycle within the ecosystem of Autodesk University. — *The models show desired states and inter-relationships of the social framework in different configurations.*

I then looked at the different types of actions as related to the public profile and what elements influence others.

A honeycomb diagram of an experience in the Autodesk ecosystem around a class within Autodesk University. — *The last model is looking at a class and all the types of actions that someone could do around that in the social framework.*

I developed a social framework canvas through this work. Each item in the stack is related to one of the key elements required to create a robust social experience. The canvas is annotated with public and private recommendations for presentation.

Competitive analysis & recommendations

Example slides from a competitive analysis of Ratings and Likes around the internet.

RATINGS: I analyzed and assessed different types of ratings found in social and commerce sites and made recommendations to the AU team for which might work best given their context, their content and their desired community.

NOTIFICATIONS: I analyzed and assessed different types of notifications, notification settings and other behavior around notifications found in social and content heavy sites and made recommendations to the AU team for which might work best given their context, their content and their desired community.

An ecosystem diagram of the AU Community communication in and out of the community. — Working with my client, we mapped out the different types of communication modes and channels between AU community members, AU marketing staff and community moderators, class leaders and other relevant stakeholders in the AU social ecosystem.

User testing

Using the design mock-ups done by the internal interaction designer, showcasing features based on my recommendations. I conducted a series of user test sessions to validate the features and the interaction flow for those features.

Team makeup

1 social design strategist - me

1 client UX designer

1 client program manager

1 client product / business lead