reMAKE Community Platform

Re:MAKE started as an initiative by MAKE Studios, a Hong Kong-based service design and innovation agency specialising in design thinking and building resilient businesses. The purpose of this platform was to develop and engage a global community of social innovators and change-makers to re-invent new contexts, artifacts and systems to serve a desirable, shared future.

Project details

Client

MAKE Studios

Project

reMAKE Community Platform

Year

2021

Services

Service Design UX/UI Design Facilitation

Credits

Website ↗

Category

Service Design, UX/UI Design, Facilitation, Branding

Problem Statement

Designers need to explore and define a critically engaging design practice that is relevant to challenges of the future, and develop a value proposition that is financially, emotionally and energetically sustainable.

My Contribution

I collaborated with Patti Hunt, Kate Okrasinski, Wai-Jing Man, Calvin Lo, Ada Sin, and Jenny Lim to conceptualise, organise, and build this platform. As a service designer, I worked with product designer Hanny Yeung to develop the website, co-organised two community events, and managed our community platform on Mighty Networks.

Solution and Impact

After one year of development, re:MAKE connected with over 150 active individuals, partnered with more than ten prestigious organisations across APAC, and successfully hosted three community events.

Key personal challenge(s)/learning(s)

The Genesis: Working Remotely
After completing my master's thesis at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in January 2020, I was in Mexico visiting my family. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hong Kong closed its borders to international flights in March, and the immigration tower did not receive visa applications. As a result, I was unable to return to Hong Kong. My collaboration with MAKE Studios began remotely in April 2020, initially known as Jamplex.

During the early stages of the pandemic, everyone transitioned to online work. We used Zoom and Miro to collaborate and brainstorm the project's initial ideas. Communication was smooth, but fully engaging was challenging due to our time-zone differences and other professional commitments. Our early conversations centered around our intentions and the purpose of the platform. The following boards were created to plan and formulate the platform's purpose and framework.

Framework - How?

After three months in the project, we consolidated our ideas into a community platform, evolving Jamplex into re:MAKE. The prefix "re-" signifies repetition, indicating a return or a new beginning.

re:MAKE aimed to unite the collective around the action, agency, and urgency needed to build a new, better normal. We sought to partner with individuals, institutions, government bodies, and communities to re-invent context-specific artifacts and systems, serving a desirable environment. Our framework was influenced by futures thinking, speculative design, and foresight, which we used to develop a framework for reshaping multiple futures through our research.

Branding Process

Next, we focused on consolidating the branding elements for re:MAKE, which would help us build new artifacts and establish trust with potential partners and clients. I returned to Hong Kong in July 2020 and began collaborating in-person with the studio.

Our objective was to create a strong brand with versatile visual assets for various marketing purposes. At the same time, we developed different templates for social media and our community platform, Mighty Networks.

Website Development

Our primary objective for the website was to drive conversions and encourage users to join our community platform. Additionally, we featured the program of upcoming events and showcased previous conferences and speakers who collaborated with MAKE Studios. The website successfully generated traction for Mighty Networks (Community Platform) and helped us sell out all tickets for re:2020 (First community event). The following screens are part of our UX process and UI development.

Explore the website here and join the community platform on Mighty Networks.

Community Events & Online Workshop

re:2020 was a two-day online event, hosting 80 participants and introducing our reinvention framework. Day 1 featured a variety of speakers from across the Asia Pacific, case studies, interactive activities, and networking games to inspire and connect participants with our core themes.

re:IMAGINE was the second event from our program, a community-driven exploration of one of the topics selected from re:2020 - Work culture. Here are some of the main takeaways from the workshop:

Explore new models of work culture: How might we create workplaces that support, value, and provide psychological safety for everyone?
Rethink measuring and tracking mental health in the workplace: Consider what is needed for action to be taken.
Experiment with new norms: Take a deeper look at the role of language and mental models in the workplace to understand the full extent of the problem space.ShareRewrite

Project Outcomes

Participatory design is the foundation of re:MAKE and a crucial element in any co-creative process. Through our online and offline events, we realized that it's possible to change human behavior with the right provocations. We will continue shifting trajectories to futures that we can conceptualise, design, and crystallise.

Key Personal Lessons

• Mental stamina is a 21st-century skill to keep a flow-state in our daily challenges

• Every project starts with a purpose challenged by a complex question. Find support from other minds; the power of co-creation and cross-disciplinary teams creates exceptional solutions

• Learning something new is scary until you make it an adventure. Enjoy the process and make the best of it

• Lean into change. Use the moments of disruption to catalyse a new opportunity

• Good design creates a seamless optimal experiences for all living species