Common Design Elements
Here are the basic building blocks that make up both the blueprints in this project -
1. Title and Description
This section on the top left corner gives a very brief overview of what the blueprint is about and how it needs to be read (left to right unless otherwise directed using arrows).
2. Legend of Characters
In figure 6.1 you can see a preview of this section which is a map of the characters you will encounter in the service journey. I have kept it simple by using only colour variations with a letter fallback for better accessibility. The common characters in both blueprints are as follows - Knowledge Partner: This refers to experts from organisations like CivicDataLab who can guide other stakeholders in the processes, digital tools, data management and subject expertise associated with various aspects of the proposed services. Government Representative: This refers to an officer or team of officers associated with the finance department since this is the department that co-ordinates all budget related activities.
3. Stages and Layers
Stages show the horizontal progression of steps. Each stage consists of discreet steps which are laid out in different layers based on the following criteria - Backend Layer: This layer houses artefacts and steps that happen in the background. It gives a view of the objects or plans that power the interaction in the front-end layers Frontend Layer: This layer shows the interaction between the primary stakeholders (Knowledge Partner, Government and one other stakeholder depending on the context). Engagement Layer: This layer shows the secondary interactions which happen away from the centre of power (i.e. government) usually between one or more of the primary stakeholder with a secondary stakeholder. Impact Layer: This layer shows the tertiary and most publicly viewable interaction. It aims to show the last mile impact that the service will have based on the activities that happen in the frontend and engagement layers. It shows the wider impact the service is having on the community.
4. Steps
Steps show the distinct scenes which are part of a particular stage of the service. The illustration tries to answer the following questions with respect to each step - Who are the actors involved? What is the setting? What is the activity? What are the props involved?
Using a minimal approach, the character markers, objects in the scene, the poses of the characters and the background objects convey this information to the viewer.
5. Objects
Besides scenes the other illustrated entities in the blueprint represent objects which support the process or step. These may or may not be represented in the scene and convey additional information regarding the backend processes or setup. Fig 6.4 shows a relevant example.
It is important to note that neither of the blueprints give an impression of being complete because they are meant to be used as boundary objects which can be used in a collaborative workshop among the primary stakeholders to encourage debate, discussion and further development.
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