CREAVIU
Creaviu is a programme developed to solve rural depopulation, one of Spain’s current problems. The proposal is to renovate abandoned rural areas of depopulated villages, in order to create a space for coworking, leisure and cultural activities. This space would be managed by a local organisation on behalf of the villagers.
The project is a finalist in the 1st edition of Project Lab, a Youth 4 Good initiative to solve challenges related to the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). In this case, the question to answer is:
How can we ensure that rural areas do not disappear and give villagers the same opportunities as in the big cities?
EMPATHIZE
Through system innovation tools, we determined our ideal user, the one who can provide insights for a better understanding of the problem. We thought of the ideal profile and drew an empathy map based on it.
After the empathy work, we reformulate the question to fit our target profile’s needs:
How could we generate new economic drivers based on digitalisation using abandoned rural areas?
define
The main subjects of research in social projects are people who deal with the problem on a daily basis. We went to a nearby village with only 600 residents, Alcublas, and interviewed different profiles, from the mayor to elderly neighbours.
On the other hand, we applied PESTLE analysis to deepen the current situation of rural villages from a political, economic, social, technological, ecological and legal point of view.
ideate
In this stage, we hold a deep ideation session where we come up with more than 250 ideas through a judgement-free teamstorming. A PICK Chart was used to categorise these notes based on feasibility and originality. In the top-right area are located the ones with the most potential, which were divided according to the line of action.
To reach the definitive solution, we scheduled another session to discuss the pros and cons of each idea, after doing a quick research.
prototype
The best way to prototype our solution was a video, where we communicated to stakeholders the action plans to implement the Creaviu programme. We wrote the story of a young woman who, through the Creaviu initiative, has the chance to work from her hometown, collaborating in the revitalisation of her village.
As the team’s designer, I decided to go to a paper cutout animation. This involved, drawing every item, taking a picture for each frame, editing the pictures and creating the final video.
