Context
Insight
Makespace Oxford transforms empty and underused buildings into affordable, community-driven places. Through these spaces, they aim to foster a diverse, mutually-supportive community that facilitates connection, skill sharing and collaboration.
The brief
Getting started
Makespace Oxford found that their network members, between differing spaces, did not communicate sufficiently with one another. They wanted to encourage a greater level of connection and skill sharing amongst their customers via an online platform.
Users of the platform would have private access to the details of other members, enabling them to locate much needed skills and experience easily, and utilising businesses and freelancers with the same ethos and moral objectives as their own. The platform would also offer a system to share skills and advice directly, promoting a closer community online and offline.
Members
Residents Directory
The residents directory is a private space where Makespace members can find and contact others with desired skill sets and experience, and learn more about residents located at spaces beyond their own.
While Makespace does keep track of their members’ details in spreadsheets, this new online directory enables organisations and freelancers to keep their own information up-to-date, and with comprehensive filtering and search, they have a much more sophisticated means of finding one another.
Skill Sharing
Makespace Channels
The team at Makespace also wanted an easy way for residents to be able to share knowledge and collaborate with one another. DH created an area containing channels - each channel is created by a resident, and focuses on a particular topic. They can invite other residents to contribute, and can upload files and resources, and leave regular notes.
Other members of the platform can follow the channels they're interested in, and also request access to collaborate. Channel tags provide an extra layer of filtering to find more on a certain topic.
Related Work
