QUEST Alliance is a not-for-profit that focuses on research-led innovation in education and vocational training. QUEST has launched Livelihood Connect as a platform for multiple and varied stakeholders in the area of employability training and livelihoods, to connect and share knowledge with each other and collectively ideate and collaborate to come up with relevant and innovative solutions. The platform will manifest through a web portal, workshops, seed grants, summits and print publications.

We spent time in the field for two months observing and documenting what people  (students, facilitators, organizations, employers) had to say about their experiences in various livelihood contexts. This evolved into specific insights and a livelihood journey which provided inspiration and direction for the innovation workshop, as well as seed content on the knowledge platform in the form of video, stories, profiles and discussions. During the workshop we also ran a co-design session with stakeholder groups in order to build stakeholder-relevance into the platform.

We worked with QUEST on multiple aspects of the Livelihood Connect platform including:
-    Research, experience design and facilitation for an innovation workshop
-    Synthesis of insights from the field and workshop to create an innovation workbook for field practitioners
-    Setting up the content structure and technology architecture for the knowledge sharing web platform
-    Branding and identity

Stills from the Innovation Workshop

User Personas used to facilitate ideation

Video from the Workshop

The workbook that was developed synthesized challenges into eight vital areas of intervention for vocational training institutes.
Within each of these areas more specific challenges along with some sample actions and solutions were detailed out. The intent of the workbook is to seed discussion and provide a framework for thoughts, experiments and reflections.

The portal is currently being developed for the stage-one launch. This includes setting up the content structure as well as branding and technology back-end. We are also helping build a road-map and an interaction plan for the platform.

The various manifests of the platform are not stand-alone interventions but a combination of multiple processes that aim to enable and inspire a diverse group of practitioners, policy-makers, program implementers, innovators and donors to connect with the vital group of young people in India today who could become valuable assets for future growth and development of the country.

Interaction Storyboards for Livelihood Connect Portal

Our role was to design a system level framework which would lay out the different interactions that the product would facilitate between these stakeholders – the eventual aim being to make education more accessible to students in remote areas who are removed from mainstream education centers. This framework would become the basis of developing top level features of the web service in order for technology development to start.

User research was carried out in a small town in central India where a pilot program supported by Cisco was being run by student entrepreneurs. Ethnographic research was the key tool to understand user realities and bring that understanding to bear on product development. The system was designed to leverage social networks and user generated content over time.

Storyboards were developed to demonstrate possible journeys of the product in use. These scenarios covered the entire spectrum of short, medium and long term manifestations of the product.

The concept presentation played a crucial role in aligning different Cisco offices globally and mobilizing internal support across for product development to start. The project is currently in the technology development phase.

Quicksand was brought in by the QUEST Alliance to do a mid-project case study to communicate the idea and vision of this unique project to other players in the education sector as well as to possible future funders. The idea was also to summarise the process of design & implementation, as well as document some of the challenges, to provide inspiration to other organisations that might want to replicate this project in other locations. We did a detailed expectations discussion with all the involved organisations and understood their separate roles and vision for the project. We then went on field visits to the various video units, observed sessions in classrooms, held discussions with producers, trainers, teachers & students; all this was then distilled into a narrative cum illustrative document (download pdf – 4.1mb, 16 spreads)

After a detailed brainstorming with the QUEST team, Quicksand participated and documented the proceedings of a visioning workshop it conducted with all its stakeholders. The workshop was the first step in developing a long term sustainability plan for the alliance. The forum was meant to bring together all partners in an effort to dialogue and collectively strategize towards the way forward. Quicksand then synthesized the proceedings that provided interesting insights towards developing a vision document.

Following up from the workshop, Quicksand then conducted a workshop with the QUEST team that involved making decisions on:
- an overall framework depicted by a comprehensive schematic
- articulation of the focus areas and activities involved
- key messages for the diverse audiences
- the overall tone of the vision document

Quicksand then designed a vision manifesto for QUEST, to help the Alliance reach out to new partners, funding agencies and other stakeholders.

Click here to download the brochure (pdf)

Quicksand also designed a concise version of the manifesto for quick reference and for wider audiences.