In order to achieve change, we don't need heroes, we need pioneering minds who are open to re-learning, who believe in collaboration, whose dreams are unlimited, and who can remain humble. So, new "makers!" And wouldn't you know it, we think we found a way to bring them together!
The European Community-supported social innovation platform OpenMaker aims to bring together minds that are part of the "maker" movement from around the world in the name of change. That's why OpenMaker is much more than a platform, in our parlance, it's a "movement" in and of itself.
The Open Maker Movement started 2 years ago. Hamza Zeytinoğlu and Stefano Battiston began it as a Social Intelligence Network project. English, Spanish, Italian, and Slovakian teams joined the Turkish team from Bosphorus University to establish an AI-enabled ecosystem. In the beginning of 2018, we got involved in the project to implement the UI and UX designs.
With about 4 months of work, we've re-created OpenMaker in a sense by taking a step-by-step approach using Antrikot's UI/UX design methodology. We defined the badge mechanism, the chat-bot integration, the recommendation algorithm and the customization features, using user profiles we created from face-to-face interviews. We created a strong user experience for Open Maker with branding studies that give the platform its identity.
The platform launched at the Digital Social Innovation Fair in Rome in June of 2018, and will soon be used by makers themselves. Sustainability and interactivity forever!
