C ATALIN A R AMI R E Z DI AZ
C O N TE N TS Curriculum Vitae | About me
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Case 1 | Redesigning the website of Bolsa de Valores de Colombia
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A straightforward research process
Case 2 | Inclusive finances and information technologies for environmental conservation
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2022
An open-ended research process
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Bogotá, Colombia catarami93@gmail.com +57 311 492 7344
C ATAL I N A R AM I R E Z D Í AZ G E N E R AL E XP ERIENCE Dic 2021 – Today Pact Colombia – Conectando Caminos por los Derechos project Communications specialist. Support the definition and implementation of the project’s communication strategy in coordination with 58 civil society organizations and partners in 11 capital cities in Colombia. Sep 2020 – Dec 2021 Pact Colombia – Strengthening the Capacities of Indigenous Organizations in the Amazon (SCIOA) project Knowledge management specialist. Design and implement a strategy to articulate the communications and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) project approaches, in coordination with project partners in the 5 countries of influence (Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Guyana and Suriname). Sep 2019 – Sep 2020 Bitácora & Territorio S.A. Social innovation research lead. Design and develop methodologies for different projects using a social and territorial approach. Nov 2018 - Feb 2019 Wunderman Thompson + Bolsa de Valores de Colombia (bvc) UX Consultant. Redesign bvc’s website by understanding its clients and business units’ needs through workshops and co-creation sessions to improve the user experience and access to complex information. May 2017 – May 2019 Patrimonio Natural + U. de los Andes Research assistant. Search for financial alternatives + design communication strategies and tools to strengthen the capacities and the productive processes of a peasant community in Caquetá, Colombia. Sep 2015 - Mar 2017 Imaginamos.co UX designer and consultant. Design services and strategies whose main component was a product or a digital channel for entrepreneurs and business clients such as Comercial Papelera and Bavaria.
ABOU T ME Since I was a kid, I have been known for being curious. I am meticulous, perfectionist, and I think people perceive me as a reliable person. I consider myself to be a “critical designer” as a result of my interest in political and social affairs and the responsibility that I have acquired as a designer in the country I live in. My experience is between the social and the digital world, hoping that, by using my skills as a designer and my social sensitivy as a sociologist, I get to build with people (not for them) a fairer society.
SKILLS Personal:
At work:
Team work Leadership Proactive Commited Recursive
UX experience Research/analytical skills Understanding of complex problems/environments Qualitative research
LANGUAGES Spanish (native) English (IELTS 7.5) French (DELF B2) Italian (PLIDA B2) German
AWARDS Best program GPA (Design) Universidad de los Andes (2014-1) Best classmate - 4 consecutive years. Saint Matthew School (2006-2010)
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E D U CATION In progress (final semester) Sociology; masters degree. Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá Line of research: latinamerican sociology. Jan 2012 - Oct 2016 Designer; undergraduate degree. Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá. Career emphasis: communication. Minor degree in administration. Aug 2011 Bachelors degree. Saint Matthew School, Bogotá.
PRO GRA MS
Adobe Suite (AI, PS, ID, AE, XD) Sketch, InVision MaxQDA WordPress Office (Excel)
RE FEREN C E S Jose Bonilla (+1 857 332 1401) jose@chiper.co Co Founder and CEO at Chiper
Juliana Monsalve (+57 311 4552130) julianamonsalve@yahoo.com Environmental expert at Nuestra Tierra Próspera program (ARD Colombia)
Lizeth Naranjo (+57 310 2774973) lizeth.naranjo.jerez@gmail.com Coordinadora de proyectos at SoleCol
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RELEVANT EXPERIENCE Sep 2020 – Dec 2021 Design and implement the strategy to articulate the communications and monitoring and evaluation project approaches @SCIOA I collected and “translated” qualitative and quantitative information (M&E) into graphic and more friendly formats (comms) to articulate and share knowledge production among project stakeholders (5 partners + 13 indigenous organizations) and to make visible the project results. Sep 2019 – Sep 2020 Design and implement the social innovation strategy for the company @Bitácora & Territorio I designed and launched the implementation of the social innovation strategy of the company (this being one of the new business units the company started to promote back then), based on secondary research and various semistructured interviews. Sep 2019 – May 2020 Design the conceptual and methodological bases of the Social Innovation and Technological Development Lab (SITED). @Bitácora y Territorio + Fundación Ideas para la Paz Within USAID’s Global Development Alliance “Confía+” I designed the conceptual and methodological principles, guidelines, and action plan to implement the SITED in various municipalities of Antioquia with the territorial personnel in-field support. Mar - Sep 2019 Main platform UX diagnosis + redesign. @Aldeamo.com I led the redesign process of “Tell-it”, Aldeamo’s main masive messaging platform. I conducted semistructured interviews, digital day-in-the-life sessions, personas defintion, customer journey mapping and wireframe design with both Aldeamo team members and its clients. Sep 2018 – Ene 2019 “Critical entrepreneurship” virtual course. @Creatorio.co + Gobernación de Nariño After an experiential visit to an ETCR (Espacio Territorial de Capacitación y Reincorporación), with the Creatorio team we designed a virtual course on critical entrepreneurship to promote the (re)integration of disarmed population. Sept 2018 - Feb 2019 Website redesign. @Wunderman Thompson + Bolsa de Valores de Colombia I led the process of bvc’s website redesign, this including secondary research (e.g. benchmarking), research sessions (such as focus groups with bvc unit business teams and clients), co-creation workshops, wireframe design, A/B testing, among other tools. May 2017 – May 2019 Design communication strategies and tools to strengthen rural productivity and promote environmental preservation. @Patrimonio Natural Within an investigation project led by two university professors (U. de los Andes), I supported the definition and implementation of methodologies and tools to gather information on the way a peasant community in Caquetá, Colombia held its productive activities. As a result, a digital tool and a financial model were proposed to strengthen productivy as it promotes environmental preservation too. Sep 2016 – Mar 2017 Diseño de estrategias para grandes compañías. @Imaginamos With the Imaginamos team we designed various digital transformation strategies for companies who wanted to upgrade thier services to the digital world. We worked with companies like Comercial Papelera and Profitline, by undestanding their users and clients’ needs. Sep 2015 – Ago 2016 UX consultancy to develop digital products. @Imaginamos At the head of different consultancies, I proposed several digital products and virtual dissemination strategies from scrcatch with the Imaginamos team. We conducted veried UX tools to gather information and co-create the products with the different stakeholders. In some of them I designed the wireframes and navigation flows. We obtained important results with companies like Bavaria and Invesa.
PUBLICATIONS Abr 2022 “Vigencia del concepto centro-periferia para comprender nuestra realidad líquida” An updated epistemological and methodological framework to understand how the structural and day-to-day social dimensions are articulated through the center periphery notion. @Revista Mexicana de Sociología http://revistamexicanadesociologia. unam.mx/index.php/rms/article/ view/60280/53193 Mar 2019 “La situación (ir)reflexiva del diseñador [Póster]” Using graphic language, this poster questions the epistemic limits of the modern designer when intervening in contexts that are foreign to him/her. @Creatorio https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sD0fijP5DGQZBU68ehtk0LlYeud_6GGc/ view?usp=sharing Mar 2019 “Bio-currencies: an alternative to Payments for Ecosystem Services” A design approach on how to adapt productive practices of communities to reduce the environmental impact within their territories. @Patrimonio Natural https://revistas.uniandes.edu.co/doi/ full/10.18389/dearq26.2020.07 Dec 2018 “Cosecha: juego de mesa que promueve dinámicas asociativas” This article presents a game created within the Rocío Project to encourage the participants to develop collaboration and association strategies in rural contexts (p.264). @Patrimonio Natural https://arquitectura.uc.cl/proyectos/noticias/3639-proceedings-congreso-intersecciones-2018.html Dec 2018 “Nacimiento: dinámica de juego reflexiva alrededor del agua” Documentation of the co-creation process of didactic, practical and experiential tools to generate dialogue on the importance of preserving water in the Amazon (p.270). @Patrimonio Natural https://arquitectura.uc.cl/proyectos/noticias/3639-proceedings-congreso-intersecciones-2018.html Continues in next page
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OTHER JOBS Jun - Sep 2020 Plataforma de Diálogos Improbables Coordinator of methodologies. I proposed and led the development of tools and methodologies to facilitate dialogue processes between actors in conflict. Jul - Aug 2020 Fundación Trenza + Instituto Distrital de Patrimonio Cultural Graphic designer. I accompanied the graphic, aesthetic and communicative definition of the virtual course “Tejiendo Entorno” to engage students and leaders with the Santafé neighborhood. Jan 2017 - Dec 2018 Fundación Con Las Manos Volunteer. I designed the Con Las Manos workbook (mathematics exercises for 5th grade children) and coordinated Con Las Manos communications area. I was also a math teacher of the children every Saturday.
PRESENTATIONS & CONGRESSES Dec 2018 “Intersecciones”. III interdisciplinary congress of research in architecture, design, city and territory. Chile. Presenting two articles: ”Nacimiento: dinámica de juevo reflexiva alrededor del agua”; “Cosecha: juego de mesa que promueve dinámicas asociativas”)
PUBLICATIONS Mar 2018 “Diseñadores para una innovación epistémica” This article questions the methodological as much as the epistemic role of designers as innovators (p.454). @Creatorio https://www.dropbox.com/s/ma6wwotps6er4vj/Memorias%20SID9.pdf?dl=0 Jun 2016 “Metanomía: la corregulación como desafío colectivo” An approach to citizen culture in Transmilenio to highlight the power of the community regarding a better experience in the system. @Uniandes Undergraduate thesis document. http://issuu.com/catarami_93/docs/ tesisfinal/1
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Mar 2019 The design after. Cumulus conference Bogotá. Colombia Presenting the article “Bio currencies: an alternative to Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES)”. Mar 2019 3rd International Design Research Congress. Colombia Presenting the poster “La situación (ir)reflexiva del diseñador”. Nov 2019 1st International Congress of Latin American and Caribbean Studies: Critical and Decolonial Thought. Colombia Presenting: “The social construction of a mestizo design: The case of informal vendors in Bogotá”. Presentation of an ongoing research case (Master’s thesis).
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Redesigning the website of Bolsa de Valores de Colombia A three-month consulting process in Bogotá, Colombia Within a three-people UX team from Wunderman Thopson, led by me. With Bolsa de Valores de Colombia (bvc) clients, visitors and internal teams.
In 2019, Bolsa de Valores de Colombia started a consulting process to redesign their website. They found it was not only old fashioned, but hard to navigate. Since they had recently updated their brand image, the website (also) could not be left behind. Their website was developed in Java! Unlike the previously presented process (which had a more ‘openended’ methodology) in this project we had more defined time and scope limits. The process was divided into three phases:
In the first phase we...
In the second phase we...
In the last phase we...
•Did a secondary research of the current web and other bvc products’ sites.
•Identified business objectives with board members to prioritize the selected contents.
•Defined navigation flows and user stories (website architecture)
•Had one-to-one sessions with three IT group members.
•Did a stock-websites benchmark to map how other stock markets in the world use their websites.
•Mapped current website users by building buyer personas with bvc internal teams. •Identified what users used which type of information using team’s knowledge and internal website metrics analysis. •Did a “content-cleanse” session to define which contents should stay and which should be removed.
•Did three internal workshops with different bvc teams to identify functional requirements. •Had one-to-one sessions with the four types of clients identified in the personas workshop to understand user (client) needs.
•Did drawn sketches of the main flows and tested them with internal team members. •Designed high-quality wireframes to test the main flows with internal teams and key external users. •Adjusted the first version of wireframes according to the feedback obtained.
•Created a customer jorney map that served as our “bible” in the design process.
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During the first two phases we got to conclude that: • The stock market is highly linked to users’ dreams and fears: it is an opportunity for people as much a risk. Therefore, website contents need to be easy to follow and a lot of feedback to the user (notifications, market states, etc.) needs to be delivered. • The stock market is complex and, thus, produces a high level of frustration. This explains why so many users quit their on-going flows so easily. A user looking for complex information should be able to quickly reach to it (no more than 4 clicks). • bvc website users were widely different in terms of digital ability, age, interests, stock expertise, etc. Therefore, varied user experiences should be simultaneosly present, for different types of information (simple and complex) to be reached.
According to these three key insights, we started the design process having in mind the following UX concept map:
CONTENTS
Stock expert user
Stock amateur user
Ocassional visitor
What should be the“depth” of each of the contents?
Home 1st Click 2nd Click 3rd Click 4th Click
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Internal users have their own login since none of the information they need is shared with external clients.
Complex information can be accessed with cero clicks. More detailed stock information with only one. Using verbs, users can more easily identify the action they want to take.
Descriptive menus also help reducing the number of clicks to reach information.
More expert users are able to customize the information they are looking for.
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40 wireframe screens were developed and tested with users and the internal team. During the workshop, each user had to accomplish specific tasks in the prototype while we observed the most difficult/unclear parts of the process. Due to budget shorcuts, the resulting wireframes were severly modified during the developing phase. Still, many of the UX graphic and content-related recommendations were adopted:
Now, let’s see an open-ended research process.
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Inclusive finances and information technologies for environmental conservation A two-year research process in Caquetá, Colombia. Within a six-people research team from Universidad de los Andes and NGO Patrimonio Natural. With a peasant community in six villages of the municiaplity of San Vicente del Caguán.
How do productive practices of peasant communities in Caquetá, Colombia (agriculture and livestock) impact the Amazonian Piedmont? Project’s main goal: to define an environmental conservation strategy that invites communities to have sustainable and responsible practices with the environment, using information technologies applied to finances and applicable to payment for ecosystem services (PES) models.
The Rocío project, as we called it, was developed within USAID’s “Conservación y Gobernanza” 7-year program.
Since Caquetá is one of the regions with highest deforestation rates in Colombia, the initial research question sought to understand the relation between production and nature.
The research process started with visits to twenty peasant families to: • Get familiar with the territory and build trust. • Understand their relationship with their environment (Amazon Piedmont). • Know their productive practices in relation to their economic rationality/desires. • Identify key stakeholders in the productive chain/network of the region. To dig deeper into their relationship with natural resources and the environment we designed two ludic tools, each to make more explicit...
During the visits we did “social cartographies”, “productive calendars” and “in-and-out diagrams”. Key finding (KF)1: non-monetary trades were still very common. Trust and colaboration was an essential part of their productive practices.
• Their thoughts and perceptions about the use of water and forests, considering they are limited resources. • The rationality behind their agricultural and stockbreeding practices.
(Garet Hardin, 1968; Elinor Ostrom, 2002)
KF2: We discovered this community was a clear expression of the “Tragedy of Commons”, an economics problem in which every individual has an incentive to consume a resource, but at the expense of every other individual. KF3: before water and forests become scarce (far future for them), people needed to solve more immediate situations like food and housing. 9
As the investigation moved forward several tensions became explicit. As a consequence, a new reseach question emerged:
Colaboration vs. cooperation
What type of incentives do amazonian communities need to actively participate in a conservation strategy?
Present concerns vs. future concerns (Self)Well-being vs. conservation
Invidual needs vs. collective needs State solutions vs. community solutions
Traditional practices vs. ‘modern’ practices
To better understand the behavioral motives of the community members, we used “tangible models” to: • Picture what “well-being” looked like for them (what motivates action). • Know their desired future projects and how they related with/depended on the environment.
Tangible models made it easier to have abstract conversations with illiterate participants.
KF4: the community, organically, had developed short-term conservation practices. This means they acknowledged natural resources to be an important part of their present wellbeing, but would not compromise it with long-term conservation practices that (generally) require a high amount of effort, time or money.
People come and tell me to preserve. But I still need to chop down some trees to sow my food. I just would not do it in the banks of the river because we also need the water; here we know that too.”
How can the tension between production and environmental conservation be diminished? And again, a new research question! One of the strongest long-term incentives had to do with their future: strategies that contributed to fulfilling their lifeplans were more likely to be appropriated over time. One of the strongest short-term incentives had to do with productivity: proposed activities that directly or indirectly increased their production (not necessarily their income) were more likely to be developed.
KF5: a strong conservation strategy must deal with people’s short and long-term concerns equally.
What elements should an environmental conservation strategy take into account to last over time? What productive practices/processes can be stregthened and how, to increase their sense of well-being? How can information techs applied to finances contribute to the latter questions? Back to the project’s main goal 10
To foster pro environmental conservation practices, the short-term link between conservation (future) and well-being (present) had to be more explicit.
How can production improve using more environmentally sustainable practices?
Key Opportunity (KO) 1: crops constantly suffer from unknown diseases. Peasants look for YouTube videos to find the cure, despite having a low connectivity access.
KO2: a whole non-monetary transactional system was running in the territory, in which knowledge and milk were valued assets (currencies). Based on the existing production system/dynamic in the territory, we designed a conservation strategy that brought closer ‘modern’ agricultural more sustainable and productively effective practices and knowledge to peasants. It consisted of: • A technological information tool to help them identify and treat crop illnesses (information technologies). • A non-monetary-based financial exchange model that articulated different regional and national stakeholders to improve peasant’s production and, thus, (present) well-being perception (inclusive finances).
Information technologies
Theory of change: if peasants’ production increases/improves as a result of more sustainable practices, peasants will be more likely to adopt (and adapt) sustainable practices over time and, thus, (organically) contribute to environmental conservation.
Tech tool to treat crop diseases
Short technical production courses
Financial management knowledge
Technical knowledge (knowhow) to improve/increase production
Graph 1. Conservation strategy’s theory of change + basic components
Long-term goal (Main objective)
Conservation/restoring commitments
The forest as an exchange currency
Inclusive finances
Short-term goal (Main incentive)
Increased number of preserved/ restored forest terrains
in exchange of
Increased/improved production and well-being perception
A couple of questions helped us taking this down to the practice:
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How does a tech tool should work/ look like in such this rural context? Our initial hypothesis regarding the tech tool was that it had to be very graphical (to deal with illiteracy). We mapped the apps they used, did paper prototyping sessions, InVision prototype tests and even a coded-version prototype to validate this idea.
How does an inclusive financial model be sustainable over time? We co-created the model based on the existing value exchange chain, in which we discovered the milk company in the region played the role of a bank (they offered loans, distributed other products, etc. for milk). Milk, acting as a currency, as forest terrains and knowledge (see KO2), played a key role.
We did a card-sorting exercise to identify what they had (starting point) and what they needed (expectation).
KF7: people in the community were not too familiar with apps and conectivity was a mayor limitation. Despite the app being optimized, contents were slow and navigation seemed confusing. We took some steps back and returned to simple. Having discovered that Facebook was the most common and used app, we developed a chatbot as a means for them to create “enquiry tickets” regarding the diseases of their crops.
Some of the conclusions and previous insights allowed us to build the financial model upon the following key facts: • Milk, one of the most important trading currencies in the region, is product of the stockbreeding economic activity, which is one of the mayor causes of deforestation. • Most people own land (although not many of them have a legal title over it) and develop their stockbreeding activity on it. • There are various agricultural and stockbreeding systems in which harm to natural ecosystems is highly mitigated (forest-pasture and agroforestry systems). • People in the community see education (academic but also technical knowledge) as a key asset to thrive.
This tool was designed to connect expert knowledge (the phytopathology class at U. de los Andes) with practical knowledge (peasants of the community).
Theory
Practice
“Abonar” is a socio-environmental model that works as a “caja de compensación familiar”, this is, a model that articulates different stakeholders to offer services and benefits to a group of people (see graph 2 in next page). In “Cajas de compensación” the main exchange currency is money, most of the times payed by companies where people work. In this model the main currency is the conservation of forest terrains. 12
Graph 2. Abonar strategy model
Correspondent bank point Afiore Trust networks
1
Those who have land and forest terrains
2
Those who have land but not forest terrains
monitoring
PROFILES
Radio Tv Shows YouTube
Rural school
BEFORE
DIFFUSION Territorial planning
9th grade levelling OFFER
EQUIVALENTS PRODUCTS
SERVICES
SUPPORTERS
Forest ‘co-signers (1)
Comunal Action Committees
Beneficiaries (2 & 3)
Productive associations
Result
Village model How many hectares per village are equivalent to one person?
Modes
CATEGORIES
Individual Located on farms and in specific situations
RURAL SCHOOL Examples: Enseña por Colombia Opción Colombia Radio Sutatenza
ALLIES
ACADEMIC PROGRAM
ROLES
OBTAIN
Socio-environmental family welfare fund
Collective actions Village agreements Sum of terrains Seedbeds
(satellite monitoting) monitoring
ABONAR
COLLECTIVE REGISTRATION
who do not have 3 Those land or forest terrains
Group Classes and workshops
Tele-education Radio, videos
COURSES prerequisite monitoring
Platform Monitoring Deliverables
Rural financial literacy Information techs Environmental conservation Approach to communities
TAKE THE COURSE / USE THE SERVICE Academic recognition
Recognition to practice
Commitment results
Applied evidence Course A
ABONAR STAKEHOLDERS
monitoring
Family welfare fund advisor
Course B
Level 1
OFFER
Fnd. Capital
Academia
SENA
(Education faculty)
(Caquetá regional)
Min. Ambiente
Min. TIC
Level 2 Deliverable monitoring
MONITORING
SUPPORT
Min. Educación
PHASES
Fondo Patrimonio Natural
Circular economies Local promoters
In this system, peasants commit to preserve or restore forest terrains in exchange of services and/ or know-how regarding their production. The model was tested by simulating a registration session. The chatbot on its side, complements the efforts to improve the production of community members. See graph 3 (following page) to know the chatbot main conversation flow.
Today, the chatbot continues to be active and has solved over 100 consultation tickets in the community. Technically it is being managed by the professor of the phytopathology class (biology faculty at Universidad de los Andes) and the students who take the class every semester. Technologically, the Rocío teams is in charge of the support desk. Fondo Patrimonio Natural is in a competitive process to win a five-year grant in which the proposed model is one of the key environmental conservation strategies. Both strategies have been documented and published in various academic journals. 13
Chatbot Rocío | Flujo de infomación
Saludo + nombre del usuario
¿Tipo de consulta?
Asistencia financiera
Asistencia técnica
Descripción del tipo de asist. financiera que necesita.
Cultivos disponibles (selector) Café, sacha inchi, cacao, caña, plátano, yuca, frijol, aguacate, ajonjolí.
Selección del cultivo
"Perfecto, revisaré y me pondré en contacto."
¿Tipo de ayuda?
Dudas
Problema
Descripción del problema
¿Qué dudas tiene?
Detalle del problema "Depende del lugar" Cantidad de tiempo del problema identificado
¿Respuesta en número?
No
Introducir información en número
Sí
Número de plantas afectadas por el problema
¿Respuesta en número?
No
Introducir información en número
Sí
Nombre de la finca en la que está el cultivo
¿En dónde está?
San Vicente del Caguán
Carmen de Bolívar
Veredas disponibles (selector) Guacamayas, La Granada, El Caimán, La Argentina, El Nogal, Filolargo, La Música
Solicitud de fotografías
Selección del vereda
"Finalizar" (para el envío de fotos) ¿Llegó por duda o Problema problema? Duda
Convenciones Pregunta/instrucción con restricción.
"Gracias por la información. Me pondré en contacto."
"Gracias por el interés. Me pondré en contacto."
¿El usuario agradece?
Pregunta/instrucción abierta. Botón/selector
"Con gusto, hasta pronto"
Condición
Chao, que esté bien.
And well... “that’s all folks!”
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TH AN KS
C ATALIN A RAMÍ R E Z DÍ AZ Bogotá, Colombia catarami93@gmail.com +57 311 492 7344