The need is visceral: every working class NYC parent should get financial support caring for our children. Barrier: filling out the CFWB-012. Thanks to my 4083 class I have some possible design solutions for that narrow problem.

But what I’ve discerned about the President’s (where I work) vision for this Life Skills curriculum is for it to be infectious, that is, the templates we create now, for this α prototype, will be subsequently replicated when/wherever any opportunity to offer Life Skills across our business’ network resonates, in as many permutations, as quickly as possible.

So a fill-out-a-form training is just a hint at a much wider and broader problem which this Life Skills seeks to address.

RQ1: How can working class NYC [parents] channel their creativity into [mastering the skills necessary to fill out the form]?

For my score of years teaching, my interests:

• green building,
• trades math,
• test prep for Local Union Entrance Exams,
• Science and Computer Labs,
• Chemistry
  (and Biology/Math in a pinch when I was short on the rent).

My first ID work assignment (assigned this month 🙌) is completely out of my league: Life Skills. My manifest has consistently tacked towards a reputation as “super SME,” someone who knows his content area every which way, and on top of that, is well trained on online ID.

So “interest” is hardly accurate,
fear & trepidation,
closer.

The President where I work is interested in developing a Life Skills curriculum. I know it has something to do this child care form. At my last meeting it was observed it’s “unjust.” I emphatically agree.

There, is my first, and currently only, divergent point to reflect upon what my problem/topic area/theme for my product/service OR curriculum activity that I find [interesting] (so far).

Every year in NYC, millions of disbursed monies are not picked up, because we can’t type in the text box online forms, upload the picture, train our eyeballs on the correct part of the screen, uneasy about texting the government personal information. Sometimes, English skills are the overarching barrier, othertimes, computer skills, and so on.

Once again, sooner than expected,
I am in deep waters without a map.

Because of COVID, I dry docked at Master of Education in Design of Learning Technologies in Fall 2022. Ever since, I have been developing heuristics, and the resultant databases, within my SME. Basic questions I would normally quickly answer as I develop my career path, in my SME, I got nothing on for the following questions concerning Life Skills.

Can/has [Life Skills] be/en:

• learned creatively?
• published being learned creatively?
• designed (published) creatively?

So for my first (🙌)ID work assignment, my well treaded ID heuristics are bald—so I’d be spinning my wheels if i relied on them too much for this ID project. I’m shooting blind here.

So “who,” I can only base on my personal experiences, since 1997, of/with/for participants in my worker education classes, mostly people interested in getting into a local trades union:

• Young people not interested in a career path requiring traditional university degrees
• Mothers returning to work after raising children
• Immigrants seeking work
• People making poor decisions in the past who seek a different life
• Low-income people who will take any free class we can offer

But my organization has a new President, recently replacing its founder who started my worker education organization back in the 80s. So my tranche of memories may not be a good reference point to gauge the unknown seas ahead.

So “who” is not just another problem for me, it’s problematic. If the people Life Skills seeks to address are mostly like the thousands of people who have passed through my classes since the Towers fell, then yes, I have a bright lodestar to tack towards when imagining who my product will serve developing a Life Skills curriculum, but even that foundation, for me, right now, feels more like sand.