Students will launch the project by exploring how text structures shape understanding, conduct firsthand interviews with community members about local issues, and create structured empathy maps grounded in direct quotes and observations to prepare for defining a clear user-centered problem.

Students will synthesize their community interview research into clear, evidence-based problem statements that identify a specific user, a core need, and an insight grounded in cause and effect or problem and solution text structures.

Students will generate a wide range of possible interactive digital story map solutions grounded in real user needs, then narrow their ideas using user-based criteria and text structure clarity before sketching testable concepts.

Students will build, test, and revise interactive digital story map prototypes that explain local community issues using cause and effect or problem and solution structures. They will move from low-fidelity paper models to higher-fidelity digital versions, document user feedback, and refine their work to better serve real users and clearly communicate text structure.

Students will conduct a final round of user testing with new community members, refine their interactive digital story maps based on feedback, and present their full design journey at the local library exhibition, clearly explaining how cause and effect or problem and solution structures help users understand community issues.