Patrīcija Jolkina, a graduate of the BA Graphic Design programme at the Art Academy of Latvia (AAL), has created a prototype for the website Radošie+darbs (Creatives+Work), which provides information on the most common types of employment in the creative professions and the related taxes. The tool was developed in collaboration with Vineta Kreigere, who is currently studying for her PhD at AAL and has developed the content of the site as her dissertation.
Creative professionals are often forced to navigate between different types of employment and tax regimes. Keeping up-to-date with changes in the law and figuring out which type of work suits them best can be a challenge. The information available on the State Revenue Service’s (SRS) website is not easy to understand, scattered in different sections, and not intuitive to find. To tackle this problem, Vineta Kreigere and Patrīcija Jolkina are working on a tool where all the employment information relevant to creative professionals can be found in one place and in everyday language. Radošie+darbs explains the five most common types of employment in the creative sector and their differences and gives a step-by-step guide on how to get started and how each type of employment will unfold.
To make it easier for the user to perceive and navigate the large amount of information, Patrīcija’s priority was UX/UI design. On the main menu of the site, the types of employment are arranged, each with its own colour, making it easier for the user to identify them. «In a bureaucratic process, coloured sticky notes make the work more creative, allowing for the generation of ideas,» Patrīcija explains. Each section summarises key information and upcoming changes for each type of employment. A horizontal scrolling bar leads the user through all the key steps involved in starting and progressing through the type of employment. These steps are also set out in detail below.
The Radošie+darbs website is still a work in progress, with the authors improving both the content and the design, as well as testing the used solutions. «We have been in constant contact during the development process so that I can better understand the complex and unfamiliar information and Vineta can understand my ideas and design solutions. To get feedback from the target audience, we went to present the idea to the Creative Union Council during the process, and we also tested the prototype with both creative professionals and SRS staff,» says Patrīcija. The site is expected to be completed in September this year, when Vineta will present the site as her dissertation. A prototype of the Creative+Work website for desktop is available here.
The supervisor of Patrīcija’s bachelor thesis at the Art Academy of Latvia is Ingūna Elere, while Barbara Ābele supervises Vineta’s dissertation. You can see other projects by Design Department students until July 14 at the Design Days exhibition in the main building of AAL, as well as in the exhibition’s virtual catalogue.
Viedokļi