SHADES OF BLACK

Project Type: School Fall 2016 (solo)

Role: Designer, Developer

Assignment: This was my first project in the Interactive Media Design program. Our main task was to create a site that used a database. The guidelines were to explore every stage of the design process and create a theme around social justice and awareness. I had zero experience with PHP and very little with HTML or CSS, so this was a difficult project for me. Though the site itself did not come together like I would have hoped, the process was very rich and I am more proficient with developing than I was before.

My site was geared towards the idea of sharing experiences and providing insight into the lives of black youth in America. Our society has a tendency to lump a lot of us together as a stereotype, but we are all very different. My site was meant to empower and educate those already in the community and those who wished to be allies of it.

First Stages

First and foremost, I learned that when you create content, you have to be aware of what is already out there. Will I have competitors and/or am I making something that already exists? In this first stage, I did a competitive analysis, started a backlog, and a use case chart.

The next step was figuring out who my users were and what they would come to my website to do. In short, deciding what the functionality would look like.

One of the most enjoyable parts of this preliminary stage, was user research. I attended Black Student Union, spoke to students, and quizzed my friends on what they would want from a website like this. Through those conversations, I made user personas. Detailed summaries of fictitious people who might interact with my website.

Design and Development

Once the research was completed, I created wireframes and storyboards. My intention was to make a platform where users would see scattered photos and stories on the home page, prompting them to click and read different views of the black experience.  The user could then post their own story and/or photo, find local community events, or play a game.

I hadn't planned to add gamification to this project, but I decided it would be powerful if I made a game that explored bias, stereotypes, and the role that each of us play in them. I then drafted up a text based 'choose your own adventure' using the platform Twine, where the 'player' encounters different people of color and makes choices that influence the outcome of their lives.