Encouraging the next generation to form opinions on the political, social, and environmental issues of today.
B2C - Branding • Product Design • UXR • Marketing • Social
Inspired by my passion for policy and data visualization, I designed a fictional product called ‘The Super Simple Guide’ that explains current events to kids in an accessible and engaging way.
I partnered up with a local public school class in Savannah, GA to conduct research and create a few deliverables for a proof of concept.
Roles & Responsibilities
Brand + Product Designer, Researcher
Research: User Interviews, Competitive Research
Product Design: Information Architecture, User Flows, Prototypes
Brand Design: Brand System, Brand Campaign, Social Graphics, Vector Illustration and Motion Graphics
User Interviews & Competitive Research
Why Gen-Z?
"The future of our country rests on our ability to successfully educate the next generation." — Carlos Rodriguez-Pastor, CEO Intercorp
IDEO, Designing a School System from the Ground Up
Student Interviews
I conducted seven one-on-one interviews with a range of students attending private and public schools in different states.
I learned more about their social media habits and how current issues are addressed within the classroom, in friend groups, and online.
What is stopping kids from getting involved in these issues?
Intimidation, Lack of Interest, Overwhelming Resources
Teaching Methods
I interviewed high school and university educators in the Savannah-Chatham area, asking them about their methods and their experiences bringing up political/ social/ environmental issues in the classroom.
I researched current teaching methods, learning about things such as scaffolding and the implementation of technology in the classroom.
Competitors
I observed what established publications that provide visual explainers like The New York Times, FiveThirtyEight, Vox, and 5 Calls do.
I researched visual explainers that target students, and performed SWOT analysis on each to understand what was working and what was lacking.
Resources
1. Good information, but were either too broad, too specific, contained blocks of paragraphs, or used political jargon.
2. The poor design of the sources left me feeling overwhelmed and ignorant— not empowered and educated.
3. None of these sources were targeted towards kids/teens— the most visual learners yet.
Current Issues
This was as much a learning tool for students as it was for me. My process for the explainers involved researching topics and strategies, the 5W1H for each, and how it would vary among persons.
Deliverables
Product: Web
The product acts as a library featuring interactive games, infographics, etc.. Set in a horizontal layout to prevent bias of displaying one issue to be more important than the other. Users can tap into each article, navigate and filter from the homepage.
Landing Page
(Tap to expand) From left to right: Filtered Dashboard (Parent), Article (Child), Custom Search Page
Product: Lesson Plans
Within the web product, educators can download a corresponding lesson plan. These were tested and iterated upon with student participants.
An example of a Teaching Guide. The students would watch the explainer and then split up into the class activity.
Each group would receive a worksheet that helps break down the topic using the 5W1H method.
5W1H
UX: User Journey
Here we follow Isabel, a sixth-grader in California who's family may be split up due to the raids, and how the Super-Simple Guide could help. Inspired by this New York Times story.
Social: Snapchat Story
Marketing: Print Campaign
A series of posters and infographics that addresses information about Voting in Elections, Calling a Representative, and Attending a City Hall or Town Meeting.
Each poster contains handouts with common questions about the topic.
On the other side of the handouts, there is a Snapcode that redirects to the Speak Project on the SSG website. And just to make sure, I checked, people do use Snapcodes.
Thank you!