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Design Resarch

Sharing the stories of Black content creators for unique product insights 

Brief

Showcase the narratives of Black creators on a content creation platform by focusing on an object that they felt symbolized their identity and mission on the platform.

Goal 

Create designed research artifacts that build empathy with the client's employees through identifying unique product implications for the platform based on the creators' stories and experiences. 

My Role: 

Research Lead 

Methods: 
  • Participatory research 

  • Diary studies 

  • In Depth interviews 

  • Active feedback cycles & co-creation with the participants 

  • Creation of socialization plan 

Tools: 
  • Figma 

  • Miro 

  • Adobe Illustrator  

  • Adobe After Effects 

The Outcome

We created a designed research magazine and videos that shared the content creators stories and surfaced product implications for the platform. 

Research

We developed research methods that were culturally sensitive. We specifically chose storytelling through objects as our theme because it created space for celebration of Black culture and the community and honored the Black tradition of archiving through objects. Historically, Black communities have been stripped of their collective memories and the materials of everyday life, so archiving is a cultural tradition that helps to preserve Black stories, Black experiences, and Black culture.

Research Best Practices 
  • Created digital toolkits, allowing the creators to share photos of their objects & videos of the objects, while leaving the objects in their hands including sending detailed instructions of how to take photos and photo-booth light boxes. 

  • Established an active feedback cycle with the creators to ensure the stories shared were true representations of their journeys and objects.

  • Final stories were only shared with full approval from the creators

  • Shared final artifacts with the creators to use for their own content.

Research.png

Outputs  

Through the research, we created two designed artifacts to share the creators stories. 

Output 1: 56 page Designed Research Magazines 
Students High-Fiving

Output 2: Creator Videos 

We also created videos that shared the creators stories in their own words. ​We had creators answer a set of questions then created videos that showcased their stories. We emphasized their quotes and added footage from their channels that showcase the objects. 

Videos.png
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