A 360 experience website that aids in the story telling of Greek-Americans, utilizing assets from The Hellenic-American Project’s existing archives.
For this product design project the aim was to design the event and interaction experience for The Hellenic American Project Society. The goal was to improve the organization’s engagement with its current members and attract new ones through digital interfaces. Designing a product and experience for a non-profit organization with a focus on solving the right problem, using human-centered design, research, and rapid prototyping. Leading a team of 3 we created this project over the course of 14 weeks.
Overview
Have you ever felt like it is hard to maintain focus and comprehend everything on a research paper? If yes, you are not alone! Academic websites can be dull, dry, and full of text. Not to mention how hard it could be to absorb and keep up with all the information from all the different resources and references cited on the website. We worked to improve the digital interface of The Hellenic American Project’s website to engage its current members and attract new ones through an innovative way of researching. The challenge here was to create a way for the organization to tell its story using an innovative digital interface that interactively showcases its existing archives. As a result, my team and I created a 360 Experience website that utilizes assets from The Hellenic- American Project’s existing archives. The website aims to showcase users a more encompassed way to view photos, videos, and information.
UNDerstanding HAP
The Hellenic American Project (HAP) aims to provide a cultivated insight on Greek-American heritage through a multifaceted documentation process. Their current repertoire spans across traditional artist mediums, video interviews of immigrants, and archives of literary material. Founded by Nicholas Alexiou, HAPSOC is located inside Queens College’s CAMPUS, and occupies a Gallery/Event space located at the Queens Hall, Room 015. They are currently in the process of digitizing their archive. Their online presence is minimal, including a Facebook and Instagram. On Youtube and Vimeo they are a sub category under Queens College’s primary account. They operate as a Not-for-profit organization following 501(c)(3) guidelines which many other Museum and collectives operate under.
PERSONA & USER JOURNEY
We focused our efforts in developing a solution that would help people like Adonis.
OPPORTUNITY STATEMENT
There's an opportunity to provide Incoming Freshman of Gen Z with new sources of information that he currently wasn't aware through a 360 experience of artifacts talked about during the immigration journey paired with their interview as a guiding voice over.
INSIGHT
There were three key insights that drove our project. The first was the idea of utilizing HAP’s existing archives and resources to maximize its capabilities. The second insight was the idea of helping HAP be more relevant to the younger generation. We will help HAP achieve this by working on their online presence. We felt that HAP had all the existing content necessary to create an exciting digital interface from as opposed to generating new content. Third, we wanted to make these existing archives more interactive and fun to see on their website.
CHOSEN IDEA
We found that an Interactive 360 experience was the best option because through it HAP could showcase all their existing archives such as photographs, literature, and videos all encompassed in one place, This allows HAP to represent existing material in a more exciting way!
