Monumental Change
Project Description: As participants of the hack'20 hack-a-thon, my team and I created an educational augmented reality application to highlight the hidden history of monuments. I was the only designer on my team and designed the branding, user experience, and interaction design elements. Our mobile app allows users to see all monuments and historical sites near them- when they are close to a particular site they can interact with it in Augmented Reality (AR), viewing BIPOC-sourced information on its history, local discussions, and opportunities to get involved in petitions or other forms of historical site activism. We chose AR because we felt it would prompt meaningful interaction with these sites, re-contextualizing online discussions and information as being physically part of the world around us.
Quick Stats
My Role: Only UX Designer 👩💻
My Team: Developers (Patrick Render & Tanner Poling)
Duration: Hack-a-thon August 15th, 2020- August 16th, 2020
Tools: Figma, Whiteboard & RedBull
Background
BIPOC lives matter. After witnessing the repeated injustices against black and brown people in our country, I felt motivated to act. I view design as an agent for change and wanted to create something that challenges existing institutional racism in a meaningful way. Recently, statues and monuments all around the country have been called into question, taken down, or bowled over for glorifying discriminatory ideals.
In August of 2020, the University of Washington Black Student Union put on a month long art- as- protest exhibition to call for the removal of our very own George Washington Statue as well as meeting the demands of the students.
Inspired by this movement, we asked:
How might we support ongoing discussion of who and what should be idolized in our country?
Watch the video pitch below!
Design
Informative
Oftentimes, people walk past monuments without understanding what the monument idolizes. The application should provide accurate information from diverse perspectives on historical monuments.
Amplifying
The features of this application should be centered around amplifying BIPOC voices and discussion of monuments. I partnered with BLMUW for content sourcing.
Key Pathways
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Explore
Users can view a map of local monuments and get directions to a selected monument.
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Monuments
Users can view a monument and information, artwork and related discussions through Augmented Reality.
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Saved
Users can see saved monuments and continue reflecting on discussions shared.
Mobile
View our clickable prototype here
