Digital product & UI/UX
Kindred: Degree Project
Project overview
Kindred was created based on the question “How might we make the way people store their family history, stories, & photos more fulfilling?”. It’s a family website creator with ability to add a family tree, timeline, and photo album. This digital solution was especially pertinent since I was working on this during 2020-era COVID.
Details
Company/client: MassArt
Role: Designer
Team: Professor and classmates
Time period: 2020
Goals
I wanted to make family photos easier to access than the dusty box in the back of your grandparents attic, and have a way for all family members to collaboratively add their own memories and history. This way family history becomes something living!
Process
Looked at existing sources, such as ancestry.com, 23andme, and library records of surnames
Surveyed peers and family members about their interest in and knowledge about their family history
Lead 2 workshops with class:
Had classmates personify designs by describing them the same way they'd describe people. I also asked participants to describe their families in 3 words, so that I could compare those two word sets and come up with the best way to style the website.
Had participants draw their own family tree, freehand.
Created my own family tree sketch and came up with rules (ex: same generation on the same level of tree, youngest at bottom)
Wireframed the website
Created a medium fidelity interactive prototype of the site to present
Created a promotional page and promotional materials for the site
Challenges
The ways people think of their families are so different, it was challenging to create a site that could accommodate that. The family tree ended up being more complex than I anticipated — there’s so many ways to visualize a family tree! And they get very complex very quickly. I worked around these by making the site very customizable and modular, something like website builders like Wix.Interviewing people off the street was also an interesting challenge!
Success
The site succeeded in capturing the many different complexities I wanted to cover. I was able to cover its main functionality in my degree project presentation, and it went over well with the audience and my own family.
As a silver lining, it was also a great way to stay in touch with my family while we were all quarantining in early COVID.
Walkthrough of medium-fidelity prototype
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