Idea: Memorial/Interactive exhibit around police brutality, that seeks to provide discomfort, education, and perhaps empathy.
Description: Interactive exhibit that aims to serve both as a memorial to those affected by police brutality, and as a wake up/call to action. So many of these people are either held up as either the “good person that pulled themselves up by their bootstraps/person from a good family” or as a “thug”, where their police record is mentioned almost as a defense, when all of these people should be treated fairly regardless of their circumstances.
Personas:
“The Retired Worker”
Name: Mark Lefferts
Age: 45
Location: Youngstown, OH
Occupation: Retired Steelworker
Political Views: Conservative
About(quick highlights): Grew up in a working class family, started working straight out of high school, community college grad, worked in plants on the production line until plant closed. Pull self up by bootstraps mentality, never would describe himself as someone with prejudices.
“The Socially Aware Grad Student”
Name: Sarah Douglass
Age: 28
Location: Chicago, IL
Occupation: Graduate Student
Political Views: Liberal
About(quick highlights): Considers herself to be politically aware of what’s going on, active on social media, participated in the women’s march, not too sure about what intersectionality is. Feels confident that she’s doing her best to help others
User Journey Map:
Mark
Hears about a new exhibit opening up from his niece.
While it’s not his usual thing, he agrees to go with her
Considers cancelling, but goes on the appointed day
Walks through the rest of the gallery, and is reluctant to approach the police brutality exhibit
Feels uncomfortable, but continues on.
Finds that as he experiences more of these people’s lives, things don’t seem so black and white
Leaves the exhibit with more questions than answers
Sarah
Sarah
Hears about the new exhibit from her social media circle
Decides to go check it out with a group of friends
Thinks that she knows what she can expect, perhaps feels a little bit ahead of other visitors
Finds that she does learn more than she expects from the exhibit
Perhaps finds that her previous assumptions have been challenged, even if she thought she didn’t ‘need’ to see the exhibit as much as other people
Inspiration:
Thoughts on execution:
Initial thoughts is for a web application that allows users to access information about the incident, the victim’s lives, statistics, and the narrative of the community. I’d like to use sound, images, and video to tell the narrative of the community & victim, without leaning too hard into the violence. My concern is that I handle it with care, the last thing I want is for it to become too much about the community’s pain.