Overview
The Storytelling project is a one page website I created to encourage employers to hire nonviolent ex-offenders to help support their reentry into society. This helps prevent the cycle of re-incarceration.
Problem Statement and Constraints
There are no known web-campaigns to support ex-offenders so I decided to dedicate one of my projects to creating one to share with my community. I only had two days to implement this solution.
Design Process
I had to find the best approach to bring awareness while also making a difference in the life of an ex-offender. I knew a website would have to be easy for potential employers to understand and have a clear call to action. I thought about the commercials which call for pet adoption or to feed hungry children. What they all had in common was that they told captivating stories and used imagery to cause emotional reactions in their audience. I decided I would use a similar approach.
I searched online for stories of ex-offenders who became successful. I read through them all in detail and found what they all had in common - they were all given a chance by someone who had the power to give them a lucrative opportunity. I decided to combine the stories together to create a persona on which to frame a unique story. My call-to-action would allow them to be connected to a profile of an actual ex-offender who they could hire.
After writing the story, finding photos and some minor image editing I then developed the website. My professor helped by who supplying the code to give the page a parallax effect. I added the imagery and customized the code to suit my content.
Results
This webpage won second place in the storytelling code challenge contest for my Essentials of Interaction Design class for the M.S in User Experience and Interaction Design program. You can view the finished work here on github.