1. Thoughts on the overall experience:
At the start of the semester the net neutrality fight was reaching a critical moment. Even so I was surprised by how many of the people I talked to didn't know about (or really understand) net neutrality. Despite the net neutrality movement being almost unavoidable on the internet and there being several great pro-net neutrality organizations, it seemed like it was hard for people to get an understanding of the issue. It took me a lot jumping around from site to site to gain an understanding for myself when the issue first started to gain traction, and it seemed that this was largely still true despite the recent popularity surrounding net neutrality. My thinking in taking on net neutrality despite there being several other net neutrality sites, was to create a space geared toward the perspective of college students and to pull all of these other resources together (to curate them) to help make understanding net neutrality easier.
I moved through this process with this as my guiding principle. I designed the three main menu pages to address the issues I felt most important: helping people understand, explaining why they should care, and empowering them to do something about it. I found that curating the content was one of the easier parts. There are so many great net neutrality resources on the web, my goal was to collect them in one place for people. I was surprised to find that the social media aspect was harder for me. It is harder than you would think to come up with original social media content. I have definitely learned that I am very much not a graphic designer, but I've also learned that that may be an area I want to learn more about.
2. Evaluation of success:
One of the main goals of this website was to be a place that was accessible to students who may know nothing about net neutrality. I wanted the website to be easy to understand for an issue that a lot of my peers (that I've spoken to) say is confusing. College students supporting net neutrality almost seems like a "no-brainer", but a surprising number of students don't understand what is at stake. To that end, I think the site is quite successful. One of the things I noticed when I was looking at other net neutrality sites is that it takes a little digging around to really get an understanding of the issue from them. I designed this site to act like a guide and I think it functions well to put the most relevant information in one place.
That said, another area to look at in terms of success would be how many people the site actually reached. In this area I have had less success. I only have 5 followers on Twitter and Pintrest as of now, and on Facebook I only have 3 likes. I feel like the site does a good job on content, but the movement itself still has yet to really get off the ground.
3. What would you have done differently?
I think I would have tried to go for brighter logo design if I could do it again. The orange that I chose I liked, but what I did not anticipate was that the rest of the site (being so dark) would make it seem a bit dark. I also would have put more thought into what kind of images I could create beyond text-based (though I am very much not a graphic designer). The movement could have used more original images/content on social media to promote the site. This would have helped to make the movement stand out and give it more personality as opposed to simply sharing other organizations posts on social media.
4. What is (or could be) your plan for this project in the future?
If I was going to continue this project, I think my next goal would be to get the site seen by more people. I would ramp up my social media usage and try to get more views. I would start trying to work on the branding and create new images to use to promote the site on social media. I would also try to make more videos to post on social media (and fix up the existing video). My goals would be to get 100 page views in a week, to get to 100 followers on all social media.
At the start of the semester the net neutrality fight was reaching a critical moment. Even so I was surprised by how many of the people I talked to didn't know about (or really understand) net neutrality. Despite the net neutrality movement being almost unavoidable on the internet and there being several great pro-net neutrality organizations, it seemed like it was hard for people to get an understanding of the issue. It took me a lot jumping around from site to site to gain an understanding for myself when the issue first started to gain traction, and it seemed that this was largely still true despite the recent popularity surrounding net neutrality. My thinking in taking on net neutrality despite there being several other net neutrality sites, was to create a space geared toward the perspective of college students and to pull all of these other resources together (to curate them) to help make understanding net neutrality easier.
I moved through this process with this as my guiding principle. I designed the three main menu pages to address the issues I felt most important: helping people understand, explaining why they should care, and empowering them to do something about it. I found that curating the content was one of the easier parts. There are so many great net neutrality resources on the web, my goal was to collect them in one place for people. I was surprised to find that the social media aspect was harder for me. It is harder than you would think to come up with original social media content. I have definitely learned that I am very much not a graphic designer, but I've also learned that that may be an area I want to learn more about.
2. Evaluation of success:
One of the main goals of this website was to be a place that was accessible to students who may know nothing about net neutrality. I wanted the website to be easy to understand for an issue that a lot of my peers (that I've spoken to) say is confusing. College students supporting net neutrality almost seems like a "no-brainer", but a surprising number of students don't understand what is at stake. To that end, I think the site is quite successful. One of the things I noticed when I was looking at other net neutrality sites is that it takes a little digging around to really get an understanding of the issue from them. I designed this site to act like a guide and I think it functions well to put the most relevant information in one place.
That said, another area to look at in terms of success would be how many people the site actually reached. In this area I have had less success. I only have 5 followers on Twitter and Pintrest as of now, and on Facebook I only have 3 likes. I feel like the site does a good job on content, but the movement itself still has yet to really get off the ground.
3. What would you have done differently?
I think I would have tried to go for brighter logo design if I could do it again. The orange that I chose I liked, but what I did not anticipate was that the rest of the site (being so dark) would make it seem a bit dark. I also would have put more thought into what kind of images I could create beyond text-based (though I am very much not a graphic designer). The movement could have used more original images/content on social media to promote the site. This would have helped to make the movement stand out and give it more personality as opposed to simply sharing other organizations posts on social media.
4. What is (or could be) your plan for this project in the future?
If I was going to continue this project, I think my next goal would be to get the site seen by more people. I would ramp up my social media usage and try to get more views. I would start trying to work on the branding and create new images to use to promote the site on social media. I would also try to make more videos to post on social media (and fix up the existing video). My goals would be to get 100 page views in a week, to get to 100 followers on all social media.