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CLIENT

ABOUT THE CLIENT

The Education team at NMAAHC has many materials related to talking about and teaching about topics related to race. They knew that these materials could be more far-reaching if they were online.

I worked with the NMAAHC Education team strategize and design pages to educate and communicate about topics related to race.

PROJECT

TALKING ABOUT RACE

DISTINGUISHING

FACTORS

Bringing disparate, paper-based classroom material to the digital space.
Deeply understanding the learning process about topics about race and integrating communication techniques from the classroom to the website.

SELECTED MEDIA

Washington Post

As Protests Rage, African American Museum Offers New Forum for Talking About Race (June 1, 2020) Read Article

Travel & Leisure

'Talking About Race' Is a New Online Resource by the National Museum of African American History — Here's How to Use It (Video) (June 4, 2020) Read Article

Washingtonian

Educate Yourself Today: The African American History Museum Wants to Help You Talk About Race and Racism (Jun 1, 2020) Read Article

Smithsonian Magazine

How to Have That Tough Conversation About Race, Racism and Racial Identity (June 4, 2020) Read Article

AWARDS

The Anthem Awards

2022 Gold Winner — Best Community Outreach, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

The Webby Awards

2021 Nominee — Diversity & Inclusion Websites & Mobile Sites

Using language that meets people where they are in their journey of learning about racial topics.

Meeting people where they are in their understanding of topics related to race.

The Education team at NMAAHC has many materials related to talking about and teaching about topics related to race. They knew that these materials could be more far-reaching if they were online.

In response to the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the nationwide protests, the Talking About Race portal was launched early, in May 2020, so that anyone could access these important resources.

This portal was planned for and designed prior to the pandemic, however it became a hallmark for a way to access and utilize classroom materials online.

"By 6 months, babies recognize racial differences, and by 8 years, prejudicial thinking and stereotyping are established."

Subject Matter Expert

Listening and learning

I led strategic sessions with the NMAAHC Education team, and listened to their experiences about teaching race in the classroom, specifically discussing what is difficult, what questions did people ask, and what their goals and vision were for the website.

I also conducted extensive desk research to learn about race and related topics, such as anti-racism, white privilege, and built systems of oppression.

I also was especially interested in what were particular aspects of talking about race that the classroom afforded, rather than an online experience, to ensure that the learning structures could be replicated or improved on.

Our goals

The site needs to guide a person who may not know where to start and are seeking help and structure.

The site needs to feel encouraging and also acknowledge that this is hard.

VISITORS' EMOTIONAL STATE

Before

Site visitors may feel overwhelmed, nervous, unsure, or rushed.

During

Site visitors should feel encouraged, empowered, comforted, and relieved.

After

Site visitors should feel confident, enriched, prepared, and supported.

KEY DESIGN ELEMENTS

In the classroom, if someone doesn't understand a particular term, they can ask about in the moment. It's as if it's an aside to the material or resource.

We brought this to the website through an aside component, so someone who is reading a resource can easily access a definition or description without necessarily interrupting the main material.

DEFINING TERMS IN THE MOMENT

We reviewed websites for how they approached online education, as well as others for how they approached visual spacing.

REVIEWING COMPARATORS & DRAWING INSPIRATION

Another key talking point during our discussions was about why is NMAAHC launching this initiative now? Why Us? Why Now? The importance of this message made it so we recommended having a unique component at the bottom of each page to describe the reasoning, rather than simply a link to the About page.

WHY US, WHY NOW?

CONTENT STRATEGY

The language we use is important. Our teams discussed what labels would be best for the content on the website, as this would be used repeatedly through the pages, messaging, and information architecture.

EXAMPLE

To describe key topics related to race, synonyms of "issue" or "theme" are not as accurate. "Issue" in particular may hold a negative connotation.

"You and the Forum One have been a joy to work with and we look forward to our continued work together."

Client

Impact

The Talking About Race portal offers educators and learners key resources and moments to learn and reflect. The portal was launched at an incredibly important time, and was widely named as a key resource for people to learn about race. It is still an important resource that educators and learners continue to access and learn from.

BRANDING & DESIGN SYSTEM

I've worked with NMAAHC since 2017, so when this project started in 2019, I had a great understanding of how to use the NMAAHC brand system.

For this, we wanted to create a new sub-brand within the overall NMAAHC brand. We also wanted to emphasize the visual pacing to align with the pacing that someone may have as they learn something new.

I collaborated closely with the Art Director to ensure that the brand was expanded on and utilized in a way that fit within the system, but also had a unique and distinguished look.

WHAT’S NEXT STARTS HERE.

Get in touch through LinkedIn.

In the classroom, an educator can pause the learning experience to ask for comprehension. Learners can also pause their learning experience if they need to as the material may be difficult or triggering in certain ways. We discussed how there should be safe spaces, brave zones, and places to pause.

We brought this to the website through a "Stop and Think!" component to recognize these situations and give website visitors important moments of pause.

PAUSING THROUGHOUT THE LEARNING PROCESS

The team created the structure of "Think, Talk, Act" to create a practical way for someone to learn the content. After someone reads about a topic, they need to be guided to what's next. What should they do next?

The Education team crafted unique next steps a person can take, within the Think, Talk, Act framework. Our team created space for it on the website and designed unique iconography to delineate between each section.

ADAPTING FOR A VARIETY OF LEARNING STYLES

Landing Page Wireframe (Left) and Live Site (Right)

DESIGNING UNIQUELY WITHIN THE BRAND

Talking About Race should be welcoming and approachable for all. The primary photos on the homepage change on every reload.