Method

A small team at Method worked on the design of Link TV’s ViewChange.org in the beginning of 2010. We are excited that the site is recently launched out of beta. ViewChange.org is a platform for social and global action and is the latest extension of Link Media’s mission to engage, inform and inspire viewers to become involved in the world. The website was both socially rewarding and interesting for Method to design. The main challenges in designing the user interface were encouraging discovery of content that was still related to topics of interest and also inspire users to take action at every step. We worked closely with the main stakeholders, involving the client in participatory workshops and design ideation sessions intended to bring their vast expertise into the design process.

ViewChange.org, funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, combines Link Media’s vast library of documentaries and film shorts with rich, semantic tools that indentify key topics and automatically draw in the web’s best related articles, actions, and content. Method made all of this content accessible by creating the concentric circle theme for related information to combine with surface related issues, regions, and media. We built in links to “take action” at each level to ensure a personal relationship with the data and connect individual actions to the global issues being discussed. For example, one piece titled “12 actions I can take to fight world hunger,” presents simple steps that each of us can take to make a difference.

Initial Ideation
We started the project exploring multiple concept models, or metaphors to organize key aspects of the experience. Each concept model illustrates some high level interactions of features and functionality. The various concepts tackled different problems: how to identify key global development issues, how to show related information about particular videos, and how to browse a wide array of disparate video topics in an engaging manner. In parallel we also held several ideation sessions to identify additional interesting features that could be highlighted on the site. Each of these sessions were held as workshops with the client.

Concepting and Wireframes
The disparate ideas were combined into two unique concepts. After the client selected one to move forward with, that concept was expanded into detailed wireframes.

Final Design
The final interface encourages discovery through a fluid relationship building interface – concentric circles and related information build open each other to surface related issues, regions, and media. “Take action” links at every step ensure a personal relationship with the data, connecting global issues (world hunger) to every individual (12 actions I can take to fight world hunger). With access to a rapidly evolving database of structured content, visitors will be able to more effectively engage with policymakers working to eradicate hunger, poverty and disease in the developing world.

Read the full case study.