Chhange (Center for Holocaust, Human Rights & Genocide Education) of Brookdale Community College, New Jersey hosts an array of exhibits. One of which—the Journeys Beyond Genocide exhibit—educates students on genocides past and present, in an effort to reduce the misconception that genocides are solely a concept of the past.
This exhibit exposes students to the compelling human story behind the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, and the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
Visits conclude with Stand Up for Human Rights, an interactive section highlighting modern day genocides which enables student groups to explore, process, and take action. Our role was designing a web app that navigated this content on two large, interactive touch screens.
Chhange needed the flexibility to add and edit stories as the exhibit’s content changed, and specifically wanted a web agency partner with Craft CMS expertise (an intuitive content management system that Chhange had just built their website with), which we have. Also, the exhibit is predominantly visited by local school students, who are guided through the various survivor stories by their teacher or an exhibit lead. So, we designed the layout and navigation of the app with this in mind, making the presenter's job as straightforward as possible.
Upon clicking on an individual survivor story, there is a clear flow for the presenter to flow through. The group is walked through where that survivor’s particular genocide is occurring, what impact the genocide is having, why it is happening, and finally, the student’s get an insight into the survivor’s own personal history.
At the end of each story, the students are prompted to take action to help end genocides visa calls-to-action like removing products made of conflict materials from their personal purchase cycle and sharing what they learned with friends on social media, etc.
Another key design element was promoting a deep, human connection with the content through the use of rich imagery and video. By ensuring the survivor’s headshot was ever-present beside relevant content, the text didn’t lose context.
Another factor to consider was that internet connection at the exhibit site is not reliable. Knowing this, we deployed the web app locally and on a web server, ensuring that the data captured from the two touchscreens during the day was synched up each night, and available to download and disseminate when needed.
Chhange have a flexible and intuitive web app that has been specifically designed to promote its content in a memorable way. The exhibit launched in August 2017 and is currently running. Book your visit today.
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