Year: 2024
Role: Project Manager & Creative Lead
Attributes:
Media Design
Civic Education
Informal Learning
For Ages 10-15
As part of a team project, I designed an interactive, "choose your own adventure" style TV series for middle schoolers. The aim is to empower young minds with the tools to reimagine civic discourse.
The story takes place in the City of Ideas, where ideas come to life. Three teens tackle the villain Discordia, who distorts ideas and turns people against one another. They must navigate different districts to gain tools for communication and collaboration. Along the way, viewers make choices that determine how the characters navigate and interact with one another.
Brainstorming: Physical and virtual Post-it notes helped my team brainstorm and organize our thoughts for the project, which started with the prompt of creating an artifact of informal learning that addresses civic education challenges. Once we had a clear sense of the problem we wanted to solve, we dove deep into brainstorming and outlining our product.
Character and Storyline Development: We started bringing our ideas together through an outline. Once we decided on an interactive TV series, we developed characters that engaged multiple dimensions of diversity and offered windows and mirrors for young people to explore.
Wireframing and Image Generation: Once our physical wireframing of the branched "choose your own adventure" pilot episode segment was complete, we began our virtual development. We built a Figma wireframe, drafted AI image prompts, and designed our prototype.
Figma Prototype Testing: Next, we conducted a small-scale formative evaluation with a member of our target audience. We learned valuable lessons about our product direction and storyline during this process.
Presentation: Finally, we presented the process and product to an expert panel of children's media leaders, who gave us positive feedback. They offered constructive suggestions and were entertained by the interactivity.
Selected Works
Interactive TV Series: DeliriumCivic Education
Interdisciplinary Learning FrameworkFormal Education Guide
Flying TreehouseChildren's Theater Group
Early Childhood Collaborative Art ResearchUndergraduate Research
Arts and Culture Learning Platform: Culture CanvasArt and Cultural Learning
Making to Make a Difference CurriculumCurriculum Design
Buzzfeed-Style Empathy AssessmentEmpathy Development
Joint Media Engagement ResearchResearch Publication
Diary Study of Zoom School ResearchResearch Publication
Caregiver Perspectives on School Activities ResearchResearch Publication