Web + User Experience + Education + Digital Humanities
The People Archive
An online open-source archive that uses letters, diary entries, documents, newspaper articles, radio podcasts, interviews, documentaries, etc. as valid historical documents to allow visitors to reconstruct history
DURATION:
2019, 3 weeks
SKILLS:
Evaluation, Archiving, Interviews, Web Design, User experience
MY ROLE:
Planning, design, and execution of all steps of the process
The People Archive is an open-source online repository using diverse historical sources like letters, documents, podcasts, and interviews to reconstruct history.
Inbuilt platforms such as 'the Forum', for discussions, add more value to the learning process through many intellectually stimulating discussions amongst The People Archive Community. This way you build your own understanding of the world in which we live and how it came to be this way. Since the information available is not influenced by textbooks alone but various other resources such as personal accounts of those who experienced it first hand, it hopes to provide a more rounded view of the context. Teachers may use the forum to build specific classrooms to invite students into and conduct classes and discussions differently, especially in remote environments.
With time, as the archive grows, it can transform into not only a vessel to view the past, but to also record the present, hence, making it a live recording tool that someone can look back on to see a history that has been recorded in real-time.
“If only one man dies of hunger, that is a tragedy. If millions die, that's only statistics.”
Joseph Stalin's alleged statement deeply resonated with me, despite its harshness, because it highlights a profound truth. Individual deaths give a human face and identity to tragedy, making the loss tangible even for unknown individuals. In contrast, when numbers are mentioned, we tend to detach from the associated emotions. This detachment explains why people often respond more passionately to specific, personal stories, such as the tragic death of Alan Kurdi, compared to hearing about the deaths of thousands of refugees in the Mediterranean. To fully grasp the societal and individual impact of certain events, it's crucial to connect with people and situations on an emotional level.
Harnessing the power of Historical empathy, I am attempting to transport the community back and forth in time using these resources as the time machines on paths they choose. I believe history will become more interesting to people as they begin to view it as something more personal and relatable. So it is necessary to be able to break down these events into their components. Through this exercise, I am making history more than just dates. I am attempting to make it what I feel it is- about people.
Elements of The People Archive
1. The Map : The main interface that holds a visual organisation of resources according to location. Will eventually be dynamic to scroll across the map. With a change in the timeline, the map and the resources on it will change to reflect the passage of time. If history is truly a consequence of geography, as Jared Diamond said, then what better way of representing than through a map?
2. Historic Resources : Letters, Diary Entries, News, Interviews are sorted according to time, location, and a key showing which side's perspective it is. As one zooms in, more resources reveal themselves. The appearance of these changes according to time.
3. Interactive Timeline : The bottom of the map has a timeline (eventually it will be interactive in nature). One would be able to scroll and pick different times.
4. Forum : The discussion forum where everyone can read posts made by other learners from anywhere in the world. However, you must log in to make a post or comment.
This feature can be used to make private rooms for online learning etc.
The current version explores the Pacific Theater of the Second World War. This was chosen as the project needed a knowledge area which people were familiar enough with to enjoy, but not so comfortable that they would be resistant to learning in a new way.
Process:
> Understanding different kinds of maps
> Brainstorming possible applications of Maps
> Identifying areas of interest
> Looking at other projects using Maps
> Narrowing down after discussions with peers
> Secondary research on the use of maps in a historic context
> Interviews with teachers and students of history at a
school and college level
> Interviews with amateur historians and individuals
interested in history
> Ideating possible ways of representation
> Deciding on the Pacific Theatre of the
Second World war
> Collecting Letters, Diary entries, news,
etc from online archives
> Organising data in analog
> Making a working prototype on wix
Further Plans:
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Making the map and the timeline and information representation more interactive and dynamic.
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Moderated usability testing with a variety of users (students, teachers, casual users of different ages)
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Polishing curation of information and its presentation (working on the graphic elements of the Archive).
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Verifying resources' sources
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Better information architecture; organising information into layers (more information revealed with zooming in) and distributing it.
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Including more of other forms of information such as image and sound, videos etc.