“you all went above and beyond…and the Brand Voice Chart was very helpful for me.”
— Leanna Prax Williams, Alaska History Day Coordinator
Project Details
User research
Content design
Content strategy
My Duties
2 UX designers
1 project manager
My Team
4 weeks
(8 weeks actual)
Timeframe
Alaska History Day is an educational program designed to help middle and high school students learn more about their state’s history by building and presenting a historical research project.
Context
The client wanted to increase educator participation and spark student interest in Alaska History Day by building a website that would house all Alaska History Day curriculum and project information.
Current experience
The client was using Facebook as the primary tool for communicating resource information.
Before building a brand new website, our team had to overcome a few hurdles:
Short timeline.
Little existing content.
Two primary audiences.
Build an engaging website that would provide easy-to-find resources for teachers and students.
Challenge
Alaska History Day resources and information were scattered because there was no centralized communication hub.
Solution
I created an audience analysis chart to help me better understand the needs of the two primary audiences. The answers to these questions helped me triage what content should go on the new site.
User Research
Audience analysis
I analyzed the Facebook page and third-party website to see what content already existed and how it could be repurposed.
I found:
Dense academic PDFs.
Content from the National History Day site and other state History Day sites.
Links to museums, libraries, and archives.
Content Audit
I conducted several moderated interviews with five Alaska teachers, four who had participated in Alaska History Day.
I discovered three key insights:
The Alaska History Day curriculum is time-consuming for teachers.
Students aren’t emotionally invested in doing a project.
Alaska History Day content is dense and complex for students.
Educator Interviews
Recommendations
I created a brand voice guide on how to communicate with students and teachers.
I chose three voice characteristics the copy should embody:
Encouraging, but not hand-holding.
Conversational, but not condescending.
Informative, but not overwhelming.
Define the brand voice
Examples
I simplified the copy so it was concise and accessible for all audiences.
Bulleted lists made the content scannable yet provided key information about Alaska History Day.
My team and I also added quick links on the homepage to make the resource pages easy to find.
Make content scannable
The client wanted students to feel an emotional connection to their project. I crafted copy that provoked thought and evangelized that history is more than what’s in textbooks - it’s all around.
Create connection
Results
Centralized, easy-to-find resources.
Scannable content.
Encouraging, simple, and engaging copy.
Our team handed off a 21-page website that met both the client’s goals and the student and teacher needs with:
The client was thrilled and gave us this hearty endorsement:
“You all went above and beyond…and the Brand Voice Chart was very helpful for me.”
— Leanna Prax Williams, Alaska History Day Coordinator