Canadian Jewish Military Museum
An interactive storytelling of Jewish contributions
Organization
Canadian Jewish Military Heritage
Team Members
3 Content Writers,
1UX Designer,
1 UI Designer
My Role
UX Designer
Duration
3 Months
Our challenge was to create an online web presence for Canadian Jewish Military Museum by setting design strategies and content planning. As the Museum had no web presence, we had to create a website that engages and attract users on various historical events that represent the Jewish contributions to Canadian society. For this project, my team and I decided to work collaboratively through all stages. Thus, we would do daily scrum meetings to align our roles and deliverables.
Research And Analysis
Primary Goals
During our initial brainstorm sessions with the client we have discussed that the website should include the following two primary goals:
Goal 1
An interactive story which educate user about Canadian Jewish contribution during World War I and II and the after effects of the war on the community.
Goal 2
Showcase details and artifacts of every Canadian Jewish veteran who served during World War I and II in an engaging way.
Comparative Analysis
After setting up our initial goals we decided to review current trends in the market to understand the user expectations and possible opportunities. We analyzed four different websites www.warmuseum.ca , www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca , www.veterans.gc.ca, www.nmajmh.org to understand their workflow and their features with respect to our requirements. Following are our criteria and key findings:
Opportunities We Found From Our Comparative Analysis
To create detailed engaging story for each veteran.
To create an engaging interactive story including images, videos, maps to educate user about Canadian Jewish contribution.
To provide information about various medals received by veterans.
To create simple and easy user navigation, which helps user in finding information quickly and provides great user experience of website
User Research
Based on our market research we understood our opportunities. To gain users’ perspectives for our project, We did around 12 interviews, that later led to personas. To make it more insightful, we chose people from different locations, ages and gender. We asked them about their museum experiences and their expectations from the Canadian Jewish Military website based on our requirement. From all the interviews we got very useful insights of user needs and their expectations. To cover all the user needs we created different user personas for the project.
*Example of persona for Jewish Elder people who want know about their community's contribution in the nation's growth.
Outcomes Of Research And Analysis
From our Analysis and Research, we understood that our website should include:
An interactive story about Canadian Jewish contribution during World War I and II
Detailed stories about various Canadian Jewish veterans.
Information about past, current and upcoming exhibitions held by Canadian Jewish Military Heritage Organization
A way for users to submit stories about their family members who served during world war I & II and who are not on the website.
A way for users to donate to this noble cause.
Ideation
Information Architecture
Once we had a clear idea about the functionalities, we created the information architecture for the whole website to get the bigger picture.
Interactive Storytelling
​As a result, our team decided to make the website as an interactive infographic, which the users could choose how to explore, from training camps to story of veterans. Below, are some of the wireframes elaborated.
World War II Landing Page
This is the landing page for the interactive experience. Users can see information about various training camps where Jewish Veterans were trained. Just a simple hover over the highlighted region will provide the basic information about the training camp. Once clicked, it would provide all the details about the camp including relevant images and videos.
World War II Overview
At first, we thought about only focusing on key events. However, after testing we realized that many users would like to just get a summary of the Jewish contribution rather than going into details. So we decided to add an overview section that represents summary of Jewish contribution.
Key Events
Key event section provides detailed insights about World War II. Users can simply hover over to the highlighted region on the world map and can see the details about the event. To know more, users can click on the highlighted region and get all the details. Also, users can review events year by year using the timeline.
Impacts Of The War
We also included Impacts of the war on the community that represents their bravery and sacrifice and war effects on society's growth. We tried to cover the impacts from different aspects such as technology, social changes, de-colonialism and Zionism.
Artifacts And Veterans
The experience also allows users to review different war artefacts and detailed veteran stories. Users can go click on any artefacts and veterans to see more details. As part of our project highly focused on representing Jewish War Heros.
Additional Wireframes
User Testing Through Prototype
We created a prototype in Invision using the wireframes to get insightful feedback from the stakeholders. On one hand, we would do bi-weekly meetings with the client, to understand the needs for the project. But using the principles of an iterative design process, we've also done user testing on wireframes to improve the experience as per their need.
UI Design
Reflection
Comparative Analysis
From early comparative Analysis we realized what we need to ask users during interviews
Communication
For this project, we collaborated with content writers during only the last phase of design which led to many changes in design. I learned that early communicating will all teams can reduce lots of revisions.
User Feedback
Thorough testing before the Hi Fidelity design helped us in saving a lot of time and making quick changes.
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