Institute for Women's Leadership
The Institute for Women’s Leadership ↗
at Rutgers University is an organization that aims to advance the sphere of women’s leadership through education, research, and empowerment.
As data has rapidly grown in not only volume and intricacy, digital mapping has become an essential part in synthesizing complex information. In collaboration with the IWL, I designed an interactive digital map that places a spotlight on the stories, accomplishments, and interconnections of the IWL and its expansive alumni catalog.
THE PROBLEM
With such an extensive amount of data and the multilayered nature of information, representing the IWL through a narrative structure within an engaging user interface poses a difficult task. I began by asking myself three main questions:
-How might one translate "flat data" into an active system?
-How might one show the large amount of connections in the IWL?
-How might one show individual profiles as an interactive narrative?
BRANDING
The IWL has years of historical context and a rich story to tell. With such a dense amount of information to communicate, maintaining a welcoming, enjoyable, and immersive demeanor is essential for user retention on the site. The academic, stone-carved-esque quality of the typography juxtaposed with a saturated multicolor-coded system reconstructs the database into an active, digital environment.
As data has rapidly grown in not only volume and intricacy, digital mapping has become an essential part in synthesizing complex information. In collaboration with the IWL, I designed an interactive digital map that places a spotlight on the stories, accomplishments, and interconnections of the IWL and its expansive alumni catalog.
THE PROBLEM
With such an extensive amount of data and the multilayered nature of information, representing the IWL through a narrative structure within an engaging user interface poses a difficult task. I began by asking myself three main questions:
-How might one translate "flat data" into an active system?
-How might one show the large amount of connections in the IWL?
-How might one show individual profiles as an interactive narrative?
BRANDING
The IWL has years of historical context and a rich story to tell. With such a dense amount of information to communicate, maintaining a welcoming, enjoyable, and immersive demeanor is essential for user retention on the site. The academic, stone-carved-esque quality of the typography juxtaposed with a saturated multicolor-coded system reconstructs the database into an active, digital environment.
TYPOGRAPHY
Garamond is a serif typeface used for the headers throughout the identity. It exudes a state of formality due to its elegant structure. The historical nature of the typeface speaks to the idea that the IWL's alumni catalog is meant to be viewed from a lens of professionalism and scholarly values.
Roboto is a sans serif typeface, used throughout for body copy. The typeface has a crisp presence, pairing well with Garamond as it delivers a similar message of credibility through its neutral and timeless form. From a functional perspective, Roboto is highly legible on screen, allowing for a substantial amount of text to be presented to the user without optical difficulty.
COLOR PALETTE
COLOR PALETTE
INFORMATION SYSTEM
The IWL brings together the expertise of its member units to examine and promote women’s leadership in art, education, human rights, politics, public service, research, science, and the workplace. These eight sectors of activity, became the general labeling system for categorizing each of the alumni.
The IWL brings together the expertise of its member units to examine and promote women’s leadership in art, education, human rights, politics, public service, research, science, and the workplace. These eight sectors of activity, became the general labeling system for categorizing each of the alumni.
The cartesian coordinate plane allows users to explore the breadth of impact of the IWL without hierarchy separating alumni. Rather, they are all connected through not only their association through the IWL, but also through their impact on the community—in whatever form that may take.
ORGANIZATION
ORGANIZATION
LEFT to RIGHT shows the PHYSICAL vs NON-PHYSICAL nature of alumni's interventions within their spaces (A community garden would be a “physical” intervention versus a “non-physical” intervention, such as passing a law).
TOP to DOWN shows the GLOBAL VS LOCAL scope of work (If an alumni is a UN ambassador they would be considered “global”, versus if they are a professor at a specific university, which would be labeled as “local”).
CONNECTIONS
TOP to DOWN shows the GLOBAL VS LOCAL scope of work (If an alumni is a UN ambassador they would be considered “global”, versus if they are a professor at a specific university, which would be labeled as “local”).
CONNECTIONS
Alumni will often have projects, jobs, or research that correlate with each other. To show the interconnections between each alumni and their work, when a specific profile is selected, arrows will go from their point to other profiles, and present the linear or nonlinear relationships between them.
INDIVIDUAL ALUMNI
INDIVIDUAL ALUMNI
When a user selects a profile, they are directed to a personal alumni page that presents a multi-lens view of that specific person’s education, spheres of influence, accomplishments, etc. This page functions as a territory map, allowing the user to explore without having to read long-form text.
RESULTS & REFLECTIONS
Above all else, the goal of this digital experience was to present the multiscale story of the IWL in an interactive fashion. With so many different alumni, each being unique and essential to the continuing history of the IWL, it is imperative to showcase individuals in a non-biased fashion as well as display a vast amount of information in a way that is welcoming, enjoyable, and immersive.
My primary inspiration for how I wanted to tell this story was my personal worldview: everything exists as a system. Being able to physically see and interact with how the alumni of the IWL exist in the world through their interests, impact, and the relationships between ideas and actions demonstrates stories as powerful tools that enable empathy and empower communities.
RESULTS & REFLECTIONS
Above all else, the goal of this digital experience was to present the multiscale story of the IWL in an interactive fashion. With so many different alumni, each being unique and essential to the continuing history of the IWL, it is imperative to showcase individuals in a non-biased fashion as well as display a vast amount of information in a way that is welcoming, enjoyable, and immersive.
My primary inspiration for how I wanted to tell this story was my personal worldview: everything exists as a system. Being able to physically see and interact with how the alumni of the IWL exist in the world through their interests, impact, and the relationships between ideas and actions demonstrates stories as powerful tools that enable empathy and empower communities.