A domestic travel utility that visualizes Black cultural data as elevation on a map of America.
A domestic travel utility that visualizes Black cultural data as elevation on a map of America.
The data highlights population density, Black-owned businesses, and cultural sites. The greater the density of data, the higher the elevation.
Acting as the Senior UX Design lead for Performance Art, my role was to bring the disparate elements together and develop a proof of concept for desktop and mobile.
Black & Abroad,
Performance Art,
3 Degrees
October 2021 to February 2022
Black Elevation Map has contributed to incredible business growth, seeing a 300% increase in website traffic. Event sales and site merchandise increased by over 900%.
When there were gaps, I went through various marketing and creative presentation decks to define our UX pillars.
Re-Imagine the American landscape. Tell a new story about civilization & legacy, shining a light on the country through the lens of Black Culture.
Fuel exploration. Invite people to see the heights of Black Culture, across travel and beyond, through elevation.
Amplify Black culture. Let’s empower the community to tell its own stories.
The primary interaction model was to use hand gestures to pan and zoom the map. The nested menu would eventually grow to include more functionality. The model had to encourage exploration.
Instead of building traditional sitemaps we built data molecules to identify where the content was coming from and how to present it.
The first clickable prototype I developed was for desktop. I discovered there were a number of challenges we would need to overcome as I designed the screens, adjusting for how users navigate. Questions kept surfacing around mobile: how will users navigate the map? How do we present the data? What if the data is inconsistent in format? How will it look?
View Desktop PrototypeDevelop a shared library as early as possible. Have one editor of the library but allow multiple contributors. The editor controls the components going into development and ensures the quality and usability of each component.
UI Design
I developed a shared library in Figma, ensuring each component is easy to use and accessible for all users. Creative and production eventually took ownership of the library, further ensuring brand consistency across all mediums.
See The Black Elevation Map
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