Introduction

Senior Capstone is a course that must be completed during senior year of (most) undergraduate programs at the University of Hawaiʻi – West Oʻahu. For the Creative Media program, we were allowed to complete a Senior Project or Senior Practicum. I decided to take the Senior Project route, where an integrated study of creative media is conducted and its potential reach to the targeted audience. The project included a writing process, topic selection, thesis formulation, secondary research, drafting, and a conclusive presentation.

I had the opportunity to collaborate with a colleague, Gabriel Peters, to determine the relationship between web design and social media. We worked together on a project with the Hawaiʻi Environmental Funders Group (EFG). This partnership was to engage the next generation of storytellers to produce creative content that would bring the He Lono Moku (island update or report) to life.

Visual Design

Research/Thesis Question: How can existing data be redesigned to engage a specific target audience through interactive marketing strategies?

During our design and decision-making process, we chose the color palettes that were used in EFG's He Lono Moku report. The typography selected were simple, clean, easy-to-read, and web-friendly. Through various brainstorming sessions and iterations, we landed on "He Lono Moku: A Wayfinding Experience" as our project's narrative. The user would assume the role of a lost wayfinder who is guided by Stella, a (mostly) all-knowing star that navigates the user through various place names that are representative of the various sections within the report.

Home + About page

Subpages

For my deliverable, I decided to create a custom-built and "user-friendly" website using WordPress content management system. Each section from the report is divided to have its own page on the website. Each of the subpages follows a specific format and layout that are cohesive to each other. Additionally, each page displays an audio introduction, connecting this piece to our social media campaign.

Conclusion

It was an experience for both Gabe and I to learn what it was like to go through the creation of an interactive experience, from conception to design to revisions. Combining web design and social media includes a cohesive experience and ideas that would work altogether.

Our final deliverable was also about creating a community that would bring everyone together through our experience. It would give the users a space to share knowledge and start a conversation about what can be done now to protect the future of Hawaiʻi, while also creating a more sustainable environment on our way forward.