Strategic information design: Conveying complex research findings in a 2 minute video.

The challenge

A UK company has a portfolio including family history and ancestry websites. We (a team of 4) are tasked with researching challenges and opportunities for growth, and then developing a two minute video to communicate a solution / product concept for internal use by business partners.

Project story

Initially, we conducted secondary research to understand our clients market. Our client did not seem to cover the youth market well. Our client was interested in introducing ancestry and family history to schools.

Talking to people: We interviewed teachers about technology in schools, parents about how their children engage with history / ancestry, and ancestry website users about their user experience. We found kids are most interested between the ages of 9 and 13, that their parents become interested through them, and that truth is indeed stranger than fiction - everyone had incredible stories to tell!

Drawing it all out: With so much information, we had a big job on our hands to hone down to a two minute video. We drew out the key components of into a large piece of paper to give us a visual overview, and categorized them into: situation / issues / options / decisions / actions. This technique helped us focus down to a solution for our client that came directly from our research.

Making a 2 minute video: Once we had a product concept (My History App), script and storyboard were created to describe functions and benefits, iterating until it fitted comfortably inside two minutes. We chose a simple hand-drawn style to fit with the schools theme.