Design a platform that unifies and spotlights individual voices.
Overview
Made By Us is a history and civics organization partnering with local and national institutions including the New-York Historical Society and the National Archives Foundation to create an ongoing discussion, through the lens of history, about the future of the United States.
Made By Us needed a fresh visual identity for its new product, My Wish for U.S., a social, web-based platform that invites people to discuss the future of America by adding their own wishes for the country and exploring those of others. The same visual identity would need to apply to their new social media accounts.
We worked closely with the Made By Us team to define the project’s goals and experiment with different visual directions early on. We rallied around a handmade aesthetic inspired by their existing logo to create a look and feel that would resonate with the audience. We applied that aesthetic to the new My Wish for U.S. platform and social media accounts. As part of that launch, we also crafted a comprehensive social media style guide and dozens of templates, making it easy to create daily posts consistent with the organization’s visual identity. In addition to the visual design, we also created systems to help manage, streamline, and grow the platform.
The new visual design allows each user’s wish on the platform to be unique yet cohesive and easily discoverable and shareable. The Facebook and Instagram accounts, launched in spring 2022, embody the platform’s new branding while allowing for real-time engagement.
What We Did
New product redesign
New brand look and feel
New social media design and strategy
Outcomes
1
New product launch for Made by US
2,000
+
User-generated wished for Made by US
Takeaways
Design for sharability
Create systems for social products
1.
Design for sharability
Made By Us, along with its museum partners, plans to launch new social experiences every year. Our customer experience strategy helps grow the platform's popularity by allowing user-generated content to be easily shared across social media platforms.
2.
Create systems for social products
We created a number of systems to help the newly designed platform shine. Our efforts
Determine how all wishes are aggregated and shown in social feeds
Allow for backend screening of content to ensure quality and appropriateness
Make it easy for users to share wishes (theirs or someone else’s) directly to social
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