More than Queer

an interactive art installation crafted by the queer community & their friends and family

Stanford University, ME216B/C: Advanced Product Design: Implementation, 20 week team project

The Problem

While this project started with a focus on adult learning through interactive play, we realized that we needed to narrow our audience. With that in mind, we decided to focus on parents of queer children specifically. We also chose to define an end product of some sort of interactive experience, whether that be digital or physical.

User Research

We focused our research on two categories; the parents themselves, and experts in the fields that we were looking at. On the expert’s end, we spoke to a variety of people, including psychologists, architects, museum guides, learning facilitators, and interaction designers. From them, we learned about the ways in which interactivity could lend itself to learning, especially in adults. Specifically, a couple things stood out to us:

• the ability to make their own personal connections and reflections gives the user agency in the learning experience

• lessening the sense of urgency allows users to participate more fully — processing doesn’t need to happen all at once

• focusing on joy and wonder, instead of fear and judgment creates an open and welcoming environment

We also talked with parents of queer children. We got to know many different parents and learn their stories. For example, one parent described her child coming out to her feeling like “[her] world came crashing down…” And she isn’t alone in this sentiment – this is how many parents of queer children feel when their kid comes out. Even if they themselves aren’t homophobic, they still go through a grieving process of who they thought their child was and would be, and have to learn to accept and celebrate who their child really is.

From interviews like this, it was clear that parents of queer children want to connect with their kids but might not have the tools or skillsets to do so.

Needs

In the end, we synthesized our interview data and pinned down the main needs. Specifically,

Parents of queer children need to…

• feel understood by their child

• show other adults and their child that they accept their child

• see other successful queer child/parent relationships

• be a part of a community

• see that their child is part of a community

• see their child as more than queer

Design Principles

With these needs, we created some design principles:

1. Balance public and private space to help parents show that they accept their child while also feeling like they have time to process

2. Allow for moments of reflection to help parents understand and feel understood by their child

3. Guide framing towards a more holistic view to help parents see their child as more than queer

4. Make a mosaic in order to show parents they and their kids are part of a community

Prototyping and User Testing Round 1

Now that we had our design principles, it was time to start coming up with solutions. We decided to do two rapid prototyping sprints in order to test out different directions. This led to prototypes of a photo exhibit where queer kids recreated family photos and a website that showed emotions and stories mapped onto a gradient of colors. Our goal with these were to test out different mediums, forms of interactivity, and visualizations in order to help us narrow down a final direction.

We tested these out with our users and gained valuable feedback. We found that the digital format was a bit less compelling than a physical one, but the sense of community created by the mosaic of stories was felt more than in the recreated pictures. The response to the pictures prototype was overall positive, but people wanted to be able to interact with it more than just looking at the pictures.

Prototyping and User Testing Round 2

With this feedback in mind, we held a couple brainstorming sessions to come up with our next prototype idea, with the hope that we could combine the elements of the previous prototypes into a single new one. We ended up on the idea of an in-person polaroid mosaic, where queer kids could take polaroids of themselves and write on them what they identified with other than being queer. Parents could add to the mosaic, writing on a sticky note what they saw their children as other than their queerness. We chose a built structure on campus, near the more popular buildings but tucked in a corner in order to create a feel of public/private space.

We timed this prototype to coincide with Stanford Admit Weekend, an event that invited potential students and their parents to campus. Because of this, we got valuable in-person user testing.

We had anyone who interacted with the prototype fill out a feedback form, where we had a variety of qualitative and quantitative questions. We got overwhelmingly positive feedback, so we decided to move forward with this idea and expand upon it for our final prototype.

We had feedback that the space didn’t feel very approachable, and we also wanted to expand the prototype to include more sections to interact with. While this version checked off three of the design principles, we felt that the space for reflection was still missing. We decided to include several different sections in our final prototype and utilize a unique layout that we could customize in order to create those public/private settings and allow for a slower, more contemplative experience.

Designing the Final Prototype

Taking into account the feedback we got from the previous prototype, we decided to use the large, 6ft boards that were available in the d.school to create a unique layout with multiple sections. We spent some time indoors with the boards, organizing and reorganizing, and finally came to a final layout.

For the added sections, we decided on several different levels of interaction and reflection. Some were only to view, and some were more involved. This would allow varying levels of participation to make anyone feel comfortable interacting with the product as much or as little as they felt comfortable. This solved the initial feedback we got about the first prototype being hard to approach.

After many iterations and more feedback, we put on our last prototype event with our final solution.

Our Solution

Our project is an interactive, growing mosaic of photos and notes. Different sections allow for different modes of interaction, and the space is laid out in order to create a mixture of public and private spaces. This encourages both engagement as well as reflection.

Quotes and Reflections

We wanted to create a very isolated space for reflection and contemplation. With walls on all sides, the space was large enough to avoid being claustrophobic, but small enough to be comfortable and safe. There were quotes about queerness, a piece by a queer poet, and another interactive element for people to more deeply write about their thoughts.

Letters to your Future Self

This section was in the back area, featuring a public setting with chairs, paper, and pens. The idea was to write a letter to your future self, allowing for reflection. This would also allow for future reflection beyond the event itself.

Queer History

On the back of the installation is a section for queer history. Framed portraits of people throughout history who are/were both successful and queer encourage reflection of identity beyond queerness, and a mirror in the middle places the user within that history.