Client / Organization
Goal
Role
UI/UX Design
At New York University’s Department of Drama, graduating seniors usually spend their final months building a portfolio through participation in live or recorded performances and networking with industry professionals. In 2020, the pandemic brought new challenges that impacted this rite of passage. As students approached graduation, opportunities traditionally available to them were paused or cancelled completely. In response, the Office of Career Development proposed a novel idea to build a digital showcase that gave a platform to graduating performance arts students.
The goal was two fold: to create a deeply inclusive digital showcase that empowered students to share all that made them unique, and to give access to the department’s sprawling industry network. I provided strategic planning, management of data collection, along with the design and development of the website.
Challenge
How can we build an inclusive digital showcase that empowers our graduates? The project was divided into two segments:
- Creation of a robust data collection method that allowed our administrative team to review prior to publishing.
- Development of a website that can be managed by non-technical teams and updated easily as needed.
01.
Establishing Project Needs
The first requirement of this project was to establish the deliverables and timeline. As a time sensitive project, I needed to quickly identify the most optimal solutions available.
The project began almost as soon as the pandemic began. To quickly gather the necessary data, our team developed a survey on Qualtrics with a collection of important questions ranging from identity, to specific skill sets, to request for media. We also offered students without professional headshots or performance media an opportunity to have have them done on campus with our in-house media services team.
After this survey was launched, we began developing the showcase website. While the department traditionally relied on a university-wide instance of WordPress.com for rapid website creation, it was not enough to create a custom solution. Instead, we used NYU’s hosting service (hosting.nyu.edu) which provides the ability to build custom web solutions and back-end access. This allowed me to build using a WordPress.org installation. To maximize customization and future scalability. I used Divi Theme to build custom layouts. Utilizing ACF Pro, and FacetWP, I created a filterable showcase page that allows users to sort actor profiles across a variety of variables.
Data
02.
Creating a more inclusive experience
While popular casting websites like Backstage served as inspiration, we found such websites to provide minimal identity and representational information about the actors. We wanted to create additional opportunities for students to share who they are. And so, our filters expanded beyond basic physical descriptions to include more additional information about their interest, skills, identity and other representational information.
Black
Vivid Amber
NYU Violet
Bright Grey
White
03.
Visual Aesthetics
Drawing on Tisch Drama’s existing brand identity, I created UI components with a similar look and feel to our main website and other content.
Results
The website launched on June 2020 with an announcement by Tisch Drama chair, followed by a social media and email campaign. Additionally we invited industry casting professionals to visit our showcase. The platform helped our 2020 graduates launch their careers and was reintroduced for 2021 and 2022 graduates. Our students have
