Media Interaction

1 of 4 teammates, Jan - March 2022

Challenge

As new generations continue to be concerned about sustainability, the idea of the “circular economy” has become increasingly present. Secondhand shopping is an evolving concept, segmented by online platforms like Depop and in-store “thrift” stores to purchase clothing. My team and I investigated the evolving thrift culture in San Francisco, visiting the infamous Haight St and interviewing shoppers and employees alike. Our team sought to leverage interactive elements to help understand and educate others regarding the evolving thrift culture in SF, in the form of a published article.

Skills

Technical/managerial: reporting, storytelling, editorial skills, visual interaction, team conflict.

Outcome

Dozens of interviews and hours working in HTML/CSS/JAVASCRIPT later, the team and I produced an interactive media article with the purpose to educate others about the rise of thrifting, the difference between curated and mass thrifted stores, and the ethical considerations of secondhand shopping.

Process Highlight

As an Engineer, I rarely get the chance to engage writing a formal article that requires reporting and editorial work. Because of this, I personally enjoyed conducting live interviews in a variety of thrift stores and translating these insights into a coherent, educational piece. Additionally, as a designer, I enjoyed leveraging the visual elements of clothing to showcase my learnings. My teammates primarily led the integration of the frontend media elements, which I greatly appreciated and enjoyed seeing come to life!

The greatest challenge the team faced was identifying a “through line” for the story, as there were many different avenues the story could take, and each teammate had a stance on the direction they wanted to take. It required a sincere reliance on interviewing and learnings to drive direction plus managing team conflict to reach a final concept.

Project Learnings

About myself as a Communicator:

  • When conducting interviews, designing the reporting to remain unbiased is a critical skill. In the process of conducting 10+ interviews, trends begin to emerge authentically, which are far more meaningful when this evolves in an honest manner.

  • The more data and information gathered, the more avenues the story can take. Synthesizing information becomes easier with time.

  • Visual parallelism is critical in media design. This can specifically be seen in a “flip through the closet” portion of our work.