Empowerment Website
A platform for sharing post-coming-out stories
Skills
Typography
UI/UX Design
Web Design
Tools
Figma
Photoshop
Context
Bachelor Thesis
Date
2022
My goal was to support young queer people in the phase after coming out. To do this, I first researched and experimented on how to create authentic queer web design. Building on this, I developed a web platform for sharing post-coming out stories in order to reach a larger audience on this issue.
During my research I noticed that most queer websites and magazines focus on people before coming out or on people who already »arrived« in queer life and the queer community. But what about people who are still finding out who they are? That’s where I identified a gap of support.
As a solution I investigated how a web platform where people anonymously share their experiences in the post-coming-out process could look like.
To start, I conducted a subjective analysis of aesthetic elements in queer culture to learn how to create queer design and actually inspire my target group.
As the next step analyzed two other storytelling websites which present coming out stories, to see how platforms built on user-created content can be set up.
Then I applied my learnings from the pedagogical research of empowerment to the content strategy. I intend the platform to support self-reflection and self-discovery through personal accounts of experiences, as well as to explain the post-coming-out process in more detail.
Early sketches for the start page and story teasers on the overview page
In the end I decided for a very brave, loud and unconventional style inspired by the queer designs I studied. I created a map view for all stories, with artefacts from queer life floating on top of everything. In that way I wanted to reference the confusion and adventure of the post-coming-out process.
I combined bright-colored backgrounds with contrasting shadows on the artefacts which serve as the key visuals. To the emphasize individuality of each story, I turned the story quotes into a typographical safari.
The start page works like a map where the readers can explore quotes and artefacts featured in the stories which will lead them to the articles
Since I found that young queer people use social media a lot to connect each other, their first contact with the project will mostly be on a smartphone. Thus, I made sure to build a prototype that is just as engaging and easy to use on smaller screens.
If you want to read more about my concept, research on digital empowerment and queer aesthetics, you can download and read my bachelor thesis as a PDF (text is in German).
