Kreuzberg Initiative against Anti-Semitism (KIgA)
UX design and content strategy for an educational platform
The educational platform "Anders Denken" informs teachers, educational workers, civil society actors as well as interested and committed people who want to deal with anti-Semitism pedagogically by providing educational material. We supported the KIgA with the initial launch of the platform in the areas of content strategy and UX design.
As part of the planning for a political education platform against anti-Semitism, we were commissioned by the Kreuzberg Initiative against Anti-Semitism (KIgA) to assist with the initial conceptualisation. The platform aims to promote an educational debate on current forms of anti-Semitism and should be based on three pillars Background information, educational materials and Contributions to current events include.
The platform is aimed at multipliers in the education sector throughout Germany, such as teachers, social workers, educational counsellors, etc. Furthermore, a nationwide database of experts should be integrated.
As this was a complete redesign from the ground up and no content was yet available, but many ideas existed, the first step was to analyse the needs. Based on this, a rough concept was developed together with the KIgA. This rough concept contained an initial outline for a content strategy and thus formed the basis for the detailed concept, in order to specify page types and functions in more detail.
The project was presented to the public for the first time on 20 June 2018 at the State Centre for Political Education in Berlin, followed by a panel discussion.
Panel discussion as part of the presentation of the online platform "Anders Denken" at the State Centre for Political Education in Berlin
Development of an initial concept for the education platform
In order to create a concept, we first need to be clear about what exactly the goals are for the entire team. The first step was therefore to carry out a needs analysis. For example, it is very important to create a common vision with the entire project team as a cornerstone, which we all work towards together.
This is how we approached the rough concept:
#1 The needs analysis
Based on a target group analysis, which gave us initial ideas about the needs of the intended users, and workshops with internal stakeholders, we created the conceptual foundation for the new education platform.
In an initial strategy workshop with the team, the shared vision was established and the following questions were discussed, among others:
- What is our vision? Where do we actually want to go? (Future lab)
- Why is the platform needed?
- What do we do better than previous or alternative solutions? (value proposition)
Impressions from the strategy workshop at the KIgA: Here: The future lab - where do we want to go?
#2 Prioritisation
The results were then consolidated in a further, more focussed workshop. Based on the results of the first workshop and the target group analysis, we then began to prioritise the desired requirements using a cost/benefit matrix. The aim of this process was to jointly agree on a list of requirements for an initial release.
#3 Re-briefing
All workshop results were finally incorporated into a re-briefing document. The purpose of such a re-briefing is to ensure that we are all pursuing the same ideas and goals before the conceptual work begins.
Design principles as a compass
A series of design principles were also derived from the workshop results and the target group analysis, which can serve as a decision-making aid for the entire project. They should therefore be seen as a strategic tool.
Design principles can serve as a practical compass for product development because they give the team a common understanding of the desired user experience and help with decision-making. We may have set a long-term vision, but as is the case with visions - there are always many pitfalls along the way and so it is good if we at least have these practical strategic guidelines (design principles) to keep us on track. They give us strategic certainty that we will achieve the desired user experience even in unstable situations, even if the path to the long-term vision is long and rocky. In decision-making processes, for example, you can always ask yourself whether the decisions are aligned/orientated to these principles or whether they contradict them and then evaluate these decisions on this basis.
Example of initial design principles (inform strategy): What should the desired user experience feel like?
#4 Rough concept: Content strategy as a guiding basis for further conceptualisation
Both - the re-briefing and our design principles - served as the basis and guideline for the rough concept: the platform's content strategy.
In this context, the idea of the three main call to actions was developed, which should reflect the three main pillars of the project: "Inform" (for background information), "Orientation" (for Contributions to current events) and acting (for educational materials)
Rough conception of the content structure. From the idea on the whiteboard (left) to the rough concept (right)
Detailed conception
The direction of the content strategy developed in this way then served as the basis for the detailed concept, in which the page types and their functions were also specified, which in turn informed the technical implementation. Here it was particularly important that the findability of the content worked for different search modes.
An important goal: making content easy to find for everyone
In the course of the design process, two different search modes were therefore considered by potential users and navigation solutions for these two cases were prioritised
- Targeted search ("I know what I am looking for and how I can formulate it")
- Exploratory search ("I know roughly what I'm looking for but I can't formulate it")
#1 Targeted search ("I know what I am looking for and how to formulate it")
In the case of a targeted search, users usually already know exactly what they are looking for and also know which terms they can use to describe it. In order to do justice to this type of search, we designed a descriptive, comprehensible menu label. In addition, the three main contents (inform, orientate, act) were brought into focus through prominent quick links. These three main contents were also colour-coded to aid orientation.
Furthermore, a search concept with autosuggest function and a clear listing of search results, which are enriched with metadata such as keywording, was considered. Thanks to efficient user guidance, anyone searching for specific content will quickly find what they are looking for.
The homepage with the three prominent colour-coded quick links supports targeted searches, among other things. Concept sketch on the left, realisation on the right
#2 Exploratory search ("I know roughly what I'm looking for but I can't formulate it")
In "exploratory searching", there is usually a rough idea of the information you are looking for, but you don't know exactly how to formulate it. Often the motto "I know it when I see it" - So in this case, recognition plays a major role. But even when relevant content is recognised, users are often left wondering whether they have all the relevant informationn or whether they are still missing information.
In order to serve this type of information search, we also emphasised clear, descriptive naming of navigation labels in the menu. On the other hand, keywording of content is very important for these cases - especially the contextualised display of related content via keywording ("related content") to find out more about the topic of interest and complete your knowledge base.
We also assumed that this type of search could be very important for educational material in particular. We therefore designed a filter for narrowing down and finding relevant educational material or methods that contains the attributes "Topic", "Age" and "Duration" and then suggests suitable methods.
Filter concept of educational methods with the attributes: Topic, age (of the pupils) and duration of the teaching unit. Concept sketch on the left, realisation on the right
Client Testimonial
Anne Goldenbogen, project manager at the time
"With the online platform, we wanted to achieve and enable quite a few things at the same time - while time and budget were rather tight. Jenny and Steffi from Geekettez navigated us safely and supportively through the conception phase. Their expertise, creativity, professionalism and commitment were crucial to the success of the website and the continued success of the platform to this day."
Most challenging
Even with limited resources, a lot can be achieved! In projects, we always work with the given framework conditions, which don't always make everything possible that we would ideally like. That's the exciting thing about it: how can we make it possible to get closer to the ideal despite limited resources - in this case, editorial and time resources?
As no content was available at the time we created the rough concept, we had to create the information architecture and content strategy based on a small survey and our best assumptions, which could only serve as an initial basis for discussion. We were therefore completely reliant on the expert and specialised knowledge of the internal stakeholders and all of our assumptions. We also didn't know how much material we were ultimately dealing with and, above all, how the content would all interact. But all these things were very important for the creation of a content strategy - including things like the handling of metadata (e.g. defining how categories and a keyword concept could work together within the main areas, etc.). In the end, however, we were able to work with the team step by step to solve these issues.
Most fun
Great teamwork is simply fun. Above all, the many possibilities and the enthusiasm that arise when you start from scratch allow creative thinking and ideas to bubble up.
This project has once again shown the positive effects of close collaboration with the client and, above all, how important it is that the project team agrees on visions and goals - and that we as designers do not simply deliver a solution according to the briefing.
