Working With Voice of Dagoretti
May 15- Ongoing
Take Aways:
Diversity & Equity in Design: Through the program, I developed an understanding of how diverse perspectives shape storytelling and design processes. Learning about sustained dialogue techniques helped me navigate working with people who may have different views, allowing me to incorporate diverse insights into the design work.
Collaborative Design: The web redesign project taught me the importance of teamwork, especially in an international context where my partner and I had to coordinate across time zones. I learned how to provide constructive feedback, encourage my partner, and maintain a supportive atmosphere despite the challenges.
Cultural Sensitivity: Working with Voice of Dagoretti required me to consider how cultural values and community advocacy would influence the design and presentation of media. I learned to design with intention, focusing on how to represent their cause in a way that was culturally respectful and effective for their target audience.
Iterative Design Process: The web design project required me to embrace the iterative nature of design. We constantly refined the website based on feedback, learning to let go of ideas that didn't work and move forward with better solutions. While it was tough to discard work, I understood that all iterations contributed to the final product.
Design Tools & Techniques: I gained significant experience using Photoshop and Lightroom during the interview project, refining my ability to produce polished, professional media. I also learned about competitive analysis for web design by reviewing other nonprofit websites, which helped me understand best practices for creating donation-driven, user-friendly sites.
This was a great opportunity to better understand how to convey messages to a larger audience in a delicate, yet powerful way. In this project, my team and I found a side of the community that isn’t highlighted in national media. The culmination of our work can be looked at as an anthology: The antithesis of the traditional media coverage of Africa from a western perspective. we became a vessel for communication rather than the communicator itself.
Role:
For the interview project, I was responsible for recording and editing audio, shooting B-Roll as well as editing the final interview footage. For the web redesign project, I worked alongside a partner to develop the site’s information architecture, color scheme, and facilitate communications between the organization and their previous web developer to do a domain transfer.
Both projects allowed me to practice my design thinking and collaborative skills while also presenting me with an opportunity to practice effective storytelling and intentional design skills.
Program Overview
During the summer of 2023, I was fortunate to participate in MSU’s Visual Storytelling Program in Nairobi, Kenya. Over the course of the two-and-a-half-week program, my peers and I focused on refining our skills in photography, journalism, web design, audio, and videography, as well as our ability to communicate with one another and with diverse communities. I primarily collaborated with a grassroots nonprofit organization named Voice of Dagoretti, based in one of Nairobi’s informal housing settlements. the organization uses dance, acting, painting, and other art forms to advocates for empowerment of the youth, gender equality, and environmental justice within the community. In my time with the group I was able to contribute to their mission by recording and documenting the organization’s efforts and using the footage to create social media content to promote the groups message. I was also responsible for the start up fundraising, and redesigning the organizations website.
Goals & Methods:
The goal of this project was to create a body of work that the Voice of Dagoretti could use for their social media and website to raise awareness about their organization and raise funds. This work would ultimately take the shape of two main projects.
Interview Project: The main goal of this project was to create an engaging interview that accurately represented the organization and its mission and informed viewers on how they can get involved and support their cause.
Web Redesign Project: The main goal of this project was to develop a user-friendly website that will serve as the primary information hub for Voice of Dagoretti, promoting community advocacy, as well as informing users on upcoming events and ways to donate to the organization.
Results:
During our first meeting with John Mwangi, founder of VoD, we asked him how he would like us to share their story. He said to show it as it is, that is exactly what we tried to do. leaving no stone unturned and no path left untrodden We attended as many events as we could in our short time their and tried our best to be silent observers. By doing that we were able to better understand their culture provide a much more holistic view of VoD, Dagoretti, Nairobi and Kenya. After conducting an interview with the organizations founder and recording/documenting the events that went on during our stay, we were able to use the recorded footage to weave together a short documentary style interview that tells teaches viewers about the groups history and gives them a glimpse into the hard work that the group puts in and the passion they have for creating a better tomorrow. The interview would go onto to be used by the organization on their social media accounts and because of the excess footage available, plenty of shareable content for the organization was made.
Websites are incredibly important for organizations like Voice of Dagoretti. They can open doors for an organization and help establish their legitimacy while at the same time working as a tool to help raise spread their message and raise funds through donations and grants. “www.voiceofdagoretti.org” was created with the intention of letting the world learn more about the organization and support in whatever way they can. By shutting down the old voice of Dagoretti site and creating a more intuitive user-friendly one we were able to create an experience that better engages users and enables them to accomplish their tasks easier. The site remains active serving as the groups primary information hub. effectively sharing news of upcoming events and showcasing the organization’s past work to allow people better understand the mission and work of the organization. The website has assisted them their ability to apply for grants and receive funding.
Several methods were used to tell the story of Voice Of Dagoretti. Our intention was not to tell their story for them, but rather to give them the agency to share their story to a larger audience. We wanted to provide our expertise in visual storytelling, and experience design without overtaking their own narrative. This gave us a perfect opportunity to work on designing around the specific needs of an organization.