Reading the Rainbow

Project Brief

The goal of this project was to create a captivating and inclusive landing page for design experience. The design was inspired by a a non-profit organization in New Zealand focused on resourcing libraries and schools with‘ LGBTQIA+ content and literature.

The landing page would be an online resource enabling diversity to be acknowledged, celebrated, included and represented in all education spaces and sectors throughout New Zealand. Additionally, the page serves to inspire and inform teachers and librarians through professional development opportunities and membership. Through membership, e-learning modules, learning kits and lesson plans can be accessed.

Problem

The inclusion of LGBTQIA+ topics in education settings is crucial for children who themselves identify as LGBTQIA+, whether they come out while they are young or, more commonly, later in life. Equally important, is representation for children who have LGBTIA+ parents. Unfortunately, many of these young people never see the LGBTIA+ community included in the curriculum. When teachers implement a curriculum that ignores these realities, students are left on their own to process what they hear and see about these communities in popular culture.

Unique value proposition

My mission is to empower all educators to create inclusive learning that teach all students how to treat one another and that are welcoming to all students and families, including those in the LGBTQIA+ community. These are the education spaces that students and families deserve.

I have created Reading the rainbow to be a regularly-updated online reading resource that lists books from around the world with rainbow themes and characters that can be enjoyed by children and youth from preschool through to secondary school.

Reading the rainbow also supports early childhood centres, schools and community libraries to grow, promote and celebrate their rainbow reading collections and implement an inclusive curriculum with age appropriate content.

Projective objectives

1.Create a landing page for educational professionals that saves precious time in searching for educational materials.

2.Improve the confidence of educators to implement an inclusive curriculum

3.Support education professionals to access the right resources

4.Serve as a learning and resource hub for professionals in education services to build capacity for change

5.Increase the visibility and representation of LGBTIA+ families and students throughout the education sector

Research

The following set of research questions were developed to learn about the unique experiences, challenges, pain points and needs of our users.

1.What makes it difficult for teachers and librarians to challenge the hetero-normative status quo?

2.What are the existing barriers and challenges education services face in implementing an inclusive curriculum?

3.What changes do LGBTIA+ families and students want to see in education services?

4.What challenges do LGBTIA+ families and students encounter in education settings?

5.What would make it easier for teachers and education services to implement an inclusive curriculum?

Research methods

We used two methods of research

1.Secondary research

2.Competitive analysis

We conducted a literature review of existing interviews and surveys carried out by academics across education sectors researching the experiences of LGBTIA+ families and students. This assisted us in understanding the background and context for direct and indirect users. Gaining a broad overview of the education sector and identify pain-points and needs for different users. This enabled the development of accurate and well-informed user personas through specific psycho graphic information and user insights. These personas would enable us to create experiences that cater specifically to their needs.

The secondary research also enabled us to discover where more investigation was required such as including the ECE sector and the access to inclusive resources for ECE teachers and students.

This method was a viable option with limited time to conduct extensive primary research. Equally, it was valuable in highlighting existing knowledge and insights to inform next steps and design decisions.

Competitive analysis

We utilised a competitive analysis with the goal of creating a landing page that included specific elements and features to address the needs of our users.

Thought the competitive analysis we examined 3 landing pages of competitors in NZ and internationally. We aimed to Identifying market gaps and looking for opportunities to better serve our users. We discovered several market gaps including the lack of online resources for teachers in the ECE sector. We discovered that on several websites there was inadequate content filtering and search options for this specific group of users evoking a sense of invisibility and not being valued. We also discovered many LGBTIA parents with preschool children were being left out of the discussion. This discovery provided clear evidence for design decisions and inspired several solutions to cater to this neglected groups of users.

Pain points

For rainbow youth

Young people in Aotearoa New Zealand experience bullying at higher rates than in most OECD countries (Education Counts, 2019), and trans and gender diverse students in Aotearoa New Zealand are bullied at school at a much higher rate than their cisgender (not trans or non-binary) peers.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and other sexual minority, or LGBTIA+, youth are at high risk for suicide

Lack of access and visibility of access to age-appropriate, positive representations of rainbow identities can cause feelings of isolation and depression.

These young people are rarely represented in curriculum. They are not only invisible, but also experience discrimination by omission.

For rainbow families with preschool aged children

LGBTIA+themed children’s books are seldom freely available in ECE centres, effectively obscuring the presence of LGBTIA+parented these settings

LGBTIA+ parents have also reported having to take on the responsibility of educating ECE educators about their needs

LGBTIA+parents have recommended children’s picture books depicting LGBTIA+parented families as an appropriate approach. Yet many ECE educators have expressed resistance to adopting an explicit curriculum (Beren, 2013).

Rather than recognising that the visibility of LGBTIA+ parented families in ECE settings is an inclusion and social justice issue, ECE educators often believe the issue to be one appropriate for adults only

For teachers & educational settings

Fear potential community reprisal if they include diversity in their teaching

Lack of courage and confidence to engage in discussions about sensitive issues i.e. gender roles with preschool & primary aged children

Lack of access or difficulty finding age appropriate resources that reflect diversity

For Libraries

Smaller libraries in towns or small schools have a limited budget meaning LGBTIA+ literature often is not a priority

Librarians can be affected by their own bias influencing purchasing decisions

Similar to teachers, librarians can be concerned with community censure or protests for events that increase LGBTIA+ representation

Difficulties finding LGBTIA+ literature for all age groups

Audience

ECE Centres, primary & secondary Schools,and libraries are microcosms of our larger world, full of diverse identities, ideologies, and approaches to teaching and learning. The education sector serves all of our young people from preschoolers to secondary school students and is the channel through which values, customs, and culture are transmitted from one generation to the next. These settings have the most potent means for bringing about change by offering young people access to representation, information, resources and community. This is especially in more isolated or rural areas.

Solutions

I chose to use affinity mapping for two purposes during different phases of the UX process.

A tool for organizing research

A tool for organizing concepts and strategy

As method for organizing research, the affinity map created a semblance of order from the myriad of themes emerging from the volume of research gathered at the empathize phase. It effectively assisted in analysing and synthesizing the research. I was able to sort through the data points and distill them down into key themes and pain points, enabling a better understanding of the users and their needs.

Wireframes