The site that we built over the last few months and launched last week is a starting point. It’s designed to change in line with the next steps of the longer term 100 Archive process. This is a quick post to cover the process to date, and a call to those who might want or be able to contribute to the next steps in its design and development.
The starting point for our design process was a thorough review of where the project was in its totality and online. The outcome of this was a document which outlined the aims and context of the undertaking. This was informed by a variety of elements. The collective views of the steering committee shaped this draft document, and it was an opportunity to collect the observations and opinions of the team. Each member brought their own experience and perspective on what the next steps for the archive could be. Another important starting point was the report of archivist Amy Walsh. Amy’s feedback was broad-ranging. She identified the richness of the archive and the challenges with the existing solution in terms of navigating and sorting the work. She also flagged issues with the standard at which data and imagery was being collected.
Following on from this exploratory process a plan of work was drawn up which would allow for work to be completed in a timely fashion. This plan reflected hard decisions made about what would be prioritised in this phase of work and what work would follow. The phase just completed focuses on the content that we already have. This meant that our studio would develop a more powerful and adaptable way of searching and sorting projects, and that we would review the full existing content for the writing on the site and present this in a way commensurate with the quality of the output.
The next phase will be determined by a desire for the project to be opened up to a broader group for feedback and collaboration. To my mind, that’s where we are now. There are many very talented designers and developers in this community and some have already kindly offered their help and feedback. I believe that even though things aren’t 100% ready for a handover or for that process to begin proper, we should be broadening the discussion about process now rather than later.
We’ve elected to kick this off with a Slack chat. Bring your gripes, praise, thoughts, opinions, experience, time and skills to the discussion. Send us a few details if you want to be in the mix. I hope to kick off by presenting things that we know need to be fixed, and take it from there. Any thoughts in the interim, let us know on twitter or in the comments below.
Image adapted from Package design by Marija Kalentić