Healey International Relief Foundation
Social Media
The Community Partner
Our organization is the Healey International Relief Foundation (HIRF). HIRF is based in Sierra Leone, West Africa. The organization strives to improve the quality of life for vulnerable people in Sierra Leone. They do this by supplying healthcare, education, medical supplies, and school supplies to the people of Sierra Leone. Specifically, the organization provides medicines, tons of rice, money for room and board, tuition, education money through their scholarship program, money to help support the health facilities, clothes, and blankets.
Who was involved in the project and what were the roles?
Margaret Blanco, Sarah Morrison, Vaughn Saunders, and Caitlin Thiel participated in the design and research process. Our fellow, Stephanie Rapp, guided us through the process of research and design. She helped to edit our work and provided us with insightful feedback. Vicki Middleton was our point of contact from HIRF and she is the social media manager. Vicki was so excited to collaborate with us throughout the semester. We also had the chance to talk with Charles, who is a program manager for HIRF in Sierra Leone, over Zoom. Charles was a pleasure to talk to and informed us about all the programs he coordinates for donations of food and medical supplies to those living in Sierra Leone.
When and where did the project take place?
The project took place from August 2020 to December 2020. Healey is located in New Jersey with their relief efforts in Sierra Leone. Due to COVID-19, our meetings took place via zoom.
What was the design question?
Our design question for our project was: How do we create a consistent presence on social media in order to gain followers? The basis of our question came from the feedback we received from Vicki in our first meeting. She described to us the overall goals she had for the project, which then helped us to create our design question.
The Actual Project:
During our first Zoom meeting with Vicki, we had a very open conversation in order to determine what our time would be best spent doing this semester. After asking questions and bouncing ideas off on one another, we decided that we want to create a consistent look for their social media pages (mainly Facebook and Instagram). The hope was that the consistent and simple look would allow for more interaction through likes, comments, and donations, from their current followers.
Additionally, we hoped it would increase HIRF’s social media following. After the first meeting, we then worked weekly as a group. Vicki uploaded some photos and videos to a Google Drive so we can implement them into the templates. Before creating our templates, we looked to three other organizations that Vicki pointed us to in order to get some creative and styling ideas from them. For a few weeks before our next meeting with Vicki, we worked as a group to collaborate on various different templates to show Vicki. These templates are versatile in which there is a mix of templates for just photos, just quotes, and some involve text and images. After we began to create a few sample templates, we met via Zoom with Vicki to present our Social Media Analysis, which is where we researched and analyzed similar organization's social media in order to determine what would best help HIRF increase their own social media presence. Luckily, Vicki was very pleased with our presentation and findings.
After our short presentation to Vicki, we showed her many of the templates which she loved. Vicki had some ideas of other events or holidays we could incorporate into the templates which we noted to work on. We asked her to share some more specific content with us to provide us with more creativity for the templates. We specifically asked for more photos of the children and adults either receiving healthcare or utilizing the donations HIRF provided. We also asked for more direct quotes about what Healey does for those in Sierra Leone and how they benefit the community to use for our weekly posts such as Thankful Thursday.
Through this collaboration between our Beautiful Social group and Vicki, we have been able to meet our goals and deliver the content we set out to complete at the beginning of the semester. We have learned more about working together in our own group work and professionally with others. Throughout this process, we have made edits, changes, and fixed things around in order to provide Vicki with the best content possible. Sometimes, not everyone agrees on what would work or look best, but after talking through different ideas we choose the one that makes the most sense to benefit Healey.
How was the research/design process determined?
Our relationship with Vicki has been a key factor to the success of our work throughout this semester. Vicki and HIRF have been an excellent partner to collaborate with. The design process was determined through our initial meeting over Zoom with Vicki. We were able to gain a better understanding of what HIRF needed for their organization and how we, as design researchers, could help HIRF achieve these goals. We presented our initial plans for the project with Vicki and we were able to work off each other to determine our future plan for the semester. Vicki told us her goal for this semester was to create a more consistent image across all of HIRF’s social media, gain more followers, and increase audience engagement. Based upon Vicki’s three points, we were able to create a plan and timeline in order to accomplish these goals. We collaborated as a team to design templates for HIRF’s social media in order to create a consistent image in hopes to gain followers and increase audience engagement.
What was the group’s role in the project?
Our group's role was to take the content that Vicki already had from Sierra Leone, such as photos and videos, and create consistent, simple and creative templates as well as an editorial calendar for their social media pages. We added color to their content as we created templates by incorporating the organization’s colors: blue and green. While we did not fill in every quote or photo on the templates, we came up with a general idea HIRF could post to their social media. As a group, we were able to create and complete templates based off of the content Vicki had already provided us. Our concept behind creating these preset templates was to set up a location for the photos and/or quotes to be pasted in. To help Vicki stay organized with her templates, we left a general message of what type of content would be fit best for that specific template. For example, we created a creative template for Earth Day, but we did not have access to include a photo with it. In the template, we dedicated a specific spot with “insert picture of Sierra Leone” so Vicki could easily fill in a picture here. In order for Vicki to have a better idea of what days to use templates, we created an editorial calendar for her to refer to to see specific national days and certain holidays for when to use the templates.
What was the collaboration and co-creation process?
Via Zoom, our group met with Vicki two times to discuss the templates and the content needed to create them. Vicki added photos and videos to the Google Drive we shared with her, and we worked as a group to collaborate on various different templates to show Vicki. These consisted of templates for just photos, some for just quotes, and the rest were a combination of photos and quotes.
We decided as a group to use Canva, a website where we could collaborate and design templates. By utilizing the share option on Canva, everyone was able to have access to the templates in order to work together and generate unique and creative templates. We tried to stick with the Healey colors, blue and green, by using their exact HEX color code. Canva also allowed us to add different graphics such as a stethoscope to add to the templates since HIRF revolves around healthcare. We used consistent fonts, Raleway and Open Sans, in order to make the designs consistent. Once we created about 10 templates for Facebook and 10 templates for Instagram, we showed them to Vicki, got her feedback, and then proceeded to collaborate with Vicki to change anything we both decided would enhance the templates.
What were some of the challenges of the research/design process?
One challenge in the process, especially this semester, was technological glitches. We had the opportunity to zoom with Charles, a manager onsite in Sierra Leone. During our zoom call, Charles’ internet kept cutting out. However, despite the internet issues, our experience talking to him was great. We got a first-person account of what Healey does in Sierra Leone. Charles provided us with many details about what struggles the organization faces.
Another slight challenge we faced was creating social media templates for Vicki to use. We didn’t know exactly what Vicki expected for the designs, or how many she wanted. It is difficult to come up with ideas and designs, when we did not know what our client was looking for. However, by our comparative research from similar social media accounts to HIRF, we were able to brainstorm and come with templates to show Vicki.
Upon looking at HIRF’s social media and their mentors (social media accounts that are similar to theirs in terms of following, likes, and mission), we decided to make generic templates that they could use at any time. A majority of the templates we made were for Motivation Monday, Wisdom Wednesday and Thankful Thursday which Vicki had emphasized in one meeting was important to post, and could easily become consistent with our templates. We also made a few templates for holidays and specific World Health Organization days that related to HIRF’s mission.
Since the templates have not been posted yet, it is difficult for us to know if we hit the target audience with them. Once Vicki posts them, we will have a better idea about if they were effective. However, if a template isn’t successful, Vicki can go in and edit them.
Results
What were the project outcomes or the project impact?
The goal of the project was to help Healey create a cohesive design across their social media that would make their organization more aesthetically pleasing. With a more cohesive design for Healey’s organization, we hope that they will be able to gain more followers, which will ultimately lead to more user engagement. In the near future, we hope a larger audience will eventually lead to more donations.
To create a more cohesive look for HIRF, we created social media templates. We wanted to make templates that were creative and eye-catching, but also professional. So far, we have not seen our templates used because we are not officially done with our project. Soon we will hand over our templates for HIRF to post on their social media platforms. We hope to see the templates help reach the goal we set out for.
Who benefitted from the project? What kind of impact did the project have on the community?
Healey IRF’s social media has definitely benefited from the project. Throughout the semester, we have been able to create many different templates in order to create a consistent, simple and clean look for Healey’s Facebook and Instagram pages. These templates and the professional-looking styles can draw Healey’s users to the posts, thus leading to more engagement. This has also encouraged Healey to create their own templates aside from what we have created for them. This can benefit them in the future, even after our project with them is complete for the semester. Through our work and collaboration with Vicki, we have been able to create specialized templates for specific holidays and national days that HIRF normally posts about on social media.
We have also created a Social Media Editorial Calendar in order to help Healey stay consistent with when and what to post. We have labeled specific days, specifically from the World Health Organization, and national holidays as well reiterating Motivation Monday, Wisdom Wednesday, and Thankful Thursdays. This will allow Vicki to have more structure to the posts and create consistency.
Additionally, our group benefited from this project as well. We have been able to learn how to collaborate with others and work as a team to reach a collective goal: to help Healey IRF create a more consistent look in their social media pages. Through our weekly Zoom meetings as well as outside of class, we have been able to work together to make an abundant amount of templates for Healey. Through our collaboration, we have been able to bounce ideas off of one another as well as get constructive feedback on our work. We have all been able to learn about the hidden tricks and features of Canva in order to create the best content. When one of us is confused or needs some help, we have been able to assist one another through the Zoom share screen option and the share option on Canva so we can edit each other's work or write comments.
How does the project live on?
The project lives on through HIRF’s social media. Vicki, the social media manager for HIRF can continue to use the templates we created on her social media. She can also use our templates for inspiration to create her own. In addition, the social media editorial calendar we made can be used throughout the next year. Vicki can look at the calendar to find holidays and special days to post on HIRF’s social media. By posting consistent content, this will help to create a consistent image for HIRF. A consistent image will hopefully result in more followers and more engagement from their audience.