top of page
Media & Tech | Vice Media Group

Research + Multi-channel campaign to position VICE as a pioneering platform for GenZ activism

My Role
 
  • Strategic designer supporting Research, Synthesis and Ideation
     
  • Led Focus group session during research
     
  • Owned execution and testing of 1 out of 3 prototypes.
     
  • Final presentation at client office along with the team.
Skills
  • Interview Design
  • Focus group facilitation
  • Synthesis/ Sense-making
  • Service Design
  • Stakeholder Management
  • Prototyping & Testing
  • Storytelling & Presentation
Collaborators
  • Teammate - Social scientist
  • Teammate - Visual designer
  • Teammate - Strategist
  • Parsons faculty
  • VICE VP of Design 
  • VICE Global SVP of Insights
Project Overview
The Challenge
We began by trying to understand the challenge more deeply, in conversations with VICE VP of Global Design & Global SVP of Insights along with preliminary research on Activism @ VICE
Design Research
We designed our interviews to dive deep into young people’s motivations, fears, hopes, and experiences. We spoke for 15+ hours with Gen Z and millennials from all over the world to gain diverse perspectives.
Focus Group warmup - participants doodled their online vs IRL selves
SOCIAL LISTENING
Instagram & YouTube
Consuming long-form content creates better understanding, increases trust and positive engagement.
VICE News
Vice News publishes content in a very digestible "boots on the ground" format providing a unique perspective 
Refinery 29
News articles conclude with an action button that takes the news story further and prompts action & discussion
VICE Voices
Vice Voices is a market research tool for advertisers and brand partners used for behavioural research
LITERATURE REVIEW
Because our challenge centered around identity formation and active citizenship, we explored literature in the field of behavioral psychology, critical media studies, and social movement theory
Synthesis 
Using notes from 15+ interviews and all other research methods, we collated stickies into different groups around which themes were beginning to emerge.

This is where I often relied on first-principles thinking to arrive at an insight. For example, trying to find what was behind the GenZ need to manufacture a completely different identity online?
in-person team synthesis session
VICE MEDIA SYSTEM MAP
A system map is another tool used during synthesis, to understand VICE’s business principles, the effects of media landscape trends and VICE’s leadership. We were able to identify possible points of entry as well as barriers to attracting GenZ activists.
8 core insights
Opportunities
Our insights gave rise to a number of opportunity areas in which to bring valuable change. We voted on what felt the most impactful and achievable, and narrowed down to 3 main opportunity areas.
Prototyping
We prototyped the methodology and execution of solutions in the form of lo-fi prototypes to measure the engagement and impact across different mediums. 
We created & tested 3 prototypes. Below is an elaboration on the prototype owned by me.
Prototype 1 - Experiencing Activism through Art
Prototype 2 - Introspection in the Activist's journey
Prototype 3 - Finding my Activist Avatar
HYPOTHESIS - Facilitating the discovery of which social issues one is passionate about will increase their awareness about their activist identity.

A quiz delivered on an interactive webpage. The quiz creates an activist avatar and suggests links to resources.
A sample result - 
WHAT WE LEARNED - The quiz was perceived as a fun way to either form or confirm an identity around activism. More than 50% testers explored the resources attached with their result.
GenZ Activism is a journey, that is non-linear
and never complete. We support this journey by bolstering the three pillars of identity formation 
GIVE A DUCK
The proposed solution is a multi-touchpoint campaign that goes beyond traditional definitions of activism to meet GenZ wherever they are. This enables their identity formation and empowers them to take action with the aim to build on Vice’s already successful infrastructure of content, collaboration and creativity across various platforms. The solution focuses on radical transparency to help instill users' trust in VICE.
Our team working board
The Campaign Initiatives - 
Meet The Team 
ALEXANDRA BEKKER

Social scientist, DarkMatter Labs
RHEA
MEHTA

Design Strategist,
LOCAL
 
SAHIBA
PANNU

Design Researcher,
SOUR
 
SUSHMITA
NARAYANA

UX Designer
Product Manager

 
6B0CDC02-E09D-43F3-BC94-1B408448594E_edi
bottom of page