love+conflict+power

You have obviously put a lot of time and thought into this project, and managed to address the brief in an intelligent and complex manner. It is an engaging idea – linking three stories, each about power, conflict and love from around the world, and combing morals and values from each to create resolutions. The main icons on the site – the heart, the arrows and the raised fist – are well designed: they are graphically interesting marks, they clearly signify the meaning of each topic, and they work well together as a set. The colours you have chosen are bold and engaging. However, the fist does not scale down as well as the other symbols, as the fine lines in between the fingers and the crease of the palm become too fine and the shape become difficult to read when it is small (on the main map). Your typography is simple but strong, although I find the black type on the orange background (on the ‘connection’ pages) slightly difficult to read – the contrast between these colours makes my eyes ‘swim’. The font could either be slightly heavier or the orange lighter – the orange of the work ‘connection’ also swims against the blue background. This may seem a small matter, but it is very important for us to want to read what you have written, and this contrast is interfering with my desire to do so. Overall, I think this is a lovely idea, and you have done an excellent job of summarising the stories and making connections. Well done. To progress this further, it would be great to see you think about incorporating more imagery – finding ways to make visual links between the themes in the stories, and a visual metaphor to show the resolution.

This was a strong use of mapping to highlight connections that are taking place across the word. The simple use of symbols and colour mean that the website is easy to use and user friendly.

I enjoyed reading through my almost random clicks on the map to read another connection that i would not normally have engaged with. It is once you get to the level of reading the stories that the strength of the project comes through.

What i wanted to know more about was where these texts came from and what was their original context which i could not find here (although maybe i missed it?).

I feel that this website presents a very interesting concept and shows a deep amount of engagement to the subject matter. The wealth of content and its interpretation is commendable for a student project. The idea of comparing and connecting local stories through the framework presented (which responds literally and effectively to the competition outlines) is an original and engaging idea.

This being said, the design doesn't do justice to the concept. The information hierarchy, presentation of the texts, and design elements don't help in the presentation and understanding of the content, in particular the legibility of the texts really suffers. It is unclear what is interactive, and how the different screens and stories relate, it took me a while to understand the concept.

These problems came close to preventing me from selecting this work, but I feel that the core concept is very strong and I would like to see it evolve. Greater care given to the design, and respect for the text rather than the "titles" would go along way to improving the reader's experience.

The first statement you make about love as power and how it faces conflict as it naturally grows reminds me of a couple I found arguing on the streets of Paris (perhaps the most romantic city in the world) about who loves who more.

He said I love you, she said I love you more, he said no I love you more! She said not possible I love you even more ... well it ended with both getting into a raging conflict and walked away from each other. Amusing yet tragic that we never let go of our competitive nature and it creeps ever so slowly into our most intimate affairs. Sadly they kept walking and I did not hang out long enough to see if they ever made up - I would imagine they did and realize in time how foolish the whole episode was.

It would also be wishful thinking if all conflict around the world could perhaps be resolved in a short timeframe with the realization how foolish it was to begin with. The website of stories that you have designed from around the world reinforces the idea that we all to a certain degree share the same emotions and want the same basic human needs. This link is strong in your execution and the graphics are simple yet effective and pleasing to navigate. Your choice of colors show your sensitivity towards your profession as designers and the relationship of what is being communicated.

At times the map although a vital instrument gives misleading content or appears to until you realize that you need to identify a hierarchy that I am afraid not always consistent. The iconography adds a layer of information that at times lead to confusion but then perhaps it is the intention here.

Not an easy subject but I have to congratulate the team for keeping me engaged and wanting me to read, write and travel more.

This a quite nice abstraction for conflict solving. Even if we are a bit skeptical about the fact that you can solve every problems with "the power of love" this project is a quite playful metaphor for potential "trans-national" interaction and collaboration.
With its slightly "naive" approach, its magic (!) connect button and its quite surrealist result, this tool should maybe be used more often by the UN ; ) An interactivity aspect of the page could make it grow even more and bring more complicity in the interconnection between the stories and the general graphic of the website could be a bit more precise (icons treatment, …) without losing from its simplicity.
So the next step is to find coders which could programm smart software which is able to interconnect contributed stories from all over the world (web 2.0).