Concordia's
STRIVE Committee
Website
Designing a Platform for Community Voices, Care, and Institutional Accountability.
Role: Research, UX/UI Design, Prototyping
Timeline: 2 Months
Context
STRIVE (Standing Together Against Racism and Identity-Based Violence) is a Concordia initiative focused on addressing experiences of racism and identity-based harm within the university community. As part of the Standing Together: Making Transparent, Making Accountable campaign, the platform was designed to create a space where community members could share experiences, highlight acts of care, and propose institutional change.
Problem
Research & Discovery
Through meetings with STRIVE committee members, we identified three core user needs:
Concordia’s STRIVE Task Force needed a platform where members of the university community could safely share experiences related to racism and identity-based harm, while also highlighting acts of care and proposing solutions.
The challenge was designing a platform that could handle sensitive content while remaining accessible, clear, and welcoming for a wide range of users across the university community.
1. The Problem
Share stories of harm experienced on campus
2. What’s Working
Highlight acts of care and solidarity
3. What’s Needed
Propose institutional change and recommendations
Design Decisions
1. Clear Information Structure
We structured the platform around the three engagement areas to make navigation intuitive and to clearly communicate the campaign’s goals.
2. Exploring Two Interaction Models
To help users explore community stories, we prototyped two interface approaches.The map concept encouraged exploration while grounding experiences in familiar campus spaces.
3. Accessibility & Simplicity
Because the platform deals with sensitive experiences, the interface needed to be calm, readable, and easy to navigate.
Key UX choices included:
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simplified landing page with a clear call-to-action
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uncluttered layout and readable typography
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structured storytelling modules to support emotional content
4. Designing Within Institutional Constraints
During development we learned that Concordia requires submission forms to be handled through Microsoft Forms. The design was adapted to integrate this system while maintaining a smooth user flow.
Prototype & Development
We developed a high-fidelity interactive prototype in Figma, followed by a WordPress mock-up website to test how the interface would function in a real platform environment.
Outcome & Learning
The project delivered:
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a complete UX/UI prototype
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a WordPress mock-up site
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documented design flows for future development
The project strengthened my skills in:
• UX research and design thinking
• prototyping and iteration
• designing for sensitive community experiences
• collaborating with real stakeholders and institutional constraints