Canadian Museum for Human Rights
Share Your Story
Winnipeg, Canada
Building a better online world through first-person experiences
- Launched ahead of schedule in response to global events
- Innovative, simple interface
- Inspiring dialogue
The Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) is the world’s only museum dedicated solely to exploring the subject of human rights, its mission includes fostering respectful dialogue in Canada and around the world.
The Museum partnered with Cogapp to create an online system for users to share their story in response to a question, usually relating to current affairs with a connection to human rights.
As Coronavirus forced most of the planet’s population into lockdown, CMHR asked us to launch Share Your Story ahead of schedule with the question “What acts of kindness have lifted your spirits during the COVID-19 pandemic?”
Building a better online world for people on lockdown
Share Your Story went live at a time of anxiety and confusion, with many of us looking for good news. Share Your Story very effectively shows the community kindness that has been a feature of the pandemic, and elicits stories that may not otherwise have been heard or shared.
Building a better online world for the understanding of human rights
Share Your Story enables CMHR to respond quickly to world events, collecting and sharing first-hand stories from people affected and / or passionate about the question being asked.
Building a better online world for our client
The Museum has a simple interface to update the question as often as they wish, and an intuitive workflow built around YouTube playlists to manage and publish submissions.
We developed a React app coupled with CameraTag (a 3rd party service for capturing and storing videos), and the YouTube Data API. Leveraging existing platforms and services this way was cost-effective for the Museum.
Share Your Story integrates into the CMHR’s Drupal site. Their in-house developers will manage the code post-launch, so we worked closely with them to ensure our code met their standards and techniques.
An environment where everyone can do their best work
This project began with a team in Winnipeg and a team in Brighton. It quickly turned into dispersed teams working from home via videoconference. Everyone involved worked hard to adapt to ‘the new normal’ and to collaborate despite the unprecedented situation.
We demoed work to the Museum at the end of every sprint, and worked creatively together to refine the brief as development was ongoing.
Our respective technical teams have successfully collaborated and our work is now completely manageable by the Museum team in their Drupal CMS.
