A Story Map Experience

When first being told about the final project of making a story map I was unbelievably nervous. Being in a group I didn’t know and the final product being in the museum was terrifying to me. I was afraid I would let my group down and I wouldn’t be good enough. However, when finding out that we would have roles within the group I knew I wanted to be the design/ graphics director. I wanted to be able to contribute to the project in a way I knew I could succeed in. If i’m being honest it was my first big project where my design would be the face and center of something so important. I had to make sure the project was visually appealing and would get the attention of viewers. I was in charge of putting the information into the story map program and making sure all the information my group researched was correctly placed in the program. I didn’t think my contribution to the group was enough considering I did little to no research but I had an amazing group that showed me that I did a lot more for my group than I thought. I had a difficult time in the beginning of the project trying to use the storymap program but once I figured out how to use it, I found it fairly easy to use. I changed the background and the font so many times so it would be appealing to its viewers at the museum. Similar to what Christin Lyon, Elizabeth Nix, and Rebecca Shrum said in Introducing Public History: Interpreting the Past, Engaging Audience, “ … understanding your audience should always come first.” I wanted to make sure the audience found our project appealing and engaging. I wanted the product to be professional but also easy to navigate for people who don’t know anything about the topic we researched. Overall I think that was definitely accomplished. The benefits of being in a group is being able to trust others to help you along the way. I had a great group that constantly helped each other. We would meet up and work together so we were all on the same page. Some of the challenges were mainly the time situation. Since everyone has lives, getting together as a group was challenging, but we made it work.