THE PROBLEM

VISITORS TO GENOCIDE
MUSEUMS EMERGE
INFORMED, BUT
EMOTIONALLY
INCAPACITATED.
CAN WE HELP THEM REFLECT ON
THEIR EXPERIENCES AND CONVERT
THE EMOTIONAL EXTREMES INTO
POSITIVE ACTION?
UX FOR GOOD | 2014 | www.uxforgood.com
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Many holocaust museums serve as beacons of
awareness; The How the event came to be. While this
initally serves the aected population, the storyline fails
to help visitors contextualize markers of pending
atrocity in their daily lives.
They feel lost - incapable of understanding how no one
saw the signs - yet nd it dicult to identify these
patterns within their daily lives.
AWARNESS
NARRATIVE JOURNEY EMOTIONAL JOURNEY
DISBELIEF
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They are emotionally compromised, yet maintain an
extreme desire to prevent future atrocities.
COMPROMISE
Their desire for action is met with a competing feeling
of hoplessness. What could I possibly do to make a
dierence?
HOPELESSNESS
Perhaps the most emotionally taxing part of any
holocaust museum are the images, artifacts, and
personal accounts that document the event. These
stories generally leave the visitor in a state of shock,
disbelief, and emotionally compromised.
THE EVENT
Most museumes contain illustrations of the immediate
response to the event - either within the population or
from the international community. They often fail to
portray the recovery as a continuing eort that visitors
can participate in.
IMMEDIATE RESPONSE
THEY ARE ILL-PREPARED AND EVEN
UNMOTIVATED FOR POSITIVE ACTION; THE
WINDOW OF ACTIVATION FADES AWAY.
THE CURVE CAN THUS
CHANGE GREATLY FROM
PERSON TO PERSON. FOR
THIS REASON THE INZOVU
CURVE CAN IN REALITY BE
DRAWN IN DIFFERENT WAYS,
REPRESENTING THIS
VARIABILITY.
INZOVU CURVE
THE INZOVU CURVE MAPS THE PROTOTYPICAL JOURNEY OF A
PERSON GOING THROUGH A TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCE
Empathy
Compassion
Action
Compassionate
A genocide memorial, and in general any
educational activity related to a genocide,
is meant to trigger a profound personal
reaction.
This is a moment of suering and creates
a strong emotional connection to what
happened.
Dierent people react in dierent ways,
its important to build an experience that
is not overwhelming for the people too
sensible, but at the same time not too
light, because other people might require
a more intense and prolonged
experience.
This moment should happen multiple
times during the experience itself. Its
meant as a way to decompress for
sensible people, and a space to think for
everyone.
Giving individuals moments to reect is
important, and such empty, neutral and
open moments must be crafted with the
same care as other parts of the
experience are.
While genocides are terrible events, there
are always heroes that shine through.
These people are often highly relatable
because are normal people that save lives
or do positive acts. Its hope for the
humanity.
Theres also another kind of hope that
instead is triggered by acceptance, rebirth,
reconciliation and reconstruction. Its
hope for the future.
Moments crafted for hope reverse the
pain and reection depth and are meant
to shift the emotional response and to
inspire action.
While its dicult to generate action in
each and every person, this moment is
made possible by the ones before.
In a sense, the pain prepares the seeds
that then reection is able to turn to
something positive, while hope gives
examples to follow and show how others
acted positively.
PAIN REFLECTION HOPE ACTION
Exhibitions that show photos, tells
heart-wrenching testimonies, videos,
stories, are all moments meant to
trigger emotional response.
This curve represents a deep
empathy dive with multiple stages of
reection, followed by an uplift shift
to compassion.
This curve represents the experience
of a sensible person, that resonates
quickly with the feellings, and thus,
has a more dicult time coming out.
People trained in compassion might
even entirely avoid the empathy
resonance part and shift immediately
to compassion.
An empty room, a walking moment
between two dierent activities, an
exercise to note down one owns
thoughts are all moments of
reection.
The courage of great heroes that
saved lives, but also the stories of
individuals that did small gestures of
change and reconciliation, all bring
hope for the future.
Big successes of entrepreneur that
creates entire companies and daily
actions of individuals that build a
better world all show the actions that
every individual can take.
DIFFERENT PEOPLE,
DIFFERENT CURVES
UX FOR GOOD | 2014 | www.uxforgood.com
THE SOLUTION
GENOCIDE MUSEUMS PROVIDE
OPPORTUNITIES FOR REFLECTION,
EPIPHANY, AND ACTIVATION;
CONVERTING EMPATHY INTO
COMPASSIONATE ACTION.
How the event came to be. This stage documents the
sequence of events that led to the event. It allows the
aected population to look back.
AWARNESS
1ST REFLECTION
CONTEXTUALIZATION
NARRATIVE JOURNEY EMOTIONAL JOURNEY
They feel lost - incapable of understanding how no one
saw the signs - yet nd it dicult to identify these
patterns within their daily lives.
Users are given the opportunity to connect precursor
moments to events happening in their daily lives.
TRIGGERS & PAUSES
A CALL TO ACTION & PERSONAL CONNECTION
POSSIBLITY
Some users will arrive to the point of activiation during this
stage while others will need a break. Include appropriate
elements throughout each moment of reection.
Guidance on reection is provided.
DISBELIEF
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!
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The images, artifacts, and personal accounts that
document the event. This includes some documentation
of the immediate response (local, global, etc..)
THE EVENT
MULTIPLE REFLECTIONS ARE
MIXED INTO THE EVENT
FINAL REFLECTION
Users are brought to the point of emotional compromise,
but never broken. The experience provides points of
reection & self pacing.
THE POINT OF COMPROMISE
REFLECTION
The images, artifacts, and personal accounts that
document the event. This includes some documentation
of the immediate response (local, global, etc..)
RECONCILIATION & RECOVERY
At the bottom of their emotional journey, they engage
with stories of strength, compassion, forgiveness and
reconcilation. They hear and see others recovery.
HOPE
Users engage with a variety of activists and
humanitarian stories. They are able to question
methods & explore their own capacity for action.
PROVOCATION & EXEMPLARY ACTIONS
Users are invigoriated with empathy and the sense that
anything is possible. They feel capable of making an
impact and have immediate / aspirational actions.
COMPASSIONATE ACTION
UX FOR GOOD | 2014 | www.uxforgood.com