A graphic of dithered pixels depicts three friends sitting facing a campfire, a colorful wave evoking the sunset in the background. The words "stories apart" are collaged together from a variety of typefaces and hand-written letters. Text reads: + Enlarge
Stories Apart — Web app mockup Web Design
An eclectic composition of miscellaneous objects, and illustrations of fires. The fires vary in size and color, and are labelled with the names of the campfire and the number of stories. The user interface includes: the stories apart logo; a search box; n + Enlarge
Stories Apart — Web app mockup, 2 Web Design
An eclectic composition of miscellaneous objects, and illustrations of fires. The fires vary in size and color, and are labelled with the names of the campfire and the number of stories. The user interface includes: the stories apart logo; a search box; n + Enlarge
Stories Apart — Web app mockup, 3 Web Design
An eclectic composition of miscellaneous objects, and illustrations of fires. The fires vary in size and color, and are labelled with the names of the campfire and the number of stories. The user interface includes: the stories apart logo; a search box; n + Enlarge
Stories Apart — Web app mockup, 4 Web Design
A story in text and audio format. The user interface includes: a star-shaped audio visualizer; the title of the story; tags and content warnings; a duration bar; a scrolling transcript of the story; a details pane; various objects corresponding to story p + Enlarge
Stories Apart — Web app mockup, 5 Web Design
Statement

Everyone has a story to share!

Stories Apart is a space for digital oral storytelling that encourages personal expression. It aims to bring the intimate experience of communal storytelling to the web, fostering meaningful interactions in a safe, anonymous, chosen community of storytellers.

This platform will allow users to create a "campfire," an online circle for sharing stories in text or audio format. These campfires may be public (open to anyone) or private (invite-only), allowing users to either foster inclusive spaces for anyone, or a safe space for a select group. Listeners can help the campfire grow by recording a story reply, or by sharing a key-code to invite new voices into a private campfire.

My research for this project explored the intrinsic value of storytelling: Why does telling stories matter? What do inclusive, meaningful, empowering stories look like? How can we create safe, authentic, and intimate spaces to share our stories? I narrowed the scope of my research by centering queerness, wanting to accommodate lived experiences typically exchanged outside of mainstream spaces. Early iterations of the Stories Apart prototype were largely tested by anonymous users from queer dating apps.

Stories Apart currently exists as a functional lo-fi prototype, powered by open-source web tools. This version supports a single proof-of-concept campfire, which will be used to pitch the project to a developer. The mock-ups below are a vision of how the webpage may someday look.

Your stories are welcome here! To participate in the prototype, visit:

kdoesdesign.github.io/

Graphic Design (BFA) Students