Designing My Interactive Space : Stranger In My House- Part 1
STRANGER IN MY HOUSE.COM
In my media concepts class, I was assigned to build my own website! It is appropriately called Stranger In My House.com, however, I am also thinking of the name Stop Pretending.com but I will save that for the title of my book…YES, I said BOOK! Stay tuned…. 
All of this sounds exciting huh? The site of course must be created from my own vision, which shouldn’t be too hard :) For a while now I have had this idea of building a site dedicated to women of color focusing around mental health, strong self-esteem, and their place in media establishing whether media indeed has a negative impact on our community.
Through my website, I will express my ideas as creatively as possible to attract users/viewers by investigating the problem of this population in regards to the issue of low self esteem, share with my audience the wealth of information gathered from my own personal experiences with self esteem issues, and present different perspectives gained over the years. My website will also include trusted information young African American women can use towards building their self confidence and create a community that they can rely on to share their day to day feelings.
Furthermore, I plan to provide my audience with the utmost respect, privacy and tools they need to fulfill their needs. I have a couple of ideas as far as collaborations and social advocacy which will be outline below.
My Inspiration for this website: A special “princess” I had the pleasure of knowing for the past 2 years and becoming an important part of her life. I just want to let her know that she has influenced me to to push extra hard in all that I do. I am so glad to have a “sister” in you…miss you princess (tear)
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Stranger In My House.com
Date Created: 12/2/2008 Last Modified: 12/3/2008
(Site Name still Subject to Change)
1. PROBLEMS AND OPPORTUNITIES
· How to improve the self esteem of young African American women leaders and entrepreneurs
· Opportunities available for my project to succeed are the active use of mentors, live open forums and networking events with professionals in almost every industry willing to improve the lives of our next generation’s leaders
2. PROJECT GOALS
· The goal of my website is to empower young African American women to become more forceful and involved in leadership position. To always strive for success
· I hope to accomplish my goal of reaching out to as many young women about how to fulfil their career goals and to hopefully create a network with women who want to engage in open dialogue about their fear of failing in the real world and explore outlets they can pursue to ultimately eliminate that unwanted fear
3. DELIVERABLES
· Sitemap
· Design Comps
· Templates
· Test Site Production
· Live Site Launch
· Web Analytics
· Search Engine Optimization
4. OUT OF SCOPE
· Some intricate ideas I had in mind were graphics and personal testimony told through live audio of women leaders in the industry. My site will be very interactive…lots of survey’s , evaluation of self through fun tests, a chance to create your own profile, add pictures, and express personal frustrations (kind of blog like)
· I would like to keep it simple at first and primariliy focus on empowering young women through personal testimonies and notification of events they can attend and network at that can address these problems
· Some great things that I would like to have once structure is in place are one on one interaction through virtual networking, establishing everyone’s identity through profile, likes and dislikes, etc.followed by open forum discussing their
5. ASSUMPTIONS
· It would be safe to assume that I cannot oversaturate my site with too much information—keep it simple! And keep in mind the cost as well as any fancy graphics- focus on getting my point across and gaining audience through relatable topics. I wouldn’t want the crowd assuming I am an expert psychologist, just a positive professional female voice
6. HIGH IMPACT RISKS
Some factors that could affect my project are the state of the economy, how similar businesses are being valued, how to market my website project, fulfilling consumer needs, beating the competition, and maybe location.
7. COST ESTIMATE
I expect this startup project to be less expensive than starting a traditional business, I am thinking of something small scale probably a little something to create a ”buzz” but of course there are typical expenses such as web space and design; yearly/monthly costs of domain and web hosting,
8. SCHEDULE ESTIMATE
I would need about 2 years tops to fully complete and feel accomplished with this specific project and gather the resources needed to make it extremely successful. I’ve already got the know-how, its just about the execution, dedication, and support of others! J
9. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Sponsor: In terms of sponsorship for my project I would like to tap women organizations such as AWRT (American Women in Radio and Television (which I am on the board of directors for), MIW (Mentoring and Inspiring Women in Radio, Big Brothers & Big Sisters of NYC, and any other . I have created a database of organizations, universities, and affluent business contacts
Executive: Primary stakeholder would consist of possibly hospitals, clinics, or Wellness/rehabilitation centers that primarily deal with at risk young African American women between the ages of 12+. Secondary stakeholders would be community outreach programs, high schools, a Girl Scouts club where it would be generally easier to identify with the subject
Coordinator: I would be the head coordinator of this project seeing that it is my vision and I have a passion for the topic and audience. I would however like to incorporate professionals I have worked with in the field that have firsthand experience in dealing with this subject and topic.
Director: I would like to hire a consultant to stear this project in the right direction and possibly get more insight on ways to generate business and always be informed of how to
Manager: I will be the manager of my project
Designer: I have a personal list of designers whose works I have been impressed with. Some of those options include Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., BlindFury Productions, and personal graphic designers I have developed relationships with.
Producer: I of course want a hand in the process of building this site but I will consult and narrow down my search according to experience and work samples.
QA (quality assurance): LogiGear, GoMez, or ACTL (more research to be done on this area)
Support: I would like to use interns/students to update the site regularly, If not, I would pay the web designer to update on a day to day basis. Worse comes to worse, I will do it myself! (probably not)
Marketing: EVERYONE will be involved in this project! I will promote on linkedin.com, myspace.com, imeems.com, thefacebook.com; twitter.com; hi5.com, and other blogs and networking websites
You’re Never A Stranger In OUR House; You’ve Got OUR love without a doubt; if ever you feel a sort of way; just come on by and hear us say
“I LOVE ME”
