Design Brief: Design a website for those without access to the internet
Currently about ⅔ of humanity - 4.3 billion people - do not have access to the Internet. Outernet is the first way to reach all of those people with regularly updated information. We need help designing a user experience that is effective, elegant, and relevant.
This may become the most viewed digital design project in history.
About Outernet:
Outernet is a digital media broadcaster of essential information. We offer ordinary citizens across the world free access to any type of digital file – audio, video, text, images – in any language. We call ourselves “Humanity’s Public Library.”
Our free-to-receive satellite broadcast provides a basic level of uncensored information to everyone in the world, independent of income, infrastructure, and geography. Users can control their experience by filtering what information they receive. Users may also request content to be broadcast on Outernet by submitting a request to Outernet over any medium.
Using Outernet requires no fee. To download information, we publish instructions for a user to build their own receiver or a receiver may be purchased from Outernet. To upload, a user may submit a free content request or sponsor their content for a fee.
We offer digital content owners an inexpensive, efficient means of delivery to a global audience with minimal interference. Our flat pricing structure makes broadcasting content accessible to all organizations.
Please familiarize yourself with Outernet via our successful IndieGoGo campaign, our blog, our forums, and our website.
About the project:
We are searching for a designer to refine the presentation of information that Outernet broadcasts. For a sense of the breadth of information we need to present, please read this blog entry.
Librarian is an offline web application that displays content from our data broadcasts. The current version of Librarian can be seen here. Librarian should be designed to be useful to any human on Earth, especially to those who have previously had little or no experience with the internet. This is an enormous design challenge and requires an exceptional individual.
A successful candidate will have the following:
- Experience in designing websites that present a large volume of information in an intuitive way.
- Familiarity with the hurdles that Outernet’s wide user base will have in accessing information, from language barriers to a complete lack of familiarity with the Internet, including the basic concept of a website.
- Be extremely aggressive in meeting deadlines in a remote working arrangement.
- A quixotic personality. Outernet is a simultaneously audacious and achievable project that can change humanity forever. That goal should drive you.
This position will be a contract position with the goal for the candidate to join Outernet full time, subject to performance on this project. Stage one (outlined below) is in the purview of the current contract opportunity, with the later stages to be completed upon successful hiring of the candidate.
Creation of Librarian v1.0 (Internet version)
This will be a version of Librarian that provides utility to a user who has Internet access. It serves primarily two functions: preview to what is available via an Outernet receiver and be a content destination for an Internet user. This should be humanity’s homepage.
Compatibility of Librarian (Outernet/offline version)
This version of Librarian will be distributed over Outernet to receivers. While it will be aesthetically similar (if not identical) to the version above, it will require additional testing for Outernet use cases.
Creation of user request interface
When a content request is received by Outernet, it will be posted on this site and visitors will have the opportunity to fulfill those requests. For more details on this process, see “User Requested Content” in this document.
Creation of sponsored content interface
Any person or organization should have the opportunity to sponsor content for broadcast on Outernet. This will be a payment gateway based on a dynamic pricing of Outernet bandwidth based on multiple factors. For more details on this process, see “Sponsored Content” in this document.
Please send an email to jobs@outernet.is including with all of the the following information.
If you have any questions about this position, please post them on the thread for this post in our forum. They will be answered by an Outernet staff member. Do not email questions.
This will be a version of Librarian that provides utility to a user who has Internet access. It serves primarily two functions: preview to what is available via an Outernet receiver and be a content destination for an Internet user. This should be humanity’s homepage.
Compatibility of Librarian (Outernet/offline version)
This version of Librarian will be distributed over Outernet to receivers. While it will be aesthetically similar (if not identical) to the version above, it will require additional testing for Outernet use cases.
Creation of user request interface
When a content request is received by Outernet, it will be posted on this site and visitors will have the opportunity to fulfill those requests. For more details on this process, see “User Requested Content” in this document.
Creation of sponsored content interface
Any person or organization should have the opportunity to sponsor content for broadcast on Outernet. This will be a payment gateway based on a dynamic pricing of Outernet bandwidth based on multiple factors. For more details on this process, see “Sponsored Content” in this document.
To apply:
Please send an email to jobs@outernet.is including with all of the the following information.
- Link to portfolio of previous work, specifically work relevant to this project.
- Link to any open source contributions
- Feedback on the current version of Librarian.
- Resume or link to updated LinkedIn profile.
- Desired compensation for a) contract period b) full time UX designer at Outernet
- In your opinion, what will be the most important details to consider in the successful completion of this project?
If you have any questions about this position, please post them on the thread for this post in our forum. They will be answered by an Outernet staff member. Do not email questions.