What if Iranian political prisoners had a Facebook Page?
That’s the creative question Unlock Iran answers in this creative approach to social awareness of human rights violations by the Iranian government.
Not only is the concept really cool, but the creative elements and website design delivers the message in a really awesome way.
Let’s take a closer look:
Unlock Iran
Unlock Iran does an amazing job in humanizing the situation in Iran, but having you learn about ten different Iran prisoners in a medium that the user is already familiar with: A Facebook timeline.
I also like the diversity of people they choose, too:
These ten prisoners include a:
- Power Couple
- Student
- Community Leader
- Scientist
- Lawyer
- Pastor
- Feminist
- Techie
- Blogger
- Journalist
This list includes people that everyone can identify with personally, relate to as a friend, and respect in the community. And if ten seems like a low number, you can explore each category further, placing more names behind the faces:
Let’s take a closer look at the timeline. Here is the community leader’s page:
I like the style they used for the site. It’s done like a Facebook timeline, without being cheesy enough to make it look exactly like Facebook — like some kind of mashup.
As you scroll through the timeline, you will be immersed in their story. In a dynamic mix of photos, quotes, updates and embedded videos that start and stop based on your scroll position, Unlock Iran doesn’t lose its message in all the special effects. The effects on this website are not done for the sake of having nice effects, they are behind the scenes — as they should be — enhancing the story and user experience.
[tentblogger-youtube c-biIQp9Gec]
After all this eye-candy and a great use of technology for story telling, Unlock Iran didn’t lose focus on their purpose:
There are multiple ways to take action. Here is another point of excellent execution on their part. People like choices. So they’ve given the user multiple ways to take action. You can:
- Share the persons “timeline” via Twitter, Facebook or email
- Send a tweet targeting major players in the issue: Presidents, Prime Ministers, Ambassadors, etc…
- Sign a petition
- And donate.
Finally, once you get to the end of the page (timeline), you are not faced with the typical footer:
You are lead to the same selection you had at the beginning. There’s no need to go back, the user is always lead forward through the site. Make your selection and begin again! This leads to further engagement, more social media action, and another opportunity to make an appeal for a donation.
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