Students will launch the Herstory project by engaging directly with real women in their lives, practicing interview and observation skills, and producing a structured empathy artifact grounded in firsthand evidence that will guide their documentary design decisions.

Students will synthesize their interview transcripts, quotes, and observations into clear empathy artifacts and a focused How Might We statement that is grounded in real user evidence and ready to guide ideation.

Students will generate a wide range of documentary concepts grounded in their How Might We statements, evaluate ideas using user-centered criteria, and produce annotated concept storyboards that directly address real needs identified in their featured women’s stories.

Students will build and refine a testable mini-documentary prototype that captures the authentic daily life of a woman they interviewed, using rapid low-fidelity planning, structured peer testing, and documented iteration based on real user feedback.

Students will validate their refined Herstory documentary prototypes with a new audience member, analyze feedback for final improvements, and present their full design journey—from empathy research to iteration—at the Women We Admire Film Festival.