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Can you sum up the project?

There is often a perception that anything archive is ‘dusty,’ for more mature people. It’s not. The ´óÏó´«Ã½’s archive can be mind-blowing, hilarious, shocking, emotive and enormously entertaining. We wanted younger people to see it, to hear it, and to see how it relates to them. 'Your Ma' is designed to bring different generations together, to encourage discussion and reminiscence. Hinged around Mother's Day, the question we want to answer, is “What was your Mum doing when she was your age?”.

‘Your Ma’ is personalised, and it allows users to find out what life was like for women in a different decade. The ultimate aim is to encourage people to talk to their mothers, to take four minutes to walk and dance in a different pair of shoes, at a different time and place, to see the world as their mother saw it. However, you don’t need to be with ‘Your Ma’ to experience this, just enter her age, and yours, and we’ll do the rest.

How was it created?

This is a fast-paced experience that works for a mobile audience, involves engagement and choice throughout, and delivers an experience based your mother’s interests.

The Belfast-based ´óÏó´«Ã½ Rewind team gathered archive content from the 1950s up to the early 2000s, covering world events, politics, women's rights, music, fashion and technology. The content was clipped up into the various topics and mapped out for the user to navigate.

How was it built?

Is a 'one stop shop' approach, there is no scrolling or swiping. With a younger audience in mind, we wanted to see how appealing interactive video would be as a means to navigate the vast ´óÏó´«Ã½ archive. Does the fast paced nature and interactive element retain users’ attention longer than standard video?

We built a simple data entry form that would work out what period the user’s Mum was the same age they are now. The videos that match that era are then delivered via the interactive video player. The experience is built in era's of five years - for example, if your Mum was your age in 1987, then your video will be the late 1980s.

Any challenges and what were the solutions?

We want to make this as personalised as possible, to drill down to specific years and locations. This pilot is aimed specifically at users in Northern Ireland, but if successful we would like to roll it out to other areas to make this journey entirely bespoke to future users. Rights are always a consideration, particularly with music and performances, so we have limited geographical reach for the moment. 

What do you hope to learn from it being on Taster?

We want to know how appealing this experience is to younger audiences, whatever the feedback, we are here to inform, educate and entertain you, so let us know if it works. Does this retain people’s attention? How relevant and personal did this feel to you and your mum? Were you surprised or shocked by what you saw, and did it encourage you to spend time with your mum, on the ´óÏó´«Ã½?

Secondly, we're hoping to see if this method of delivery is more mobile friendly for users, and if the pacey nature of the content is a suitable way to learn about history.

What next?

If people in Northern Ireland enjoy the pilot, we would love to roll the concept out, UK-wide, for Mother's Day 2018. We would take the findings from this pilot and apply them to any expanded version. Do the clips need to be longer? Does it need to be vertical video on mobile? Are there too many choices? Let’s find out!

Happy Mother's Day everybody!