I collaborate on digital, content, and audio making for public humanities and community projects.

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Periodically Queer

oneinstitute.org/periodicallyqueer
producing a queer history podcast for a cultural institution

One Institute’s first podcast, now with two seasons, this project dives into the history of LGBTQ+ community building through print media from the 1980s, 1990s, and early 1990s. As a producer, Hsu oversees the project from ideation and fundraising, through building the production team, to script writing and editing, episode hosting, sound design, branding, and content design.

Season Two was profiled in LA Times. Season One was featured in The Advocate and the storytelling strategy is discussed on the People Nerds podcast.

Hsu: lead podcast production and scriptwriting, content strategy including branding and communications design, sound design, music direction

Days of Rage Web Exhibit

daysofrage.oneinstitute.org
producing an archival image and storytelling web exhibit

This web exhibit sheds light on 30+ archival posters with five in-depth storytelling videos of activists and designers. Co-conceiving this digital-first exhibit with curator Andy Campbell, author of Queer x Design, and Studio Lutalica, Hsu led the project with a goal to not only display, but also exemplify the spirit of queer design. The project applies genderfail’s protest font developed from posters of LGBTQ liberation movements.

This website received an Awwwards honorable mention. Its design work was featured in an It’s Nice That article. The exhibition project was written up in THEM magazine.

Hsu: project management, design strategy including creative, UX, and branding oversight, content strategy

Metanoia Online

metanoia.oneinstitute.org
creative direction for a history and social justice focused web exhibit

This web exhibit is a result of a provocation-led interface and user experience design in collaboration with exhibition curators. Due to an abrupt gallery closure at the start of the pandemic, Hsu led the redesign of the exhibition experience with the objective to capture the essence of the two previous in-person gallery iterations. This involved re-organizing exhibition materials for the web and augmenting the experience with multimedia content including archival ephemera such as personal letters, sound and video recordings.

This web exhibit was mentioned in the LA Times. The digital strategy behind this exhibition was featured in Wyncote Foundation’s report Listen, Learn, Connect: Cultural Organizations and Digital Strategy in the COVID-19 Era.

Hsu: creative direction including user experience / user interface design strategy, content strategy, information architecture, branding

Cultural Affairs Department Website

culturela.org
strategic project management of agency website redesign and migration

This is City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs’ first web redesign project in 17 years. Hsu lead the website migration project from its RFQ through 3 phases of web development with a contractor, developing new user experience, information architecture, and developing staff workflow and content guidelines. Hsu also directed the development of an events calendar API, digital analytics (including SEO) strategy, and an interactive dashboard that tracks web KPI.

This open source project is shared on Github. Read why DCA released the code.

Hsu: UX research and design, content and analytics strategy, project management

Neighborhood Arts Profile

neighborhoodartsprofile.org
designing and project managing an arts planning tool for strategic change

Combining data science, policy research, and design thinking, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs’ (DCA) Neighborhood Arts Profile (NAP) catalyzes data informed advocacy for arts and community wellbeing in Los Angeles. This pursuit of neighborhood-level insights informs DCA’s place-based strategy toward improving cultural life of neighborhoods throughout LA and building city-wide cultural vibrancy.

NAP won the Government Technology Outstanding IT Award, is an IDC SmartCities North America Award Finalist, and was featured in the LA Weekly. NAP offers public and staff users access and the ability to interpret the complete and up-to-date datasets on arts and culture in each Los Angeles neighborhood. Aggregating and mapping more than 371,000 data points, NAP demonstrates the power of government data analytics, turning open data into actionable insights.

The design process, templates, and assets of this project are posted on Github and data catalog is shared openly. The project stories are shared in an interview on the Designmatters blog from ArtCenter College of Design.

Hsu: lead data, design research, and content strategy, project management

Hollyhock House Archive

hollyhockhousearchive.org
digital strategy and project management for web archive of historic cultural documents

Hollyhock House, the only Frank Lloyd Wright house in LA, has a wealth of archival materials associated with the built and development history of the house. Hsu led a team of city and curatorial staff as well as digitization and archive contractors to create a online public archive. Hsu directed the project from its inception (RFQ) to user experience research, to staff capacity development in digital and archival records management. Hsu also led strategic content development with curatorial and marketing staff, including organizing a prototype session with public stakeholders at the LA Arts Datathon.

This project was featured in an LA Times story.

Hsu: UX design and research, content strategy, project management

Hollyhock House Virtual Accessibility Experience

hollyhockhousevirtual.org
digital strategy for virtual experience / accessibility for UNESCO historic preservation site

Using immersive 360-photography, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House will increase its accessibility by 210% for site visitors and viewers through a first of its kind virtual tour program launching later this year. Hsu is the project’s digital and user experience lead and project manager. Their responsibilities include fundraising, supporting curatorial staff in content development, directing digital accessibility, general usability, compliance with government technology standards, and ensuring inclusivity of users of various abilities in design.

This project is a collaboration between City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and the Department on Disability, leading accessibility design using virtual reality (VR) technology. It is funded by the City of Los Angeles Innovation Fund.

This project was featured in Timeout Los Angeles, Southern Living, Architectural Record, and more.

Hsu: digital lead and UX strategy, digital accessibility

Arts Datathon

artsdatathon.org
strategic inter-agency partnership for regional public event on arts data

The Arts Datathon brings together arts administrators, artists, educators, data scientists, students, community advocates, researchers, civic technologists, and others to explore how data can improve access to the arts. Hsu is a co-founder of the Arts Datathon and led this city-county partnership with regional partners for three years. This project received media attention from KPCC, Hyperallergic, and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

Hsu: co-founder, organizer, facilitation, and partnership lead

Promise Zone Arts

promisezonearts.org
web and data lead on community-driven cultural asset mapping

Promise Zone Arts (PZA) is a cultural asset mapping initiative that gives Los Angeles residents a participatory platform to spotlight the artists, sites, cultural practices, and tradition bearers that they deem significant. This project is a part of the federal Promise Zone Program that fosters local economy and improves public safety and education access in urban areas of need.

Hsu led the data and mapping efforts by designing the cultural asset database, creating the research methodology, coordinates the Open Data publishing, and directing a multi-organizational data team. Hsu also directed the web production and content strategy.

This project was profiled in World Cities Culture Forum’s report.

Hsu: data and content strategy, UX design and research

ACLU SoCal Data Strategy

data design workshop for nonprofit communications

The Communications and Media Advocacy team at the American Civil Liberties Union in Southern California (ACLU SoCal) needed help with organizing their data and workflow.

Hsu developed and facilitated a design thinking workshop with the team members. The goal of the workshop was to concretize the team’s data goals, explore the flow of work and data, reveal pain points, and strategize alignment with organizational mission. Following the workshop, Hsu analyzed the workshop observations and developed a three-phase data strategy for the organization.

Hsu: data strategy and production flow design

Lab at DCA

dcaredesign.org/lab
digital and data incubator for city Staff

Lab at DCA is a city staff incubator designed to meet the demands of 21st century municipal administration, hosted by City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA). The Lab aims to cultivate agency-wide digital and data literacy and inspire sustainable innovative practices in local government.

Hsu developed a curriculum to support emerging staff needs related to web-based communications, social media, data visualizations, interactive mapping, and design thinking, empowering staff to problem solve in their work using new tools.

Hsu: founder, curriculum design, content, facilitation