“Beautiful animations on the site that feels like a delight to scroll!” —Baptiste Briel
“Hook did an incredible job humanizing the research and underlining the purpose of this work, using an intuitive UX/UI design to communicate the scale of the project along with its social impact.” —Sarah DiLeo
Overview: There are more than 7,000 languages in the world, but only a few of them are represented online. An initiative by Google, Language Inclusion leverages AI and other technology to help preserve the world’s languages. This website by Ann Arbor, Michigan–based ad agency Hook portrays the initiative’s positive impact on communities around the world by focusing on the humanity and accessibility with which the initiative has provided them. Weaving editorials, photos, animations and videos into all design aspects of the site, Hook put the human element first to highlight Language Inclusion’s goal of making information more accessible for all.
Comments by Ryan Michlitsch, executive design director:
Were there any specific demands that made the project easier or harder? “Since the project started before any content had been captured, we were in a unique position to influence its creation as well as design the site. With a limited budget, our goals and intentions had to be scaled back to meet deadlines. Fortunately, we were working with a great client who stood behind the site’s vision. She handled any client-side issues, which gave us the space to experiment and put our best work forward.
“Having worked with this client on several projects now, we’ve established a level of trust and communication that continues to benefit the work, the agency-client relationship and both of our organizations overall. Thinking back on this project, we feel it has been a great honor and continue to be proud of it.”
What considerations did you have when putting the team together for the project? “When staffing a project that focuses on the diversity of the world’s languages, it’s important to have a team of equally diverse communicators. Language isn’t just determined by where you’re from; it’s also molded by who you are. So, we had as many different voices in the room as we could manage across the spectrums of sexuality, gender and ethnic background. We made sure to include the perspectives of team members who had learned English as a second language because that experience is so integral to understanding the purpose of Language Inclusion as well as the connection between visual and verbal communication.
“We also created several briefs for the video crews to help capture the authenticity of these places through interviews and on-the-ground stories. These conversations emboldened the teams operating autonomously across the globe and aligned them to our singular vision.”
