Kaleid Project

About

(opens in new tab)Kaleid is a decentralized people-powered search engine being developed to give narrative power to individuals and communities.

The Kaleid search engine application is designed to discover and navigate information contextually through multiple lenses. The platform will utilize a flexible multi-node architecture which allows users to create kaleidoscopes or “search engine lenses” of content creating dynamic connections that go well beyond one layer of connectivity. It will bestow agency, focus and scope control to the user through a visual experience on any web-accessible device.

Users can create new "fragments" which are individual pieces of content and new "kaleids" which act like a grouping of content. Users can also nest their own or other's kaleids within a kaleid. The nesting of content creates a rhizomatic effect which is utilized in the search result algorithms. Users can navigate content generated and organized by other users based on search criteria related to scope and range of persective. The idea is to show results that are not only what you searched for (the least common denominator) but content that is just outside of your searching scope based on the way others relate to content.

Click to view Wireframe Prototype (opens in new tab)

My Role

The concept and idea of Kaleid Project was started with Chelsea Davies, a fellow student from the Comparative History of Ideas Department at the University of Washington. I led the brainstorming and wireframing sessions which were collaborations. I was the sole researcher, annotator, designer, and developer of the project. * Chelsea Davies worked on the moodboard, brainstorming, and conceptualization.