About
Above is a picture of our Primary Investigator (Jean Hardy) leading a workshop in Houghton, Michigan in May of 2018.
The LGBTQ Futures Project is a collaborative and community-based project in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (the UP) that seeks to understand how LGBTQ people in rural and remote locales experience community and technology. Specifically, we seek to understand how local institutions (e.g. universities or non-profits) support LGBTQ populations and the role that social media and new technologies play in creating networks of support and community in for people living in rural places. Building on this, we are now working towards designing and deploying unique and local solutions for information and resource issues for LGBTQ people living in rural Michigan.
Phase One: 2018-2021
In the first phase of our research, we conducted a series of participatory design workshop with LGBTQ people in towns across the UP. In our workshops, participants discussed what it means to be LGBTQ where they live and the resources they have access to (or wish they had access to). Following, participants worked in small groups to create low-fidelity mock-ups of digital technology that could help address a problem facing LGBTQ people living in their region.
Phase Two: 2021-present
Building on participatory design workshops and interviews with people living throughout the UP, we are now conducting focused design research activities in communities. We hope the results of this research will lead to the creation of a digital platform to help address information and resource needs of LGBTQ people living in the UP.
The research is currently approved by the Institutional Review Board at Michigan State University under STUDY00005376 and Northern Michigan University under