How I designed a multi-modal experience that made complex, culturally-specific content accessible to 45 users with zero prior context — through progressive disclosure and scaffolded interaction.
As part of a Global Literature program at Northeastern University, I was tasked with designing an experience around the poetry of Mirza Ghalib — widely regarded as one of the greatest Urdu and Persian poets. The design challenge was significant: 45 users, almost none of whom had any background in South Asian literature, Urdu language, or the Mughal-era cultural context that shaped Ghalib's work.
The existing experience treated the content the way most Western platforms treat non-Western material — translated excerpts with minimal context. Users were expected to engage with content deeply rooted in a linguistic and cultural tradition they had no frame of reference for. The result was predictable: low engagement, surface-level interaction, and a sense that the material was inaccessible.
I started by assessing what users already knew and what they'd need to engage meaningfully with the material. I identified that the experience expected high-level analytical thinking (interpreting metaphor, evaluating technique) but users lacked the foundational context layer — they didn't have the historical, cultural, or linguistic background to even begin engaging.
Before presenting the core content, I designed a multimedia onboarding experience that immersed users in the relevant context. I curated historical photographs of Mughal-era Delhi, sourced original documentary footage, and mapped out the political and personal circumstances that shaped each piece. The goal was to build the mental model users needed before they encountered the primary content.
Rather than starting with text, I designed the experience to begin with audio — poetry performed in the original Urdu. Even without understanding the language, hearing the rhythm, tone, and musicality created an emotional entry point. I then layered in translations alongside the historical context, so users could connect sound, meaning, and story progressively.
I designed interaction prompts that moved users through increasing levels of complexity: from recall ("What was happening in Delhi when this was written?") to analysis ("How does the historical context change your reading of this couplet?") to evaluation ("How does Ghalib's approach to loss compare to the Western poets we've studied?"). This gave users a structured path from unfamiliarity to genuine deep engagement.
Hearing the poetry in Urdu — even without comprehension — created an emotional connection that reading a translation alone never could. Leading with a sensory, unexpected interaction gained attention and built engagement before any cognitive demand was placed on the user.
Instead of footnotes, I built the historical and cultural context into the experience flow as a prerequisite layer. Users understood the "why" before the "what" — relevance drives engagement, and context reduces cognitive load.
Historical photographs and documentary footage made an abstract cultural context tangible. Seeing the streets of 19th-century Delhi gave users a mental model to anchor the content to — turning distant history into something they could picture.
Connecting Ghalib to Western poets users already knew gave them a bridge. Rather than treating the content as "other," I positioned it within a shared human tradition — reducing the perceived distance and increasing engagement.
Users engaged deeply with unfamiliar content for the first time
Experience adopted across multiple cohorts
Interaction modes integrated (audio, video, visual, text)
This project taught me that the biggest barrier to engagement isn't complexity — it's missing context. Ghalib's poetry isn't inherently harder than Shakespeare; it just requires a different set of scaffolding. The designer's job is to build that bridge, not to simplify the destination.
If I were to iterate, I'd add a pre-assessment to gauge users' baseline familiarity with the domain, and I'd build in a reflective component where users track how their understanding evolves. I'd also explore building an interactive module that users could revisit asynchronously — pairing the audio recordings with annotated translations and contextual timelines.