Project Odyssey
An exploratory social archive concept bringing historical records, collections, discovery and community into one connected platform.
- Year
- 2025–
- Status
- Exploratory / on hold
- Role
- Concept, product direction, UX and information architecture
- Technologies
- Information architecture, Product design, UX, System architecture, Visual identity
Historical knowledge platform / Project stage
The idea
Odyssey is an exploratory concept for a social archive platform centred on history, archival material and the communities that form around them.
The long-term idea is to bring together discovery, personal collections, historical records and discussion within one environment, making it easier to move between books, archival sources, museum material, people, places, institutions and the conversations surrounding them.
Why I keep returning to it
Historical material is already available online, but it is scattered across specialist databases, institutional archives, library catalogues, museum collections, academic platforms and general-purpose social spaces. What interests me is whether those experiences can be brought closer together without flattening them into one generic content feed.
I am particularly interested in the space between structured archival discovery and social participation: a platform where someone could arrive as a researcher, student or simply a history enthusiast, explore material from different sources, organise what they find and take part in communities built around shared historical interests.
What I am exploring
The wider vision is intentionally much larger than anything I would try to build first. The current challenge is identifying the smallest version that still captures what makes the idea distinct.
That means exploring how a limited set of historical records could be discovered, connected and collected, how users might organise their interests around them, and how social interaction could support exploration without becoming the primary product.
Where it stands
Odyssey remains an early-stage concept and is currently on hold while I narrow the first practical implementation.
The long-term ambition is broad, but I do not want to treat that ambition as a finished roadmap. The next meaningful version needs to prove a much smaller experience first: that historical material from different sources can be brought into one coherent environment that is useful to explore, organise and discuss.