Research

Our Methodology

When co-creating with the Decentralized Archivist Communities (DACs), OpenArchive uses a deliberately slow and in-depth human rights-centered research and design methodology (HRCD). Co-created by OpenArchive’s Founder and Executive Director, this methodology allows us to threat-model and create personas in order to map out the use cases and ecosystem. Through this co-research, we are able to identify key pain points and threats these communities face and incorporate this research into building responsive, usable tools to help mitigate harm and technological challenges.

Our Co-Research

Global partner organizations are using Save for a wide range of archiving purposes. Our “Memos From…” series outlines insights gleaned from our recent user research that illuminate challenges and opportunities individuals and communities have when working to preserve and share media across different regions.

These reports describe both physical and digital threats to media preservation—such as hacking, device loss, and limited internet access—as well as broader obstacles like surveillance, blackouts, shutdowns, and targeting. Our research highlights gaps in resources and training, underscoring the need for secure, user-friendly tools that support documentation and long-term access.

During this process, we create realistic personas based on the actual people we work with in our partner communities: "User personas are [anonymized] archetypical users whose goals and characteristics represent the needs of a larger group of users" (Patrick Faller). Personas can help remind you of real-world constraints, and also help document necessary internal information about why you’re building something and the needs of who you’re building with.

Please reach out to us at info[at]open-archive.org if you’re interested in reading the unabridged versions of our extensive research and personas.