Project Intro
Most people have a major misconception about blindness. They think of it as binary: You’re either completely sighted or completely blind. But for most people with vision impairment, it’s not a matter of seeing nothing versus seeing clearly. The reality is somewhere in between. Despite of an incredibly low budget, we managed to create a viral, immersive experience to educate people on different eye diseases and got featured in mediums like Mashable, Mic, Daily Mail and others.
"New online sight simulator shows how debilitating certain preventable eye diseases and conditions can be"
"Incredible interactive street-view lets you see what it's like to have glaucoma, cataracts or retinopathy"
"New online simulator will show you what it's like to walk through the world you already know — but as a legally blind person."
The Insight
"People seem to think blindness as binary: You're either completely sighted or completely blind. The truth is that there are infinite ways to be legally blind. Not just is there a large range of sightedness between fully sighted and completely blind, but there are a lot of variations within that range. Some blind people have acuity issues; others have blind spots but otherwise clear vision. Many are somewhere in between. Few are completely blind."
- Cristina Hartmann, on Slate
This is the insight that the Sight Simulator was build upon; we wanted to have more people empathize with the experience of being legally blind via having the user put into the shoes of someone who suffers from one of these conditions.
The way we did that was tapping into the Google Maps StreetView API, allowing the user to see how their familiar environment would look like through the eyes of someone suffering from one of the most common eye conditions.
See screenshots and the original prototype video below:
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.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; }
.embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }</style>
<div class='video-container'><div class='embed-container'><iframe src='https://player.vimeo.com/video/194628824?autoplay=1&loop=1&autopause=0&background=1&quality=720p' frameborder='0'></iframe></div></div>
The Outcome
Despite of the very low budget, the project got recognized in international media, such as in places like Mashable, Mic, Daily Mail and others. The website got over 250k hits in 4 hours, and was featured on the top spot on r/InternetIsBeautiful. We We also got approached by one of the world's biggest sunglass manufacturers, who offered to buy the tool for over 10x the cost of the project. In addition, the project was a finalist in Shorty Social Good Awards, and an Honoree in Fast Comapny's World Changing Ideas 2019.
See Now is proud to have turned our success with online metrics and media wins into an increase in Government funding. By moving 80,000 people to take action and support the advocacy work of Fred Hollows Foundation & Prevent Blindness, we saw an increase of $40million for eye health initiatives in the U.S.
