Cheers!

Spring 2021

By: Zee Salman (P) / prototype, digital image

Tactics: framing, argument

Many young adults often hang out with their friends outside, especially after a long day of hard work, school, or just to reconnect. But age restrictions are becoming harder to do so, especially around the great age of 21. With age restrictions and clubbing, people under 21 aren’t allowed to step foot into a club, regardless of who they are with. Oftentimes, friend groups get split apart or turned away because their friend is 20, and not 21. Better methods should be used to prevent the splitting of groups, especially when there are people who don’t want to drink anyway.

Introducing Cheers!

A coaster that helps get rid of those possible divides. There is currently a narrative of always assuming that young adults always want to drink when entering a club, which makes it hard to just enjoy the presence of loved ones. This creates a barrier and divides up groups, even if they just want to exist in the space with others. A Better way that could help regulate drinking without assuming that everyone in the group is drinking is using Cheers; The drinking coaster.

This coaster is feasible and would help reduce the drinking stigma by its discrete as well as its purposeful use. Just scan the RFID tag right in the center of the coaster on the menu on the table, and bartenders will know how many people in a party can and want to drink. This eliminates the need to even asking before someone enters if they plan to drink by asking for their ID. Just using Cheers, legal drinkers would be the only one who has access to the drink menu. That way, those who don’t want to drink don’t feel like they have to and those who can’t can still enjoy the company of their friends.

Grab a drink with your friends today, or DONT! No need to anxiously wait for your 21st birthday just to be in the same environment as your friends, and no need to live with the drinking pressure just because you can enter a scene. Being comfortable in a space surrounded by your loved ones is what’s most important. Cheers to that!

Build-A-Family

Uncategorized

Tactics: framing, argument

Laurel Rountree(E) & Ashley Burbano(E)

What a family could look like in our present day is broad and the norms and expectations of families are constantly changing. Even still, the laws related to families have remained fairly unchanged and limit the capabilities of families that aren’t within the norm and create unhealthy stigmas that prevent people from establishing family and family roles that suits their needs in life and makes them feel fulfilled. The many norms that are used as examples when educating people about families that prevent people from seeing and understanding families that don’t fit that norm. This prevents families with unique issues from having their voice heard and the issues/discrimination they face addressed. Monogamous, heterosexual, nuclear families are the norm, but they don’t have to be. By having this norm, we have created an unintentional social heirarchy surrounding families, leading other types of families wants/needs to be devalued or not considered in certain scenarios.

The lack of awareness of diverse family types has been a major issue in the past. In U.S. education systems and elsewhere, often times the types of relationships and families discussed are very limited. For our project we designed an online learning activity for elementary and middle school age students to inform them on different types of families and the issues that they face because of certain discriminatory policies. Some examples we thought of were a single person being waitlisted for years when trying to adopt a child or a family with LGBTQ+ members in it facing certain stigmas that can cause psychological damage. The scenario we chose to present was for a chosen family trying to see a loved one in a hospital that restricts visitation to immediate family. We chose to depict this group specifically becaise we felt this family types is the least discussed type of family within the education system and so the stories and dilemas chosen families face goes unheard or misunderstood.

Our experience is intended to flow from learning about different family types to building them online and then informing them of narratives that these specific family types might face. At the beginning they would be prefaced with information on the experience and be asked to make a family or their family. After they finish that they would be informed on societal norms and the reality of diverse families and the need to understand their unique issues. After that, they would learn about a specific type of family and they would be asked to design the characters who will represent the people of a certain family type that will then be used in a narrative later. They would be able to change the appearance of characters as well assign names and pronouns to allow for participants to connect with the characters and feel as though they had some input into the story. When they complete this, the story will then be visualized for them using the characters they designed.

By the end of the experience we hope participants will be able to empathize with the unique problems different families and understand how societal norms around families have impacted

Mulch Monsters

Uncategorized

A Speculative Product and Service by Ray Pai [C]

Mulch Monsters are automated composting machines that subvert the common perception of composting in homes. Food waste sent to landfills break down into methane, a greenhouse gas that depletes the ozone layer. An approach to reducing food waste is to encourage composting, which breaks food waste down into mulch. Mulch can be used in community gardens or for your own houseplants. That’s why Mulch Monster is framed as an opportunity to be health conscious and prosocial towards the community.

Mulch Monsters subvert the common misconception that composting smells bad, takes up too much space, and is labor intensive. Insted, it’s compact, automated, and educates users on how to reduce odors. In addition, it encourages behavior change by providing encouraging data through a supplementary app, which shows the quality of the mulch. Lastly, Mulch Monster is designed with the consideration of unintended consequences. With the concern that Mulch Monster makes throwing away food waste TOO fun, the supplementary app encourages users to produce quality mulch instead of large quanitites of mulch.

Origin

Uncategorized

Taking the “i” out of iPhone

Spring 2021

By: Andrea Benatar (P), Mihika Bansal (E), Dorcas Lin (E) / CAD modeling, 3D renders digital campaign,

Tactics: Appeal to emotion, behavioral change, messaging, color

Origin is creating an alternative solution to ownership, one based around the benefits of sharing. We envision a future in which individually owned smartphones are no longer commonplace. The Origin Community Booths are an improved system of “phone booths” that emphasize the role of smartphones as vessels rather than an end-all-be-all source of knowledge. Within the phone booths, you can check-in and out a smartphone and log in with your designated credentials to access your desired information. Origin’s new campaign in 2025 disrupts against big tech by emphasizing how and why the technology industry has created harm (planned obsolescence, waste, etc.) while convincing individuals to think about their attachments to the everyday things they deem as valuable or important. For clarity, Origin isn’t looking to get rid of smartphones but we seek to reframe these devices as a shared experience. Check out the Origin booths and campaign below.

How it Works

User finds a telephone booth with available phones
User utilizes govt. issued ID to unlock phone
User takes phone out
User can access their information using a secure government login (login.gov)
After they’re done, the user can return the phone to any station.

By not owning a phone you can ensure that you don’t add a smartphone to the already large amount of technological waste in this world. Additionally, we can end our dependence upon technology as an end-all-be-all source of knowledge, by only checking one out only when it’s needed in your day-to-day, and in turn, be more present in the moment.

Each phone would be protected through Origin cases, and act as a reminder of this new system we are creating, when you see someone holding it, you know they are working towards a more sustainable future.

We hope you join our Origin family.

Introspect: A Guide Towards Intentional Activism

Uncategorized

Shannon Ha (Products), Elizabeth Han (Environments)

In the speculative future of 2030, the bad actors of social media activism run rampant amongst young adults, especially college students. Many use performative activism on social media as a way to display outward projections of social awareness, when in reality, their ignorance and reposting does nothing to contribute to a social movement. Our intervention is Introspect, two voice AI characters ‘Guiding Light’ and ‘Inner Shadow’, built into existing social media platforms. ‘Introspect’ encourages people who post or repost about social movements to question their own motives behind doing so and ultimately change their ways of thinking over time by evolving the types of questions being asked. The hope is that people can form their own opinion about performative activism by interacting with the dialogues. As the user ultimately decides what to post, regardless of the advice, the power is in their hands.

The Voices: ‘Guiding Light’ and ‘Inner Shadow’

Guiding Light and Inner Shadow represent two ends of a spectrum in critical thinking. ‘Guiding Light’ helps users progress through their ‘activist’ journey by questioning their motivations to promote deeper reflection and by also suggesting meaningful acts of contribution to their social cause of interest. ‘Inner Shadow’ enables the user to act upon their mindless social media habits and encourages outward projections of social awareness as opposed to intentional acts. The hope is that people can form their own opinion about performative activism by interacting with the dialogues. Since the user ultimately decides what to post, regardless of the advice, the power is in their hands.

Progress Over Time: ‘Guiding Light’ At All Levels

Overtime, the ‘Guiding Light’ would give more advanced suggestions based on the level of activism the user has engaged in. The ‘Guiding Light’ not only suggests more challenging resources for advancing users, but also asks more provocative questions for the users to come to their own conclusion about what activism means for them. This would guide the users towards viewing activism as a lifelong journey, rather than a momentary gesture.

AI.plant

Uncategorized

A Tabletop Campaign by Emily Zhou [P]

AI.plant is a plant adoption campaign questions what it takes to feel fulfilled and how that differs from person to person. Expectations are shifting as younger generations are opting to remain child-free, instead devoting their love and attention to pets, partners, careers and interests. AI.plant pushes this into speculative territory by throwing AI-embedded plants into the mix, reiterating that your life decisions are yours alone, and only you get to decide your definition of fulfillment.

Humanize Us

Spring 2021, Uncategorized

Patricia Yu (P), Julia Sanders (C), Sarah Lee (P) / Series of digital campaign posters

Tactics: behavior change, emotional engagement, visual persuasion

OVERVIEW

A future has emerged in which humans have become inseparable with their personified physical objects and treat them as intimate companions. This awakens a group of people’s awareness in trying to combat this addiction. Humanize Us is a society that has the mission to campaign against our machines. They protest for technology to become less humanized as the population begins to lose their independence and unique self-identity.

BACKGROUND

As society heads into a future where technology becomes increasingly more intimate in our lives, people are romantically invested in our technological systems and rely on them for almost every aspect. This is mainly inspired by popular media and people’s general fascination about the future between our relationship with our technology. One example is seen from the movie Her.

Our envisions on the future is founded on our realities as well. Signs of over-reliance and addiction are apparent:

According to a study by Penn State, 77% said that society as a whole relied too much on technology to succeed.

According to Trendhunter, 66% of the population suffers from nomophobia (the fear of having “no mobile”) today.

In our project, we explore how this accrued over-reliance on technology begins to urge people to notice the disastrous future we are headed in and aim to awaken people’s awareness in trying to combat against this addiction. The goal is to make technology dehumanized.

Using our campaigns from the future, we hope to guide people in our present world to question what it means to “humanize” our technology.

CAMPAIGN SERIES

Our campaign digital posters utilize the use of emotional engagement with dramatic imagery, such as the “bleeding” robotic arm and the uncomfortable image of a robotic “woman” surrounded by gazing men. These images contradict each other and evoke thoughts of what is exactly going on in the scene. We hope that by creating these juxtapositional posters — each one with a different reflection of our relationship with technology — it can visually persuade people of the future who are over-reliant on their machines to deeply reflect on their well-being and begin to have more awareness on their reality. Our campaign is meant to allow people to join an organization, Humanize Us, that fights back against the social influences promoting this addiction.

Nudge

Uncategorized

Nudge: dine with joy

Angela Lee (C), Joseph Zhang (C), and Yoshi Torralva (C) / Dining service that encourages social, in-person dining

Tactics: behavior change, social proof, plain folk, emotional engagement, visual persuasion

Overview

As social media algorithms push recommendations based on who you know and what you like, social circles and, as a result people’s perspectives, have become more siloed. In order to broaden people’s relationships and minds, we are proposing a dining service that offers in-person dining experiences at discount prices with the condition that you will be dining with 2-4 strangers.

As communication designers, we relied on visual persuasion through color, typeface, and layout to create a lively, inviting mood. Studies have shown that people associate food with the colors red and yellow, so we opted for a warm color palette, paired with rounded type to evoke a friendly personality.

Social Media Campaign

We designed a digital campaign of posts and physical merchandise to launch this new service. These posts will be spread via Facebook and Instagram’s business advertisement and catered towards young adults in busy metropolitan areas. In our social media campaign, we relied heavily on the persuasive tactic of social proof by creating reviews, crowdsourcing images and quotes from real users, and telling their stories. We also leveraged the tactic of emotional engagement particularly through the quote posts, which piques viewers’ curiosity through a catchy line and also frames the service through real users’ stories. Furthermore, we use plain folks appeal through pop culture references (e.g. our screencap with Yoon Seri from Crash Landing on You), the use of colloquial language, and humor.

Other Collateral & Signage

To better design for behavior change, we have design visual cues for both users and non-users alike to remind them of the service offered; thus, we designed a takeout bag and signage for restaurants.

Surfaces

Uncategorized

Langston Wells (C) and Emily Spooner (P) / interactive photography display, packaging and CAD Modeling

Tactics: framing, behavior change, subversion, visual persuasion

As many of our experiences with media like images, text, and videos become increasingly digitized, we are headed towards a future where auditory and visual experiences outnumber experiences derived from physical artifacts. Our work highlights the affordances of tangible artifacts in a world where individuals become more and more inundated with non-tactile, digital experiences.

This project presents a hopeful future by translating 2D digital images into a dynamic 3D relief that users can interact through desktop and wall mounted models, heightening digital experiences like photos and video viewing while aiding accessibility for visually impaired users.

Design —

When designing this product, we were considering accessibility from all angles, from ergonomics of the surface to the user experience to our packaging design. We wanted to frame our product within a commercial, everyday setting to represent a hopeful future in which the general public understands the value of tangible products and experiences, instead of marketing only towards the visually impaired.

The ergonomics of the surface focus on creating a comfortable range of motion for the user’s hand by scaling buttons and sliders within easy reach for smooth interactions. This scaling helps user’s build a mental model of their hand position for ease of navigation and use. Each material was carefully considered to create unique hand feels for the user to aid memory, such as a soft, small-cell foam hand rest and brushed aluminum buttons, each with distinct textures and temperatures.

The product is designed for two use cases: one as a desktop companion for browsing photos and the other as a dynamic, wall mounted display that would be generated based on the user’s selected photo. This secondary option gives the user as well as their friends, families, or guests the ability to experience the photos in the same way but at a larger scale, which can promote conversations and new experiences. By situating it within this context, we hope to enable behavior change through socializing the interactivity of this artifact, working towards a future of greater accessibility and integration of tangible artifacts into everyday technology.

User Experience —

Our user experience would be derived primarily from audio prompts on the user’s computer that would help them through setup and use. The first interaction with surfaces though would be through a braille embossed instruction sheet that directs users through the initial setup and onboarding of their surface.

Another aspect of the user experience ties into the portability of the surface’s design as the hinged stand on the back enables user’s to place it in an upwards or downwards position, allowing it to fit into luggage, backpacks, or briefcases when traveling.

Packaging —

Our packaging focused on making information visible and easily understandable for visually impaired users by focusing on high contrast graphics, embossed braille directions as well as text instructions for caregivers, family, or friends who may be assisting in setup, and uncomplicated opening mechanisms with clear, tactile visual cues like finger holes and security straps for extra protection. Our final packaging would not only have the braille embossed, but also icons and diagrams at varying levels of depth so users could understand the directions from self-initiated, tactile interactions.

Below are detail shots of the instructions and packaging.

Sledu

Uncategorized

By: Janet Peng (P) & CeCe Liu (P) / furniture, CAD modelling + 3D renders

Tactics: subversion, framing

Our furniture company, Sledu, designs products that help individuals coexist with their pets. This product line will begin to radically revitalize the way we approach furniture, turning it from human-centered to animal-centered. Based on the furniture of today, this style will help humans understand their new place in the household alongside their pets or “spirit animals”. As pets transition from being more passive members of the household to becoming a family’s spirit animal who guides the household’s lifestyle and decisions, this furniture collection will persuade users to adopt this upcoming paradigm shift.