Portfolio: Crowdsourcing Urban Renewal
In collaboration with Kelly Cunningham
Created as a discussion prompt for a workshop during a graduate symposium, this project explores how network technology and interface design could revitalize urban centers as places for debate, discussion, and community participation. The scenario of an interactive, public commentary system integrated into the physical environment (with mobile components) questions the continuum of designer/user control and its effects on public/private space.
We explored conventional methods of public discourse, and asked how cities could benefit from adopting new methods of collecting and displaying public ideas and opinions. We also considered how those who make policy and actualize city plans could respond to the public’s input.
Several questions from this project directly carried over into my thesis:
- How can technology be integrated into the physical structure(s) of urban environments to create a new, responsive and adaptable cityscape?
- How can personal mobile devices and public interactive displays inform, react to, and support each other?
- How can interface design promote interaction and dialog between people as well as interactions between people and technology?
Continuing the dialogue
Fueled by the responses to the workshop, Kelly Cunningham and I took to the streets, engaging with the city of Raleigh and its residents as we pondered the meanings of individualism and collectivism as pertaining to interaction design.
Perhaps somewhere in between “screw the user, I’m designing the system and I’m in control here” and “freedom to do whatever we want to do including things that benefit no one but my own amusement” there is a line of demarcation where the two groups can shake hands and both be pleased. However, in a post-post-modern society still recovering from modernist idealism, a louder voice and a little less kid-gloved restriction on the user voice may serve us well. Whoever “us” is … back to you, individualist reader.
To close, collectivism and individualism are two words that we believe designers who create systems or objects for human interaction should know…
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research / service
Master's Thesis
Leveraging social tools to build a sustainable food network
service
votesmartraleigh
Orienting residents spatially & informationally to all aspects of the voting experience
research
the future of learning
Investigating learners' habits, existing online learning tools, & assessing needs
interdisciplinary
bridging the gap
Book & ebook about public-interest architecture co-designed with architects
microsite
socialresponsibility
Corporate social responsibility microsite and companion ebook
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urban renewal
"What if these spaces were up for debate...and the public could propose their future?"
service
social cycle
A wearable, multi-sensory wayfinding system created by and for cyclists.
research / experience
design camp explorations
Studies in virtual and physical community-building among learners
research / experience
invisible water
Prompting consideration of water use in unexpected ways at the grocery store.
collaboration
design thinking exhibition
In an effort to expose freshmen to Design Thinking, we designed an exhibiton about design. So meta.