While our task was to create a memorial to the victims of the September 11th attacks, the preliminary research done by my design team reveled most students did not feel a memorial was appropriate on our campus.

To address this challenge, my team and I designed a space to serve the community in the event of any kind of situation that called for a community response. This would include events ranging from those that impact only the local community to those felt by the entire world.

We proposed a slate structure that would allow students to write messages in chalk on its walls. Rain falling on its angled walls would wash the messages away. The act of reading, writing, and renewing messages was intended to raise awareness of thoughts and feelings within the community and promote dialogue between viewers.

Ideally student groups would volunteer to update information written on the memorial and sponsor community awareness events at the site using the campus response to September 11th as a precedent.

My team and I relied on a blend of humor, creativity, and practical problem solving skills to tackle this design challenge.

From our user studies based on a family of action figures (let’s face it, Batman is the ultimate early adopter and would be one hard working dad) to scenarios involving seamless integration into teen life, we were able to address a variety of user needs while creating a product that would be fun and easy for the whole family to use.

Our solution was the Adeo, a portable media and communication device intended to capture and share multimedia content. The Adeo would allow family members to share experiences at home together, or anywhere their individual lives take them. It would also act as a digital scrapbook, storing and organizing content automatically.

Complete project details available at: Carnegie Mellon University – Interaction Design

Fun Fact: Our first act of business as Team KickIt was to create a team identity. Team member Reagan Heller drew each team member anime-style with big boots for kicking around ideas. Our anime-identities helped foster teamwork and served as a reminder to keep a light-hearted perspective on this design challenge.

I began this project as part of a class called “How People Work With Things.” The course served as an excellent opportunity to combine my love of being outside with my desire to understand the world from a special and ethnographic perspective.

I built models, administrated surveys/mood collages, and bribed my fellow students with candy in order to better understand how students interacted with their outdoor environment. Through this research I was able to identify a number of easily implemented solutions (more seating, better lighting, landscaping) as well as a few design opportunities that would prove a bit more difficult to tackle (the average 4+ inches of rain per month, cold winters and hot, humid summers for starters).

I prepared a document outlining student attitudes towards these spaces; student needs regarding outdoor spaces in general; suggested improvements; and additional research findings.

The Carnegie Mellon Department of Psychology Children’s School serves as both a school for children ages 2-6 ands as a research facility for university students studying child development. As a result, researchers and guest often interrupt classes and set off security alarms attempting to navigate the complicated space.

As part of an independent study, I worked with teachers and child psychologists to analyze the space, identify the needs of both children and adults, and develop an accessible navigation system.

Using simple shapes and colors correlated to stages in child development, I designed a wayfinding system to direct parents and guests to the student classrooms. The classroom for the youngest children was represented by a circle, next oldest a triangle, a square and so on, increasing in complexity up to a pentagon to represent the kindergarten class room.

I was presented with the additional challenge of conforming to existing university sign styles. I was able to mesh the very adult-centric university style with the more child appropriate color/shape style. I created prototypes for the school staff to test over the course of the school year.

Design Note: From a child development perspective, the “single-story” lowercase a is considered more appropriate for children than the “double-story” lowercase a the university sign style required.