Process: Over the course of ten weeks, we conducted research through contextual inquiry studies, developed sixty ideation sketches, started down selection, held participatory design workshops, utilized user testing, drew final storyboards, and made final prototypes. We were asked to demonstrate the ability to synthesize appropriate design research methods through a quarter-long project related to the theme of caring for others.
Solution: With my team, we designed an installation to explore how we might create a space where college students can express their complex emotions with others through music and words. Our proposal, Embody, is a visual and auditory experience that aims to help students find the words so that they can better express their emotions to others.
Designers: Sophie Kim, Daniel Kim, Vera Drapers, Grace Sturlaugson
Personalized souvenir cards are printed after every user's experience. The front of the card describes the words the user chose to describe their emotions more accurately. The back of the card reveals the visualization created by the user.
A low fidelity prototyping video to provide a better understanding of the installation and illustrate the user flow of the experience from beginning to end.
The feedback we received from our final storyboard helped inform our final design decisions for Embody. Based on our research, we designed an installation that allows participants to express their feelings by creating visualizations to songs that reflect how they’re feeling. After, participants are prompted with questions to help them find words to describe their emotions better, creating the possibility for real connections.
In our first stages of research we conducted contextual inquiry studies and our team designed posters to illustrate our data, the research methods we used, our main insights, and our final design principles.
