Emily Sappington Portfolio

FIVE YEARS AT THE NEW SCHOOL This course was my first at Parsons and my teacher made me believe I’d pass.

I spent hours roaming the Metropolitan Museum of Art for these courses, which I grew to love. I gained an appreciation for ancient art history and now can find my ways around the ancient art galleries knowing exactly where the Byzantene and the Medieval art lives in this massive museum.

In my “Foundation Year” at Parsons, I learned that sometimes repetition can be extremely constructive. We would draw for hours and hours, creating work off of the same still life or model pose and sometimes by the 20th drawing, a perfect composition would appear. It was this act of struggling through a process that fostered an endurance in me as an artist and designer.

ART HISTORY

3D Body as Form Studio Laboratory 1 3D Studio 1

Perspectives in World Art & Design 1 Perspectives in World Art & Design 2

Elective Painting

FINE ART

My professor was a practicing artist in New York, and he provided me with an introcutin to the local art scene. It is because of his suggestions for how to get into the art scene in New York that I began visiting gallery openings around the City, something I still enjoy every Thursday.

Laboratory 2

Web Media 1

2006

Self-Portrait Poster

I’d later use these skills in my Independent Study, and even later in Grad school.

Typography and Visual Design

In IDC, the Integrated Design Program, I found my home and my major.

The curricilum encouraged creativity and research, something I valued in both of my degrees. It is because of this school at Parsons that I discovered Service Design and then Interaction Design. I loved my projects in Service Design and felt that my Psychology background was finally being applied for ethical reasons, and not just in my advertising courses. The teachers encouraged my psychological approach to research but also taught me the basics of ethonographic research methodology.

Corporate Identity & Packaging

Typography and Visual Design

INTEGRATED DESIGN

GPIA

Health, Inequality & Development

Advertising & Marketing Information Design These courses in Communication Design gave me the foundation for making posters, ads, and all other two-dimensional, graphical pieces that communicate effectively. I learned the basics of color, composition, negative space and type.

COMMUNICATION DESIGN

Invention Service Concepts Global Issues in Design Media & Representation

DIGITAL DESIGN

Design & Sustainability Design(ing) Culture Service Concepts

In the Graduade Program in Internation Affairs I met the most brave, conscious, and well-traveled students I had ever encountered. These students inspired me to be equally confident in traveling the World.

The other students gave me a “just make it happen” perspective with my projects.

I learned I sincerely enjoy advertising in terms of solving problems visually and with copywriting, however I’m not sure I could make it a career forever.

2D Integrated Studio 1

Drawing Studio 2

In this class I learned the basics of Flash and Action Scripting.

Portfolio Strategies

Senior Seminar These courses in the Integrated Design Curricilum allowed me the chance to meet faculty with backgrounds in Philosophy, Anthropology, Ethnographic Research, Service Design, and New Media Design, which gave me a diverse perspective on what design could be. These faculty would be helpful in advising me towards which fields of design would most benefit from my particularly diverse and acedemic skill set.

2007

I learned of problems that are “too wicked” to be solved by simple design. Directly after this course I volunteered abroad in Cambodia and witnessed such struggling systems first-hand while trying to offer what little help I could.

I originally thought I wanted to be a product designer, but after taking some courses I decided my strengths could be better applied in other disciplines. I did not like having to choose materials and measure. I did, however, enjoy learning Solid Works and how things are made.

Solid Works How Things Work

PRODUCT DESIGN

Design, Research & Development Technical Rendering 1 Models 1

2008

FirstSteps Urban Cycling

The Psychology Fundamentals courses I took gave me a basic understanding of Psychology, and monumental studies and findings that I would continue to draw on years after these courses. Psychoanalysis was alsways an interest of mine, but it was more of a hobby than a career in my mind. I enjoy reading Freud and Jung but in the same way I enjoy painting, as a recreational break form the more intense practices of design and research.

Conducting experiments and other sorts of research in my Research Practicum courses, alongside Masters and PhD students, proved to be the most stimulating environment for me.

Conversations on cognitive neuroscience, theories of treatment for autism and experiments involving eye-tracking elevated my understanding of human behavior. While I knew I didn’t want to be a therapist, I debated becoming a Human Factors Psychologist, after a course in Human Computer Interaction. I decided I couldn’t do only psychological research and abandon the creative process, though, and thus I am still a designer today. I owe everything I know about research to my Methods of Inquiry course, for it provided me with a foundation of approaching all psychological and design research in the future.

2009

Psychology of Ethnic Conflict Statistics with SPSS Dream Interpretation

Interface Agents Research

PSYCHOLOGY

Fundamentals of Psychology

Psychoanalyzing Greek & Roman Mythology Culture, Ethnicity and Mental Health

A project on corporate funding for private spaces caused me to have an interest in designing for public use, in public environments. I realized that those who design for public spaces serve a community of people, working essentially for a greater good.

URBAN STUDIES

2011

Public Space & the City

I spent hours obersving people and doing ethonographic research in New York City for this course. It lead me to appreciate observational research of a City.

In “Origins of Contemporary Visual Culture” I learned of classic film and artists which defined the progression of art and design. I feel enriched for knowing so much about the history of my field, and the way it shaped the World.

Origins of Contemporary Visual Culture New Berlin & Place of Memory Cambodia Study Abroad

Research Practicum 1 Research Practicum 2: Senior Work Proposals Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology

Research Practicum 3 Human Computer Interaction

Projects in-progress:

Voting Project

Chloe Chic

2010

Fundamentals of Social Psychology Theories of Personality

Visual Perception & Cognition

DrawAFriend Game

These courses provided me with an appreciation for form, and often I consider a tactile approach when investigating design solutions because of my time spent in Product Design. Packaging concepts in Communication Design were improved by what I learned of form and material manipulation. I learned a good deal about user testing and interviewing from Design, Research & Development and gained a perspective of the design process. This was by far the most difficult course, however it taught me to work with all types of groups.

Berlin’s Moderisms

HISTORY

The FDR Years

In Cambodia my perspective on the US involvement in Viet Nam was turned upsidown.

Not only did I learn of a history that I never would have otherwise, but it changed my view of truth and exposure to history.

In Berlin I gained an appreciation for memorializing history and how impactful deisgn can be as a place of learning, mourning, and memorializing. I learned that I’d love to live in Europe, and in Cambodia that I love to travel to around Asia.

Romantic • Re-vintage • Clothing

Independent Senior Project Methods of Inquiry For two and a half years I studied with one particular Psychology Professor, Dr. Marcel Kinsbourne, who allowed to to meld my two fields of study; psychology and design. As a result I spent my time in the Psychology department designing experiment rooms, assisting the design of media presentations for other students’ experiments. I also used Adobe Flash to animate a transition of words and audio for an experiment on the Redundancy Principle with near significant findings. This professor also advised me and a Parsons professor as I ran a dual-school experiment on Human-Computer Interaction. I tested the significance an interface agent has on users who are frustrated and attempting to persist with an impossible task. Doing all of these experiments enabled me to look at a variety of types of data and analyze them in means of eye-tracking, statistical analysis, and qualitatively.

The rate at which I wrote and completed pepers in this course caused me to start and efficiency finish papers expediently in the future.

Writing the Essay 1 Writing the Essay 2

New Arrivals

•

Apparel

•

Accessories

•

Re-Vintage

WRITING

Learning to write at a Liberal Arts school, I found, prepared me to be a better writer than those who only learned to write at Design School.

Clothing Dresses Tops Bottoms Accessories Jewelry Scarves Home office Re-Vintage Giftcard Sales

>

About me

Senior Seminar

Painting 2 I didn’t want to leave Parsons without a series of oil paintings, and working with painters such as David Mann helped me improve a lot.

2D Integrated Studio 2

One particular project forced me to get very comfortable with New York City very quickly. We were given chalk, an adjective, and a particular neighborhood in New York. We were to take the chalk and make street art, not graffiti as the chalk would wash off, but something that engaged the pedestrians around with their physical environment. I was assigned Chinatown. This is arguably the most smelly, crowded neighborhood in Manhattan, with fish markets, small turtles, snails and other live creatures for sale right on the sidewalk. In addition, thousands of tourists grace the streets every day, and stopping to look around, let alow sitting down to draw, is a challenge.

Regadless, I got down on my hands and keens and drew on the dirty Chinatown pavement for hours as people walked by, pointed and took photos.

DESIGN & MANAGEMENT

Drawing & Painting

Drawing Studio 1

FOUNDATION

Design and management students gave me a fresh perspective on my thesis and encouraged me to think of a 360 approach to marketing the product towards all types of users.

Similarly, a recruiter helped me polish a graduate admissions essay and create a unique resume.

I found that painting calms me down in times of stress, and now I resume it whenever I feel the need to be creative in a more physical way than design on the computer. I took painting courses durig my thesis year for this exact reason.

Back

< Page

FIVE YEARS AT THE NEW SCHOOL This course was my first at Parsons and my teacher made me believe I’d pass.

I spent hours roaming the Metropolitan Museum of Art for these courses, which I grew to love. I gained an appreciation for ancient art history and now can find my ways around the ancient art galleries knowing exactly where the Byzantene and the Medieval art lives in this massive museum.

In my “Foundation Year” at Parsons, I learned that sometimes repetition can be extremely constructive. We would draw for hours and hours, creating work off of the same still life or model pose and sometimes by the 20th drawing, a perfect composition would appear. It was this act of struggling through a process that fostered an endurance in me as an artist and designer.

ART HISTORY

3D Body as Form Studio Laboratory 1 3D Studio 1

Perspectives in World Art & Design 1 Perspectives in World Art & Design 2

Elective Painting

FINE ART

My professor was a practicing artist in New York, and he provided me with an introcutin to the local art scene. It is because of his suggestions for how to get into the art scene in New York that I began visiting gallery openings around the City, something I still enjoy every Thursday.

Laboratory 2

Web Media 1

2006

Self-Portrait Poster

I’d later use these skills in my Independent Study, and even later in Grad school.

Typography and Visual Design

In IDC, the Integrated Design Program, I found my home and my major.

The curricilum encouraged creativity and research, something I valued in both of my degrees. It is because of this school at Parsons that I discovered Service Design and then Interaction Design. I loved my projects in Service Design and felt that my Psychology background was finally being applied for ethical reasons, and not just in my advertising courses. The teachers encouraged my psychological approach to research but also taught me the basics of ethonographic research methodology.

Corporate Identity & Packaging

Typography and Visual Design

INTEGRATED DESIGN

GPIA

Health, Inequality & Development

Advertising & Marketing Information Design These courses in Communication Design gave me the foundation for making posters, ads, and all other two-dimensional, graphical pieces that communicate effectively. I learned the basics of color, composition, negative space and type.

COMMUNICATION DESIGN

Invention Service Concepts Global Issues in Design Media & Representation

DIGITAL DESIGN

Design & Sustainability Design(ing) Culture Service Concepts

In the Graduade Program in Internation Affairs I met the most brave, conscious, and well-traveled students I had ever encountered. These students inspired me to be equally confident in traveling the World.

The other students gave me a “just make it happen” perspective with my projects.

I learned I sincerely enjoy advertising in terms of solving problems visually and with copywriting, however I’m not sure I could make it a career forever.

2D Integrated Studio 1

Drawing Studio 2

In this class I learned the basics of Flash and Action Scripting.

Portfolio Strategies

Senior Seminar These courses in the Integrated Design Curricilum allowed me the chance to meet faculty with backgrounds in Philosophy, Anthropology, Ethnographic Research, Service Design, and New Media Design, which gave me a diverse perspective on what design could be. These faculty would be helpful in advising me towards which fields of design would most benefit from my particularly diverse and acedemic skill set.

2007

I learned of problems that are “too wicked” to be solved by simple design. Directly after this course I volunteered abroad in Cambodia and witnessed such struggling systems first-hand while trying to offer what little help I could.

I originally thought I wanted to be a product designer, but after taking some courses I decided my strengths could be better applied in other disciplines. I did not like having to choose materials and measure. I did, however, enjoy learning Solid Works and how things are made.

Solid Works How Things Work

PRODUCT DESIGN

Design, Research & Development Technical Rendering 1 Models 1

2008

FirstSteps Urban Cycling

The Psychology Fundamentals courses I took gave me a basic understanding of Psychology, and monumental studies and findings that I would continue to draw on years after these courses. Psychoanalysis was alsways an interest of mine, but it was more of a hobby than a career in my mind. I enjoy reading Freud and Jung but in the same way I enjoy painting, as a recreational break form the more intense practices of design and research.

Conducting experiments and other sorts of research in my Research Practicum courses, alongside Masters and PhD students, proved to be the most stimulating environment for me.

Conversations on cognitive neuroscience, theories of treatment for autism and experiments involving eye-tracking elevated my understanding of human behavior. While I knew I didn’t want to be a therapist, I debated becoming a Human Factors Psychologist, after a course in Human Computer Interaction. I decided I couldn’t do only psychological research and abandon the creative process, though, and thus I am still a designer today. I owe everything I know about research to my Methods of Inquiry course, for it provided me with a foundation of approaching all psychological and design research in the future.

2009

Psychology of Ethnic Conflict Statistics with SPSS Dream Interpretation

Interface Agents Research

PSYCHOLOGY

Fundamentals of Psychology

Psychoanalyzing Greek & Roman Mythology Culture, Ethnicity and Mental Health

A project on corporate funding for private spaces caused me to have an interest in designing for public use, in public environments. I realized that those who design for public spaces serve a community of people, working essentially for a greater good.

URBAN STUDIES

2011

Public Space & the City

I spent hours obersving people and doing ethonographic research in New York City for this course. It lead me to appreciate observational research of a City.

In “Origins of Contemporary Visual Culture” I learned of classic film and artists which defined the progression of art and design. I feel enriched for knowing so much about the history of my field, and the way it shaped the World.

Origins of Contemporary Visual Culture New Berlin & Place of Memory Cambodia Study Abroad

Research Practicum 1 Research Practicum 2: Senior Work Proposals Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology

Research Practicum 3 Human Computer Interaction

Projects in-progress:

Voting Project

Chloe Chic

2010

Fundamentals of Social Psychology Theories of Personality

Visual Perception & Cognition

DrawAFriend Game

These courses provided me with an appreciation for form, and often I consider a tactile approach when investigating design solutions because of my time spent in Product Design. Packaging concepts in Communication Design were improved by what I learned of form and material manipulation. I learned a good deal about user testing and interviewing from Design, Research & Development and gained a perspective of the design process. This was by far the most difficult course, however it taught me to work with all types of groups.

Berlin’s Moderisms

HISTORY

The FDR Years

In Cambodia my perspective on the US involvement in Viet Nam was turned upsidown.

Not only did I learn of a history that I never would have otherwise, but it changed my view of truth and exposure to history.

In Berlin I gained an appreciation for memorializing history and how impactful deisgn can be as a place of learning, mourning, and memorializing. I learned that I’d love to live in Europe, and in Cambodia that I love to travel to around Asia.

Romantic • Re-vintage • Clothing

Independent Senior Project Methods of Inquiry For two and a half years I studied with one particular Psychology Professor, Dr. Marcel Kinsbourne, who allowed to to meld my two fields of study; psychology and design. As a result I spent my time in the Psychology department designing experiment rooms, assisting the design of media presentations for other students’ experiments. I also used Adobe Flash to animate a transition of words and audio for an experiment on the Redundancy Principle with near significant findings. This professor also advised me and a Parsons professor as I ran a dual-school experiment on Human-Computer Interaction. I tested the significance an interface agent has on users who are frustrated and attempting to persist with an impossible task. Doing all of these experiments enabled me to look at a variety of types of data and analyze them in means of eye-tracking, statistical analysis, and qualitatively.

The rate at which I wrote and completed pepers in this course caused me to start and efficiency finish papers expediently in the future.

Writing the Essay 1 Writing the Essay 2

New Arrivals

•

Apparel

•

Accessories

•

Re-Vintage

WRITING

Learning to write at a Liberal Arts school, I found, prepared me to be a better writer than those who only learned to write at Design School.

Clothing Dresses Tops Bottoms Accessories Jewelry Scarves Home office Re-Vintage Giftcard Sales

>

About me

Senior Seminar

Painting 2 I didn’t want to leave Parsons without a series of oil paintings, and working with painters such as David Mann helped me improve a lot.

2D Integrated Studio 2

One particular project forced me to get very comfortable with New York City very quickly. We were given chalk, an adjective, and a particular neighborhood in New York. We were to take the chalk and make street art, not graffiti as the chalk would wash off, but something that engaged the pedestrians around with their physical environment. I was assigned Chinatown. This is arguably the most smelly, crowded neighborhood in Manhattan, with fish markets, small turtles, snails and other live creatures for sale right on the sidewalk. In addition, thousands of tourists grace the streets every day, and stopping to look around, let alow sitting down to draw, is a challenge.

Regadless, I got down on my hands and keens and drew on the dirty Chinatown pavement for hours as people walked by, pointed and took photos.

DESIGN & MANAGEMENT

Drawing & Painting

Drawing Studio 1

FOUNDATION

Design and management students gave me a fresh perspective on my thesis and encouraged me to think of a 360 approach to marketing the product towards all types of users.

Similarly, a recruiter helped me polish a graduate admissions essay and create a unique resume.

I found that painting calms me down in times of stress, and now I resume it whenever I feel the need to be creative in a more physical way than design on the computer. I took painting courses durig my thesis year for this exact reason.

Back

< Page

FIVE YEARS AT THE NEW SCHOOL This course was my first at Parsons and my teacher made me believe I’d pass.

I spent hours roaming the Metropolitan Museum of Art for these courses, which I grew to love. I gained an appreciation for ancient art history and now can find my ways around the ancient art galleries knowing exactly where the Byzantene and the Medieval art lives in this massive museum.

In my “Foundation Year” at Parsons, I learned that sometimes repetition can be extremely constructive. We would draw for hours and hours, creating work off of the same still life or model pose and sometimes by the 20th drawing, a perfect composition would appear. It was this act of struggling through a process that fostered an endurance in me as an artist and designer.

ART HISTORY

3D Body as Form Studio Laboratory 1 3D Studio 1

Perspectives in World Art & Design 1 Perspectives in World Art & Design 2

Elective Painting

FINE ART

My professor was a practicing artist in New York, and he provided me with an introcutin to the local art scene. It is because of his suggestions for how to get into the art scene in New York that I began visiting gallery openings around the City, something I still enjoy every Thursday.

Laboratory 2

Web Media 1

2006

Self-Portrait Poster

I’d later use these skills in my Independent Study, and even later in Grad school.

Typography and Visual Design

In IDC, the Integrated Design Program, I found my home and my major.

The curricilum encouraged creativity and research, something I valued in both of my degrees. It is because of this school at Parsons that I discovered Service Design and then Interaction Design. I loved my projects in Service Design and felt that my Psychology background was finally being applied for ethical reasons, and not just in my advertising courses. The teachers encouraged my psychological approach to research but also taught me the basics of ethonographic research methodology.

Corporate Identity & Packaging

Typography and Visual Design

INTEGRATED DESIGN

GPIA

Health, Inequality & Development

Advertising & Marketing Information Design These courses in Communication Design gave me the foundation for making posters, ads, and all other two-dimensional, graphical pieces that communicate effectively. I learned the basics of color, composition, negative space and type.

COMMUNICATION DESIGN

Invention Service Concepts Global Issues in Design Media & Representation

DIGITAL DESIGN

Design & Sustainability Design(ing) Culture Service Concepts

In the Graduade Program in Internation Affairs I met the most brave, conscious, and well-traveled students I had ever encountered. These students inspired me to be equally confident in traveling the World.

The other students gave me a “just make it happen” perspective with my projects.

I learned I sincerely enjoy advertising in terms of solving problems visually and with copywriting, however I’m not sure I could make it a career forever.

2D Integrated Studio 1

Drawing Studio 2

In this class I learned the basics of Flash and Action Scripting.

Portfolio Strategies

Senior Seminar These courses in the Integrated Design Curricilum allowed me the chance to meet faculty with backgrounds in Philosophy, Anthropology, Ethnographic Research, Service Design, and New Media Design, which gave me a diverse perspective on what design could be. These faculty would be helpful in advising me towards which fields of design would most benefit from my particularly diverse and acedemic skill set.

2007

I learned of problems that are “too wicked” to be solved by simple design. Directly after this course I volunteered abroad in Cambodia and witnessed such struggling systems first-hand while trying to offer what little help I could.

I originally thought I wanted to be a product designer, but after taking some courses I decided my strengths could be better applied in other disciplines. I did not like having to choose materials and measure. I did, however, enjoy learning Solid Works and how things are made.

Solid Works How Things Work

PRODUCT DESIGN

Design, Research & Development Technical Rendering 1 Models 1

2008

FirstSteps Urban Cycling

The Psychology Fundamentals courses I took gave me a basic understanding of Psychology, and monumental studies and findings that I would continue to draw on years after these courses. Psychoanalysis was alsways an interest of mine, but it was more of a hobby than a career in my mind. I enjoy reading Freud and Jung but in the same way I enjoy painting, as a recreational break form the more intense practices of design and research.

Conducting experiments and other sorts of research in my Research Practicum courses, alongside Masters and PhD students, proved to be the most stimulating environment for me.

Conversations on cognitive neuroscience, theories of treatment for autism and experiments involving eye-tracking elevated my understanding of human behavior. While I knew I didn’t want to be a therapist, I debated becoming a Human Factors Psychologist, after a course in Human Computer Interaction. I decided I couldn’t do only psychological research and abandon the creative process, though, and thus I am still a designer today. I owe everything I know about research to my Methods of Inquiry course, for it provided me with a foundation of approaching all psychological and design research in the future.

2009

Psychology of Ethnic Conflict Statistics with SPSS Dream Interpretation

Interface Agents Research

PSYCHOLOGY

Fundamentals of Psychology

Psychoanalyzing Greek & Roman Mythology Culture, Ethnicity and Mental Health

A project on corporate funding for private spaces caused me to have an interest in designing for public use, in public environments. I realized that those who design for public spaces serve a community of people, working essentially for a greater good.

URBAN STUDIES

2011

Public Space & the City

I spent hours obersving people and doing ethonographic research in New York City for this course. It lead me to appreciate observational research of a City.

In “Origins of Contemporary Visual Culture” I learned of classic film and artists which defined the progression of art and design. I feel enriched for knowing so much about the history of my field, and the way it shaped the World.

Origins of Contemporary Visual Culture New Berlin & Place of Memory Cambodia Study Abroad

Research Practicum 1 Research Practicum 2: Senior Work Proposals Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology

Research Practicum 3 Human Computer Interaction

Projects in-progress:

Voting Project

Chloe Chic

2010

Fundamentals of Social Psychology Theories of Personality

Visual Perception & Cognition

DrawAFriend Game

These courses provided me with an appreciation for form, and often I consider a tactile approach when investigating design solutions because of my time spent in Product Design. Packaging concepts in Communication Design were improved by what I learned of form and material manipulation. I learned a good deal about user testing and interviewing from Design, Research & Development and gained a perspective of the design process. This was by far the most difficult course, however it taught me to work with all types of groups.

Berlin’s Moderisms

HISTORY

The FDR Years

In Cambodia my perspective on the US involvement in Viet Nam was turned upsidown.

Not only did I learn of a history that I never would have otherwise, but it changed my view of truth and exposure to history.

In Berlin I gained an appreciation for memorializing history and how impactful deisgn can be as a place of learning, mourning, and memorializing. I learned that I’d love to live in Europe, and in Cambodia that I love to travel to around Asia.

Romantic • Re-vintage • Clothing

Independent Senior Project Methods of Inquiry For two and a half years I studied with one particular Psychology Professor, Dr. Marcel Kinsbourne, who allowed to to meld my two fields of study; psychology and design. As a result I spent my time in the Psychology department designing experiment rooms, assisting the design of media presentations for other students’ experiments. I also used Adobe Flash to animate a transition of words and audio for an experiment on the Redundancy Principle with near significant findings. This professor also advised me and a Parsons professor as I ran a dual-school experiment on Human-Computer Interaction. I tested the significance an interface agent has on users who are frustrated and attempting to persist with an impossible task. Doing all of these experiments enabled me to look at a variety of types of data and analyze them in means of eye-tracking, statistical analysis, and qualitatively.

The rate at which I wrote and completed pepers in this course caused me to start and efficiency finish papers expediently in the future.

Writing the Essay 1 Writing the Essay 2

New Arrivals

•

Apparel

•

Accessories

•

Re-Vintage

WRITING

Learning to write at a Liberal Arts school, I found, prepared me to be a better writer than those who only learned to write at Design School.

Clothing Dresses Tops Bottoms Accessories Jewelry Scarves Home office Re-Vintage Giftcard Sales

>

About me

Senior Seminar

Painting 2 I didn’t want to leave Parsons without a series of oil paintings, and working with painters such as David Mann helped me improve a lot.

2D Integrated Studio 2

One particular project forced me to get very comfortable with New York City very quickly. We were given chalk, an adjective, and a particular neighborhood in New York. We were to take the chalk and make street art, not graffiti as the chalk would wash off, but something that engaged the pedestrians around with their physical environment. I was assigned Chinatown. This is arguably the most smelly, crowded neighborhood in Manhattan, with fish markets, small turtles, snails and other live creatures for sale right on the sidewalk. In addition, thousands of tourists grace the streets every day, and stopping to look around, let alow sitting down to draw, is a challenge.

Regadless, I got down on my hands and keens and drew on the dirty Chinatown pavement for hours as people walked by, pointed and took photos.

DESIGN & MANAGEMENT

Drawing & Painting

Drawing Studio 1

FOUNDATION

Design and management students gave me a fresh perspective on my thesis and encouraged me to think of a 360 approach to marketing the product towards all types of users.

Similarly, a recruiter helped me polish a graduate admissions essay and create a unique resume.

I found that painting calms me down in times of stress, and now I resume it whenever I feel the need to be creative in a more physical way than design on the computer. I took painting courses durig my thesis year for this exact reason.

Back

< Page

FIVE YEARS AT THE NEW SCHOOL

An Information Design process book by Emily Sappington Graduate Design Studio

Fall 2011

THE SUBJECT

FIVE YEARS AT A self-portrait is often more than a mere reflection of a person, but rather a narrative of oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life-story. A humanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life experiences can never be encapsulated by one singular media; be it audio, visual, or some other embodiment, but one can convey vignettes which reveal aspects of a life-story.

That is precisely what this design piece intends to do; convey a small vignette of five years of my life. In New York I expanded all possible horizons, but the most significant would be related to my academic and professional pursuits at The New School University.

THE CONTENT

At The New School I found a home, academically and socially. I toured twentytwo Colleges in high school, pressured to get a Liberal Arts degree but determined that I wanted to pursue a Fine Arts degree. I found the Dual Degree Program at the New School, nicknamed the “BAFA Program” and knew immediately that I had found the place for me. I have been choosing between my two passions: Psychology and Design since I was sixteen when my high school’s two Advanced Placement Drawing and Advanced Placement Psychology courses occurred at the same time. Though I knew I would someday have to choose a path, I wanted to maintain this duality in my life, and keep straddling the line between liberal arts and fine arts. The New School’s BAFA program allowed me to earn my Bachelors of the Arts in Psychology and my Bachelors of Fine Arts in Integrated

Design in only five years. The credits break down as follows:

90 credits

90 credits This unique program would allow me the freedom to indulge my interests in both fine arts and design, and history and psychology, all passions of mine. At Parsons I would choose my major to be the “Integrated Design Curriculum”, a selfguided program which allows students the freedom to choose courses in any Major at Parsons, as long as they could defend why they wanted to pursue such coursework. I took many courses within

the Integrated Design Curriculum itself as this particular group of faculty specialized in a type of design which drew upon ethnographic research models.

account of my coursework offers a glimpse into who I am as a person.

Why focus on my coursework at The New School?

Diversity: My diversity of interests harmonize between several subjects.

This self-guided design program and the dual-degree program I enrolled in at The New School are entirely reflective of my personality, work ethic, independence, motivation and diversity of interests. I am not easily defined by one type of profession, nor do I have one singular passion.

My interests overlap and intersect but are in essence rooted in separate fields. I appreciate them equally but find my life and coursework has pulled me in particular directions professionally. Still, this web of my self-selected academic interests defines me in some small way. This

Influences: The ways that each of these disciplines taught me something and helped form me academically, professionally, and personally.

What themes did I want to convey?

Time: Not only the years I spent in this program, but which disciplines I was more or less invested in at given times.

Anecdotal: I wanted to work with words after having worked with numeric information graphics for so many years. The shared stories are small narratives that reveal various aspects of my personality.

SKETCHES

In sketches I attempted to give content that would be mostly based in words a graphic metaphor. I thought of each of these schools as having spheres of influence in my life, and thus a circular theme emerged. Before I even settled on the theme of academics at The New School, I played with circular graphs outside the usual radial graph or pie chart, with sketches such as the one included below.

The following spread of pages includes a sketch which would inspire my final direction for the poster. Building off of the concept of bouncing between spheres of influence at The New School. I encapsulated each Major and then chose to build my courses off of that. This sketch here shows a first attempt at mapping time and the connection between classes.

authority leaves, the “teacher” subjects seem less willing to follow orders and a few drop out of the experiment.

Once the second authority figure leaves the room the percentage of “teachers” that remain in the experiment begins to decrease even more so. After both authority

coat breathing down their necks and encouraging them to go on. At this point some may hear the cries of protest from the “learner” and stop and a small few will continue with the experiment as they were told to do so, despite having no present authority.

took place. Often the obedient killers said they were “Just obeying authority”. So Stanley Milgram offered compensation for a psychological test on what he advertised as an experiment on learning. Volunteers were added to a pair, and each member of the pair would draw a role from a bag, either

“Learner” begins to protest the experiement and asks to be released

“Learner”. The “Learner” who was supposodly hooked up to an electrical shocking machine, would be shocked for every wrong answer.

As the “Learner” protested of pain, the “Authority” took note of how willing the “Teacher” was to continue the test or quit due to ethics.

means is that the two are close enough to touch one another.

The “learner” is also positioned by a metal plate which appears to shock him, and the “teacher” is asked by the authority to hold down the “learner’s” hand to the plate to ensure that he is shocked. In pervious Milgram Experiments the “learner” is

the “learner’s” facial expressions, hear his voice more clearly and overall see the person he is harming. This adds an element of human compassion that is lacking in other versions of the experiment.

orders when their authority figures themselves question the experiment and have a verbal debate about it’s ethics. In this experiment, it is apparent that when two members argue about whether or not to continue with an experiment, the person who is doing the shocking

defy obedience and has questioned the experiment already for him. This scenario is likened to the angel on one shoulder and devil on the other image in how it raises both the good and bad outcomes of a situation.

90%

80%

“Learner” begins to protest with agonizing screams One “Authority” begins prepared argument with the other “Authority” about whether or not to continue with the test.

100%

One authority leaves the room.

70%

Here the “teacher” had to both hear and see the “learner”being shocked as well as hold the “learner”’s hand to a metal shock plate.

60%

Four Versions of the Milgram Experiment and what it all means

Second authority leaves the room.

“Teacher” is now left alone to administer test

50%

40%

30%

International Results for Follow-Up Experiments Australia United Kingdom Jordan United States Austria Italy Germany

40%

20%

50% 62% 62.5% 80%

1o%

85% 85%

Spain Holland Results Shown by Percentage that Remained in the

90% 92%

Information Design poster on the Milgram Experiment

PAST INFLUENCES

In the past my information graphics were either rooted in psychology and quantitative statistical information, or were more â&#x20AC;&#x153;fluffyâ&#x20AC;? imagery such as the word cloud to the right, which indicates some hierarchy but is difficulty to translate to a judgement of values. To me, a perfect marriage of graphics occurs when the two collide. An old Information Design poster to the left in essence achieves this harmony with data.

DESIGN CHOICES Parsons To the left is the color scheme of the branding guides for The New School University, and to the right are the colors I chose for my poster.

Eugene Lang

The New School branding guidelines

My â&#x20AC;&#x153;Five Years...â&#x20AC;? color palette

I wanted to keep the colors paired with the New School divisions they are attributed to, and yet still create a unique palette for this poster.

I chose a more muddied grey with some yellow and green in it because that is more how I remember The New School.

There were some stainless steel elements in the buildings at the school, but most were aged. A strong, worn, gray with a touch of natural decay on the horizon coated the buildings.

The reds are more muted because they represent Parsons in my poster, and in my opinion and many othersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, Parsons is too often viewed as the focal point of The New School. Other divisions, such as Eugene Lang often get overlooked because of the great success that Parsons and its alumni have achieved, and thus

I felt itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s elements on this poster did not need to be the bright red shades that The New Schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s branding uses. Rather, the red should hold and require the same attention of the viewer as the orange shades used in this poster.

The orange elements represent Eugene Lang college. The first tee-shirt I was given from The New School was a Eugene Lang shirt with shades not too dissimilar from these on a black cotton that quickly faded to charcoal. I felt that these orange colors could stand up to, and at times challenge the red colors I chose to represent Parsons.

In hindsight, I see how the underlying politics of a multi-College University pervade seemingly aesthetic design decisions.

DESIGN PROGRESSION

The following four pages include the four iterations that this poster passed through before I arrived at my final design. A circular theme remained as I altered elements of a time line of courses, typographic organization, and size hierarchy.

Circle Hierarchy The scale of the circles, the only numeric measurement in the poster, indicates a hierarchy. Circle sizes were determined by the number of courses I took in a particular subject. So, with eight courses taken in Integrated Design, the circle for this Major is the size of eight single-course circles both width-wise and height-wise. Meaning that if you were to line up all of the courses I took in Digital Design, you could include eight in a row inside the circle for Integrated Design. The same principle holds true for Psychology, within which

I took sixteen courses, as indicated in a sketch from my notebook below.

2D Integrated Studio 2

Drawing Studio 1

Perspectives in World Art & Design 2

3D Body as Form Studio

2D Integrated Studio 1

Service Concepts

Drawing Studio 2

3D Studio 1

FOUNDATION

Service Concepts

Laboratory 2

Global Issues in Design Media & Representation

Laboratory 1

Design & Sustainability Invention

Drawing & Painting

Design(ing) Culture

Elective Painting

FINE ART Painting 2 Advertising & Marketing

Corporate Identity & Packaging Typography and Visual Design

COMMUNICATION DESIGN

Typography and Visual Design Information Design

ART HISTORY

Perspectives in World Art & Design 1

DESIGN & MANAGEMENT

Senior Seminar

INTEGRATED DESIGN

Design, Research & Development Models 1 Solid Works

PRODUCT DESIGN

Senior Seminar Portfolio Strategies

How Things Work Technical Rendering 1 DIGITAL DESIGN

2006

2007

Web Media 1

2011

2010

2009

2008

Health, Inequality & Development

GPIA URBAN STUDIES

Public Space & the City

Writing the Essay 1

Psychology of Ethnic Conflict Statistics with SPSS

WRITING

Writing the Essay 2

Dream Interpretation

PSYCHOLOGY

Fundamentals of Psychology Fundamentals of Social Psychology Theories of Personality Psychoanalyzing Greek & Roman Mythology Methods of Inquiry Culture, Ethnicity and Mental Health Research Practicum 1 Research Practicum 2: Senior Work Proposals

Cambodia Study Abroad Origins of Contemp Visual Culture

Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology Visual Perception & Cognition Research Practicum 3 Human Computer Interaction

HISTORY

New Berlin & Place of Memory The FDR Years Berlinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Moderisms

Independent Senior Project

Design Draft 1

Drawing & Painting Perspectives in World Art & Design 1

2D Integrated Studio 1

ART HISTORY

Laboratory 1

Elective Painting

FINE ART

Perspectives in World Art & Design 2

3D Studio 1

Painting 2

Portfolio Strategies

Drawing Studio 1

FOUNDATION

DESIGN & MANAGEMENT

Senior Seminar

2D Integrated Studio 2

Typography and Visual Design Corporate Identity & Packaging Typography and Visual Design

INTEGRATED DESIGN

Laboratory 2 Drawing Studio 2 3D Body as Form Studio

Web Media 1

Advertising & Marketing

DIGITAL DESIGN

COMMUNICATION DESIGN

Information Design Invention Service Concepts Global Issues in Design Media & Representation

2006

Design & Sustainability Design(ing) Culture Service Concepts

2007

Solid Works

Senior Seminar

PRODUCT DESIGN

How Things Work

GPIA Health, Inequality & Development

Design, Research & Development 2008

Technical Rendering 1 Models 1 2009

Psychology of Ethnic Conflict 2010

Statistics with SPSS Dream Interpretation

2011

Fundamentals of Psychology

URBAN STUDIES

Public Space & the City

Fundamentals of Social Psychology

PSYCHOLOGY

Theories of Personality Origins of Contemp Visual Culture Psychoanalyzing Greek & Roman Mythology Cambodia Study Abroad Methods of Inquiry

Berlinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Moderisms

Culture, Ethnicity and Mental Health

HISTORY

Research Practicum 1

The FDR Years

Research Practicum 2: Senior Work Proposals Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology

New Berlin & Place of Memory

Visual Perception & Cognition Research Practicum 3

Writing the Essay 1

WRITING

Writing the Essay 2

Human Computer Interaction Independent Senior Project

Design Draft 2

Laboratory 1

HISTORY

ART

My professor provided me with a knowledge of local

3D Studio 1 Drawing Studio 1

FOUNDATION

Senior Seminar Portfolio Strategies

I didn’t want to leave Parsons without a series of oil paintings, so in my senior year I took two painting courses as a way t to de-stress while working on two thesis projects.

2D Integrated Studio 2

Typography and Visual Design

2D Integrated Studio 1

Corporate Identity & Packaging

Laboratory 2

Typography and Visual Design

Drawing Studio 2

Advertising & Marketing

Invention Service Concepts Global Issues in Design

I learned the basics of Flash and Action Scripting.

Web Media 1

COMMUNICATION DESIGN

Information Design

INTEGRATED DESIGN 2006

unique resume.

calms me down in times of stress, and now I resume it whenever I feel the need to be creative

DIGITAL DESIGN

Media & Representation

I’d later use these skills in my Independent Study, and even later in Grad school.

Design & Sustainability Design(ing) Culture Service Concepts Senior Seminar

2007

I originally thought I wanted to be a product designer, but after taking some courses I decided my strengths could be better applied in other disciplines. I did not like having to choose materials and measure.

Solid Works

GPIA Health, Inequality & Development

PRODUCT DESIGN

How Things Work Design, Research & Development 2008

Technical Rendering 1 Models 1 2009

These courses did provide me with an appreciation for form though, and often I consider the tactical approach when investigating design solutions. Packaging concepts were also improved by what I learned in these courses. I learned a godo deal about user testing and interviewing from Design, Research & Development and gained a perspective of the design process.

Psychology of Ethnic Conflict 2010

Statistics with SPSS Dream Interpretation Fundamentals of Psychology

PSYCHOLOGY

I spent hours obersving people and doing ethonographic research in New York City for this course.

It lead me to appreciate observational research of a City.

URBAN STUDIES

Fundamentals of Social Psychology Theories of Personality Psychoanalyzing Greek & Roman Mythology

2011

Public Space & the City A project on corporate funding for private spaces caused me to have an interest in designing for public use, in public environments. I realized that those who design for public spaces serve a community of people, working essentially for a greater good.

In “Origins” I learned of classic film and artists which defined the progression of art and design. I feel enriched for knowing this

Origins of Contemp Visual Culture Cambodia Study Abroad

Culture, Ethnicity and Mental Health Research Practicum 1 Research Practicum 2: Senior Work Proposals Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology

Berlin’s Moderisms

HISTORY

The FDR Years In Cambodia my perspective on the US involvement in Viet Nam was turned upsidown.

Not only did I learn of a history that I never would have otherwise, but it changed my view of truth and exposure to history. In Berlin I gained an appreciation for memorializing history and how impactful deisgn can be as a place of learning, mourning, and memorializing. I learned that I’d love to live in Europ, and in Cambodia that I love to travel to Asia. I found Angkor Wat to

This course was my first at Parsons and my teacher made me believe I’d pass.

I spent hours roaming the Metropolitan Museum of art for these courses, which I grew to love.

I gained an appreciation for ancient art history and now can find my ways around the ancient art galleries knowing exactly where the Byzantene and later the Medieval art lives in this massive museum.

In my “Foundation Year” at Parsons, I learned that sometimes repetition can be extremely constructive. We would draw for hours and hours, creating work off of the same still life or model pose and sometimes by the 20th drawing, a perfect composition would appear. It was this act of struggling through a process that fostered an endurance in me as an artist and designer.

ART HISTORY

3D Body as Form Studio Laboratory 1 3D Studio 1

Perspectives in World Art & Design 1

Elective Painting

FINE ART

My professor was a practicing artist in New York, and he provided me with a knowledge of the local art scene. It is because of this introduction to New York that I began visiting gallery openings around the City, something I still enjoy every Thursday I’m back in the City for.

Painting 2

Laboratory 2

2006 In the Graduade Program in Internation Affairs I met the most brave, conscious, and well-traveled students I had ever encountered. These students inspired me to be equally confident in traveling to the Third World.

GPIA

Health, Inequality & Development

I’d later use these skills in my Independent Study, and even later in Grad school.

The other students gave me a “just make it happen” perspective with my projects.

Typography and Visual Design

In IDC, the Integrated Design Program, I found my home and my major.

The curricilum encouraged creativity and research, something I valued in both of my degrees. It is because of this school at Parsons that I discovered Service Design and then Interaction Design. I loved my projects in Service Design and felt that my Psychology background was finally being applied for ethical reasons, and not just in my advertising courses. The teachers encouraged an my psychological approach to research but also taught me the basics of ethonographic research methods.

Corporate Identity & Packaging

Drawing Studio 2

Web Media 1

Portfolio Strategies

I learned I sincerely enjoy advertising in terms of solving problems visually and with copywriting, however I’m not sure I could make it a career forever.

2D Integrated Studio 1

In this class I learned the basics of Flash and Action Scripting.

Senior Seminar

I didn’t want to leave Parsons without a series of oil paintings, and working with painters such as David Mann helped me improve a great deal.

2D Integrated Studio 2

One particular project forced me to get very comfortable with New York City very quickly. We were given chalk, an adjective, and a particular neighborhood in New York. We were to talk the chalk and make street art, not graffiti as the chalk would wash off, but something that engaged the pedestrians around with their physical environment. I was assigned Chinatown. This is arguably the most smelly, corwded neighborhood in Manhattan, with fish markets, small turtles, snails and other live creatures for sale right on the sidewalk. In addition, thousands of tourists grace the streets every day, and stopping to look around, let alow sitting down to draw, is a challenge.

Regadless, I got down on my hands and keens and drew on the dirty Chinatown pavement for hours.

DESIGN & MANAGEMENT

Drawing & Painting

Perspectives in World Art & Design 2

Drawing Studio 1

FOUNDATION

Design and management students gave me a fresh perspective on my thesis and encouraged me to think of a 360 approach to marketing the product towards all types of users. Similarly, a recruiter helped me polish a graduate admissions essay and create a unique resume.

I found that painting calms me down in times of stress, and now I resume it whenever I feel the need to be creative in a more physical way than design on the computer. I took painting courses durig my thesis year for this exact reason.

Typography and Visual Design Advertising & Marketing

INTEGRATED DESIGN

Information Design These courses in Communication Design gave me the foundation for making posters, ads, and all other two-dimensional, graphical pieces that communicate effectively. I learned the basics of color, composition and type.

COMMUNICATION DESIGN

Invention Service Concepts Global Issues in Design Media & Representation

DIGITAL DESIGN

Design & Sustainability Design(ing) Culture Service Concepts Senior Seminar These courses in the Integrated Design Curricilum allowed me the chance to meet faculty with backgrounds in Philosophy, Anthropology, Ethnographic Research, Service Design, and New Media Design, which gave me a diverse perspective on what design could be. These faculty would be helpful in advising me towards which fields of design would most benefit from my particularly diverse and acedemic skill set.

2007

I learned of problems that are “too wicked” to be solved by simple design. Directly after this course I volunteered abroad in Cambodia and witnessed such struggling systems first-hand while trying to offer what little help I could.

I originally thought I wanted to be a product designer, but after taking some courses I decided my strengths could be better applied in other disciplines. I did not like having to choose materials and measure.

Solid Works How Things Work Design, Research & Development Technical Rendering 1 Models 1

2008

The Fundamentals courses I took gave me a basic understanding of Psychology, and monumental studies and findings that I would continue to draw on years after these courses. Psychoanalysis was alsways an interest of mine, but it was more of a hobby than a career in my mind. I enjoy reading Freud and Jung but in the same way I enjoy painting, as a recreational break form the more intense practices of design and research. Conducting experiments and other sorts of research in my Research Practicum courses, alongside Masters and PhD students, proved to be the most stimulating environment for me. Conversations on cognitive neuroscience, theories of treatment for autism and experiments involving eye-tracking elevated my understanding of human behavior. While I knew I didn’t want to be a therapist, I debated becoming a Human Factors Psychologist, after a course in Human Computer Interaction. I decided I couldn’t do only psychological research and abandon the creative process, though, and thus I am a designer today. I owe everything I know about research to my Methods of Inquiry course, for it provided me with a foundation of approaching all psychological and design research in the future.

2009

Psychology of Ethnic Conflict Statistics with SPSS Dream Interpretation

PSYCHOLOGY

Fundamentals of Psychology

PRODUCT DESIGN

These courses did provide me with an appreciation for form though, and often I consider a tactical approach when investigating design solutions because of my time spent in Product Design.

Packaging concepts in Communication Design were improved by what I learned of form and material manipulation. I learned a good deal about user testing and interviewing from Design, Research & Development and gained a perspective of the design process. This was by far the most difficult course, however it taught me to work with all types of groups.

2010 A project on corporate funding for private spaces caused me to have an interest in designing for public use, in public environments. I realized that those who design for public spaces serve a community of people, working essentially for a greater good.

URBAN STUDIES

2011

Public Space & the City

I spent hours obersving people and doing ethonographic research in New York City for this course. It lead me to appreciate observational research of a City.

Fundamentals of Social Psychology Theories of Personality Psychoanalyzing Greek & Roman Mythology Culture, Ethnicity and Mental Health

In “Origins of Contemporary Visual Culture” I learned of classic film and artists which defined the progression of art and design. I feel enriched for knowing so much about the history of my field, and the way it shaped the World.

Origins of Contemporary Visual Culture New Berlin & Place of Memory Cambodia Study Abroad

Research Practicum 1 Research Practicum 2: Senior Work Proposals Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology Visual Perception & Cognition Research Practicum 3 Human Computer Interaction

Berlin’s Moderisms

HISTORY

The FDR Years

In Cambodia my perspective on the US involvement in Viet Nam was turned upsidown.

Not only did I learn of a history that I never would have otherwise, but it changed my view of truth and exposure to history.

In Berlin I gained an appreciation for memorializing history and how impactful deisgn can be as a place of learning, mourning, and memorializing. I learned that I’d love to live in Europe, and in Cambodia that I love to travel to around Asia.

Independent Senior Project Methods of Inquiry For two and a half years I studied with one particular Psychology Professor, Dr. Marcel Kinsbourne, who allowed to to meld my two fields of study; psychology and design. As a result I spent my time in the Psychology department designing experiment rooms, assisting the design of media presentations for other students’ experiments. I also used Adobe Flash to animate a transition of words and audio for an experiment on the Redundancy Principle with near significant findings. This professor also advised me and a Parsons professor I ran the first dual-school experiment on Human-Computer Interaction. I tested the significance an interface agent has on users who are frustrated and attempting to persist with an impossible task. Doing all of these experiments enabled me to look at a variety of types of data and analyze them in means of eye-tracking, statistical analysis, and qualitatively.

The rate at which I wrote and completed pepers in this course caused me to start and efficiency finish papers expediently in the future.

Writing the Essay 1 Writing the Essay 2

WRITING

Learning to write at a Liberal Arts school, I found, prepared me to be a better writer than those who only learned to write at Design School.

Design Draft 4

to look around, let alow sitting down to draw, is a challenge.

Regadless, I got down on my hands and keens and drew on the dirty Chinatown pavement for hours as people walked by, pointed and took photos.

In this class I learned the basics of Flash and Action Scripting.

Web Media 1

2006

DIGITAL DESIGN

FINAL DESIGN

In the Graduade Program in Internation Affairs I met the most brave, conscious, and well-traveled students I had ever encountered. These students inspired me to be equally confident in traveling the World.

GPIA

I’d later use these skills in my Independent Study, and even later in Grad school.

Health, Inequality & Development

2007

I learned of problems that are “too wicked” to be solved by simple design. Directly after this course I volunteered abroad in Cambodia and witnessed such struggling systems first-hand while trying to offer what little help I could.

INTEGRATED DESIGN

comp ne

psychological approach to research but also taught me the basics of ethonographic research methodology.

FIVE Y Invention

Service Concepts

Global Issues in Design

Media & Representation

Design & Sustainability

Design(ing) Culture

Service Concepts

Senior Seminar

These courses in the Integrated Design Curricilum allowed me the chance to meet faculty with backgrounds in Philosophy, Anthropology, Ethnographic Research, Service Design, and New Media Design, which gave me a diverse perspective on what design could be. These faculty would be helpful in advising me towards which fields of design would most benefit from my particularly diverse and acedemic skill set.

want designer, b courses I decided could be better applied i disciplines. I did not like havin materials and measure. I did, howeve learning Solid Works and how things are ma

Solid Work

How Things Work

Design, Research & Development Technical Rendering 1

Models 1

2008

The final design of this poster includes negative space which provides breathing room in between large chunks of text.

The text is grouped in egg-like shapes surrounding Majors at The New School.

The title of the poster is at the top, bold and straightforward, contrasting the organically shaped text boxes below.

The Psychology Fundamentals courses I took gave me a basic understanding of Psychology, and monumental studies and findings that I would continue to draw on years after these courses. Psychoanalysis was alsways an interest of mine, but it was more of a hobby than a career in my mind. I enjoy reading Freud and Jung but in the same way I enjoy painting, as a recreational break form the more intense practices of design and research.

Conducting experiments and other sorts of research in my Research Practicum courses, alongside Masters and PhD students, proved to be the most stimulating environment for me.

Conversations on cognitive neuroscience, theories of treatment for autism and experiments involving eye-tracking elevated my understanding of human behavior. While I knew I didn’t want to be a therapist, I debated becoming a Human Factors Psychologist, after a course in Human Computer Interaction. I decided I couldn’t do only psychological research and abandon the creative process, though, and thus I am still a designer today. I owe everything I know about research to my Methods of Inquiry course, for it provided me with a foundation of approaching all psychological and design research in the future.

2009

Psychology of Ethnic Conflict Statistics with SPSS Dream Interpretation

PSYCHOLOGY As shown in the image to the bottom right of this page, favorite courses are indicated with a star. This recognizable iconography indicates which courses I found to have the most impact on me.

The stars serve as jumping-off point for conversation regarding why these particular courses served my interests so well.

Helvetica Neue is used as the sole typeface for this poster, for it’s clean and contemporary aesthetic.

Fundamentals of Psychology

These courses provided me with an appreciation for form, and o consider a tactile approach when investigating design solutio because of my time spent in Product Design. Packaging concepts in Communication Design were improved b I learned of form and material manipulation. I le good deal about user testing and intervie Design, Research & Development an perspective of the design pro by far the most difficult taught me to w gr

2010

proj private space designing for pub that those who of people, w

URBAN STUDIES

Publ

I spent h ethonograp course. It lea research of a C

Fundamentals of Social Psychology Theories of Personality Psychoanalyzing Greek & Roman Mythology

knowin

Ori

Culture, Ethnicity and Mental Health Research Practicum 1 Research Practicum 2: Senior Work Proposals Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology Visual Perception & Cognition

Research Practicum 3 Human Computer Interaction Independent Senior Project Methods of Inquiry For two and a half years I studied with one particular Psychology Professor, Dr. Marcel Kinsbourne, who allowed to to meld my two fields of study; psychology and design. As a result I spent my time in the Psychology department designing experiment rooms, assisting the design of media presentations for other students’ experiments. I also used Adobe Flash to animate a transition of words and audio for an experiment on the Redundancy Principle with near significant findings. This professor also advised me and a Parsons professor as I ran a dual-school experiment on Human-Computer Interaction. I tested the significance an interface agent has on users who are frustrated and attempting to persist with an impossible task. Doing all of these experiments enabled me to look at a variety of types of data and analyze them in means of

HIST

students, proved to be the most stimulating environment for me.

Conversations on cognitive neuroscience, theories of treatment for autism and experiments involving eye-tracking elevated my understanding of human behavior. While I knew I didn’t want to be a therapist, I debated becoming a Human Factors Psychologist, after a course in Human Computer Interaction. I decided I couldn’t do only psychological research and abandon the creative process, though, and thus I am still a designer today. I owe everything I know about research to my Methods of Inquiry course, for it provided me with a foundation of approaching all psychological and design research in the future.

Psychology of Ethnic Conflict Statistics with SPSS

2010 In my “Foundation Year” at Parsons, I learned that sometimes repetition A can be extremely constructive. We would draw for hours project on corporate funding for spaces caused me to have an interest in and hours, creating work off of the same still life orprivate model pose designing for public use, in public environments. I realized and sometimes by the 20th drawing, a perfectthat composition those who design for public spaces serve a community would appear. It was this act of struggling through a working process that for a greater good. of people, essentially fostered an endurance in me as an artist and designer.

URBAN STUDIES

Fundamentals of Psychology

Laboratory 1

Fundamentals of Social Psychology

I spent hours obersving people and doing ethonographic research in New York City for this course. It lead me to appreciate observational research of a City.

3D Studio 1

Theories of Personality

In “Origins of Contemporary Visual Culture” I learned of classic film and artists which defined the progression of art and design. I feel enriched for knowing so much about the history of my field, and the way it shaped the World.

Culture, Ethnicity and Mental Health

FOUNDATION Research Practicum 1

Research Practicum 2: Senior Work Proposals

Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology

2D Integrated Studio 1 Laboratory 2

The egg-like shapes encapsulate Major names and course names as well as anecdotal stories about the courses.

These stories may be brief, indicating what I learned or which skills I gained that I still use, or may be longer stories of particular instances in a class. The content ranges from mentioning my first encounters with Action Script, a brief 200to 6 story of an assignment to draw with chalk on the sidewalk in Chinatown.

For two and a half years I studied with one particular Psychology Professor, Dr. Marcel Kinsbourne, who allowed to to meld my two fields of study; psychology and design. As a result I spent my time in the Psychology department designing experiment rooms, assisting the design of media presentations for other students’ experiments. I also used Adobe Flash to animate a transition of words and audio for an experiment on the Redundancy Principle with near significant findings. This professor also advised me and a Parsons professor as I ran a dual-school experiment on Human-Computer Interaction. I tested the significance an interface agent has on users who are frustrated and attempting to persist with an impossible task. Doing all of these experiments enabled me to look at a variety of types of data and analyze them in means of eye-tracking, statistical analysis, and qualitatively.

In the Graduade Program in Internation Affairs I met the most brave, conscious, and well-traveled students I had ever encountered. These students inspired me to be equally confident in traveling the World.

My professor was a practicing artist in New Yo with an introcutin to the local art scene. It is suggestions for how to get into the art scene in York that I began visiting gallery openings around the City, something I still enjoy every Thursday.

Cambodia Study Abroad

HISTORY

Drawing Studio 2

Berlin’s Moderisms The FDR Years

In Cambodia my perspective on the US involvement in Viet Nam was turned upsidown.

Not only did I learn of a history that I never would have otherwise, but it changed my view of truth and exposure to history.

In Berlin I gained an appreciation for memorializing history and how impactful deisgn can be as a place of learning, mourning, and memorializing. I learned that I’d love to live in Europe, and in Cambodia that I love to travel to around Asia.

One particular project forced me to get very comfortable with New York City very quickly. We were given chalk, an adjective, and a particular neighborhood in New York. We were to take the chalk and make street art, not graffiti as the chalk would wash off, but something that engaged the pedestrians around with their physical environment. I was assigned Chinatown. This is The arguably the most smelly, crowded rate at which I wrote neighborhood in Manhattan, with and completed pepers in this course caused me to start fish markets, small turtles, snails and efficiency finish papers and other live creatures for sale expediently in the future. right on the sidewalk. In addition, thousands of tourists grace the streets every day, and stopping to look around, let alow sitting down to draw, is a challenge.

Regadless, I got down on my Learning to write at a Liberal Arts school, I hands and keens and drew found, prepared me to be a better writer than on the dirty Chinatown those who only learned to write at Design School. pavement for hours as people walked by, pointed and took photos.

Human Computer Interaction Independent Senior Project

Perspectives in World

2D Integrated Studio New 2 Berlin & Place of Memory

Visual Perception & Cognition

Methods of Inquiry

Perspectives in World

Drawing Studio 1 of Contemporary Visual Culture Origins

Psychoanalyzing Greek & Roman Mythology

Research Practicum 3

ART HISTORY

Public Space & the City

3D Body as Form Studio

Dream Interpretation

PSYCHOLOGY

2011

I spent hours roaming the Metropolitan Museum of Art for these courses, which I grew to love. I gained an appreciation for ancient art history and now can find my ways around the ancient art galleries knowing e where the Byzantene and the Medieval art lives in this museum.

Inequality Development The timeline diagonally divides the &two GPIA Health, schools, Parsons and Eugene Lang, in the center of the page. Squares that coordinate with each Major indicate the number of courses I took in a particular subject at a given semester. With this design, viewers can see how my balancing act between the two schools shifted over the years, at times weighing heavily on one Major or New School division.

INTEGRA DESIG

Writing the Essay 1

Writing the Essay 2

In this class I learned the basics of Flash and Action Scripting.

Web Media 1 I’d later use these skills in my Independent Study, and even later in Grad school.

WRITING

DIGITAL DESIGN

2007

Et Media Design, which gave me a diverse per faculty would be helpful in advising me towa most benefit from my particularly divers

I learned of problems that are “too wicked” to be solved by simple design. Directly after this course I volunteered abroad in Cambodia and witnessed such struggling systems first-hand while trying to offer what little help I could.

2008

The Psychology Fundamentals courses I took gave me a basic understanding of Psychology, and monumental studies and findings that I would continue to draw on years after these courses. Psychoanalysis was alsways an interest of mine, but it was more of a hobby career in my mind. I enjoy reading Freud a in the same way I enjoy painting, as a rec form the more intense practices of desi Conducting experiments and other so Research Practicum courses, along students, proved to be the most s Conversations on cognitive neur autism and experiments involv understanding of human be therapist, I debated becom course in Human Comput psychological research a

FIVE YEARS AT THE NEW SCHOOL Emily Sappington

Graduate Design 1 October 2011

This course was my first at Parsons and my teacher made me believe I’d pass.

I spent hours roaming the Metropolitan Museum of Art for these courses, which I grew to love. I gained an appreciation for ancient art history and now can find my ways around the ancient art galleries knowing exactly where the Byzantene and the Medieval art lives in this massive museum.

In my “Foundation Year” at Parsons, I learned that sometimes repetition can be extremely constructive. We would draw for hours and hours, creating work off of the same still life or model pose and sometimes by the 20th drawing, a perfect composition would appear. It was this act of struggling through a process that fostered an endurance in me as an artist and designer.

ART HISTORY

3D Body as Form Studio Laboratory 1 3D Studio 1

Perspectives in World Art & Design 1

Elective Painting

FINE ART

My professor was a practicing artist in New York, and he provided me with an introcutin to the local art scene. It is because of his suggestions for how to get into the art scene in New York that I began visiting gallery openings around the City, something I still enjoy every Thursday.

Painting 2

Laboratory 2

2006 In the Graduade Program in Internation Affairs I met the most brave, conscious, and well-traveled students I had ever encountered. These students inspired me to be equally confident in traveling the World.

GPIA

Health, Inequality & Development

I’d later use these skills in my Independent Study, and even later in Grad school.

The other students gave me a “just make it happen” perspective with my projects.

Typography and Visual Design

In IDC, the Integrated Design Program, I found my home and my major.

The curricilum encouraged creativity and research, something I valued in both of my degrees. It is because of this school at Parsons that I discovered Service Design and then Interaction Design. I loved my projects in Service Design and felt that my Psychology background was finally being applied for ethical reasons, and not just in my advertising courses. The teachers encouraged my psychological approach to research but also taught me the basics of ethonographic research methodology.

Corporate Identity & Packaging

Drawing Studio 2

In this class I learned the basics of Flash and Action Scripting.

Portfolio Strategies

I learned I sincerely enjoy advertising in terms of solving problems visually and with copywriting, however I’m not sure I could make it a career forever.

2D Integrated Studio 1

Web Media 1

Senior Seminar

I didn’t want to leave Parsons without a series of oil paintings, and working with painters such as David Mann helped me improve a lot.

2D Integrated Studio 2

One particular project forced me to get very comfortable with New York City very quickly. We were given chalk, an adjective, and a particular neighborhood in New York. We were to take the chalk and make street art, not graffiti as the chalk would wash off, but something that engaged the pedestrians around with their physical environment. I was assigned Chinatown. This is arguably the most smelly, crowded neighborhood in Manhattan, with fish markets, small turtles, snails and other live creatures for sale right on the sidewalk. In addition, thousands of tourists grace the streets every day, and stopping to look around, let alow sitting down to draw, is a challenge.

Regadless, I got down on my hands and keens and drew on the dirty Chinatown pavement for hours as people walked by, pointed and took photos.

DESIGN & MANAGEMENT

Drawing & Painting

Perspectives in World Art & Design 2

Drawing Studio 1

FOUNDATION

Design and management students gave me a fresh perspective on my thesis and encouraged me to think of a 360 approach to marketing the product towards all types of users.

Similarly, a recruiter helped me polish a graduate admissions essay and create a unique resume.

I found that painting calms me down in times of stress, and now I resume it whenever I feel the need to be creative in a more physical way than design on the computer. I took painting courses durig my thesis year for this exact reason.

Typography and Visual Design

INTEGRATED DESIGN

Advertising & Marketing Information Design These courses in Communication Design gave me the foundation for making posters, ads, and all other two-dimensional, graphical pieces that communicate effectively. I learned the basics of color, composition, negative space and type.

COMMUNICATION DESIGN

Invention Service Concepts Global Issues in Design Media & Representation

DIGITAL DESIGN

Design & Sustainability Design(ing) Culture Service Concepts Senior Seminar These courses in the Integrated Design Curricilum allowed me the chance to meet faculty with backgrounds in Philosophy, Anthropology, Ethnographic Research, Service Design, and New Media Design, which gave me a diverse perspective on what design could be. These faculty would be helpful in advising me towards which fields of design would most benefit from my particularly diverse and acedemic skill set.

2007

I learned of problems that are “too wicked” to be solved by simple design. Directly after this course I volunteered abroad in Cambodia and witnessed such struggling systems first-hand while trying to offer what little help I could.

I originally thought I wanted to be a product designer, but after taking some courses I decided my strengths could be better applied in other disciplines. I did not like having to choose materials and measure. I did, however, enjoy learning Solid Works and how things are made.

Solid Works How Things Work

PRODUCT DESIGN

Design, Research & Development Technical Rendering 1 Models 1

2008

The Psychology Fundamentals courses I took gave me a basic understanding of Psychology, and monumental studies and findings that I would continue to draw on years after these courses. Psychoanalysis was alsways an interest of mine, but it was more of a hobby than a career in my mind. I enjoy reading Freud and Jung but in the same way I enjoy painting, as a recreational break form the more intense practices of design and research.

Conducting experiments and other sorts of research in my Research Practicum courses, alongside Masters and PhD students, proved to be the most stimulating environment for me.

Conversations on cognitive neuroscience, theories of treatment for autism and experiments involving eye-tracking elevated my understanding of human behavior. While I knew I didn’t want to be a therapist, I debated becoming a Human Factors Psychologist, after a course in Human Computer Interaction. I decided I couldn’t do only psychological research and abandon the creative process, though, and thus I am still a designer today. I owe everything I know about research to my Methods of Inquiry course, for it provided me with a foundation of approaching all psychological and design research in the future.

2009

Psychology of Ethnic Conflict Statistics with SPSS Dream Interpretation

PSYCHOLOGY

Fundamentals of Psychology

These courses provided me with an appreciation for form, and often I consider a tactile approach when investigating design solutions because of my time spent in Product Design. Packaging concepts in Communication Design were improved by what I learned of form and material manipulation. I learned a good deal about user testing and interviewing from Design, Research & Development and gained a perspective of the design process. This was by far the most difficult course, however it taught me to work with all types of groups.

2010 A project on corporate funding for private spaces caused me to have an interest in designing for public use, in public environments. I realized that those who design for public spaces serve a community of people, working essentially for a greater good.

URBAN STUDIES

2011

Public Space & the City

I spent hours obersving people and doing ethonographic research in New York City for this course. It lead me to appreciate observational research of a City.

Fundamentals of Social Psychology Theories of Personality Psychoanalyzing Greek & Roman Mythology Culture, Ethnicity and Mental Health

In “Origins of Contemporary Visual Culture” I learned of classic film and artists which defined the progression of art and design. I feel enriched for knowing so much about the history of my field, and the way it shaped the World.

Origins of Contemporary Visual Culture New Berlin & Place of Memory Cambodia Study Abroad

Research Practicum 1 Research Practicum 2: Senior Work Proposals Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology Visual Perception & Cognition Research Practicum 3 Human Computer Interaction

Berlin’s Moderisms

HISTORY

The FDR Years

In Cambodia my perspective on the US involvement in Viet Nam was turned upsidown.

Not only did I learn of a history that I never would have otherwise, but it changed my view of truth and exposure to history.

In Berlin I gained an appreciation for memorializing history and how impactful deisgn can be as a place of learning, mourning, and memorializing. I learned that I’d love to live in Europe, and in Cambodia that I love to travel to around Asia.

Independent Senior Project Methods of Inquiry For two and a half years I studied with one particular Psychology Professor, Dr. Marcel Kinsbourne, who allowed to to meld my two fields of study; psychology and design. As a result I spent my time in the Psychology department designing experiment rooms, assisting the design of media presentations for other students’ experiments. I also used Adobe Flash to animate a transition of words and audio for an experiment on the Redundancy Principle with near significant findings. This professor also advised me and a Parsons professor as I ran a dual-school experiment on Human-Computer Interaction. I tested the significance an interface agent has on users who are frustrated and attempting to persist with an impossible task. Doing all of these experiments enabled me to look at a variety of types of data and analyze them in means of eye-tracking, statistical analysis, and qualitatively.

The rate at which I wrote and completed pepers in this course caused me to start and efficiency finish papers expediently in the future.

Writing the Essay 1 Writing the Essay 2

WRITING

Learning to write at a Liberal Arts school, I found, prepared me to be a better writer than those who only learned to write at Design School.

LESSONS LEARNED

This poster is by far the most unique way I have displayed a narrative. In the past, my Information Design pieces have been strictly based in numbers, or have included words without much in the way of real measurable elements, or even much of a story. This poster employs its circular and egg-like shapes to convey numeric hierarchy at first-glance. It also allows for the reader with more time to step closer and read a short narrative about my time at The New School University. The organic linkage of how the shapes fit around one another on the page to me is reflective of the unique nature of my education. These spheres of influence map themselves in a similar way in my brain, in terms of my hierarchy of personal interests, hobbies and professional pursuits.

Finally, the poster is indicative of me: diverse in interests, at times disjointed, yet

overall fit-together harmoniously. I view â&#x20AC;&#x153;My Five Years at The New Schoolâ&#x20AC;? as just as much an information piece about my coursework, favorite subjects, and classes, as it is a reflection of my selfguided interests and personality.

FIVE YEARS AT THE NEW SCHOOL This course was my first at Parsons and my teacher made me believe I’d pass.

I spent hours roaming the Metropolitan Museum of Art for these courses, which I grew to love. I gained an appreciation for ancient art history and now can find my ways around the ancient art galleries knowing exactly where the Byzantene and the Medieval art lives in this massive museum.

In my “Foundation Year” at Parsons, I learned that sometimes repetition can be extremely constructive. We would draw for hours and hours, creating work off of the same still life or model pose and sometimes by the 20th drawing, a perfect composition would appear. It was this act of struggling through a process that fostered an endurance in me as an artist and designer.

ART HISTORY

3D Body as Form Studio Laboratory 1 3D Studio 1

Perspectives in World Art & Design 1 Perspectives in World Art & Design 2

Elective Painting

FINE ART

My professor was a practicing artist in New York, and he provided me with an introcutin to the local art scene. It is because of his suggestions for how to get into the art scene in New York that I began visiting gallery openings around the City, something I still enjoy every Thursday.

Laboratory 2

Web Media 1

2006

Self-Portrait Poster

I’d later use these skills in my Independent Study, and even later in Grad school.

Typography and Visual Design

In IDC, the Integrated Design Program, I found my home and my major.

The curricilum encouraged creativity and research, something I valued in both of my degrees. It is because of this school at Parsons that I discovered Service Design and then Interaction Design. I loved my projects in Service Design and felt that my Psychology background was finally being applied for ethical reasons, and not just in my advertising courses. The teachers encouraged my psychological approach to research but also taught me the basics of ethonographic research methodology.

Corporate Identity & Packaging

Typography and Visual Design

INTEGRATED DESIGN

GPIA

Health, Inequality & Development

Advertising & Marketing Information Design These courses in Communication Design gave me the foundation for making posters, ads, and all other two-dimensional, graphical pieces that communicate effectively. I learned the basics of color, composition, negative space and type.

COMMUNICATION DESIGN

Invention Service Concepts Global Issues in Design Media & Representation

DIGITAL DESIGN

Design & Sustainability Design(ing) Culture Service Concepts

In the Graduade Program in Internation Affairs I met the most brave, conscious, and well-traveled students I had ever encountered. These students inspired me to be equally confident in traveling the World.

The other students gave me a “just make it happen” perspective with my projects.

I learned I sincerely enjoy advertising in terms of solving problems visually and with copywriting, however I’m not sure I could make it a career forever.

2D Integrated Studio 1

Drawing Studio 2

In this class I learned the basics of Flash and Action Scripting.

Portfolio Strategies

Senior Seminar These courses in the Integrated Design Curricilum allowed me the chance to meet faculty with backgrounds in Philosophy, Anthropology, Ethnographic Research, Service Design, and New Media Design, which gave me a diverse perspective on what design could be. These faculty would be helpful in advising me towards which fields of design would most benefit from my particularly diverse and acedemic skill set.

2007

I learned of problems that are “too wicked” to be solved by simple design. Directly after this course I volunteered abroad in Cambodia and witnessed such struggling systems first-hand while trying to offer what little help I could.

I originally thought I wanted to be a product designer, but after taking some courses I decided my strengths could be better applied in other disciplines. I did not like having to choose materials and measure. I did, however, enjoy learning Solid Works and how things are made.

Solid Works How Things Work

PRODUCT DESIGN

Design, Research & Development Technical Rendering 1 Models 1

2008

FirstSteps Urban Cycling

The Psychology Fundamentals courses I took gave me a basic understanding of Psychology, and monumental studies and findings that I would continue to draw on years after these courses. Psychoanalysis was alsways an interest of mine, but it was more of a hobby than a career in my mind. I enjoy reading Freud and Jung but in the same way I enjoy painting, as a recreational break form the more intense practices of design and research.

Conducting experiments and other sorts of research in my Research Practicum courses, alongside Masters and PhD students, proved to be the most stimulating environment for me.

Conversations on cognitive neuroscience, theories of treatment for autism and experiments involving eye-tracking elevated my understanding of human behavior. While I knew I didn’t want to be a therapist, I debated becoming a Human Factors Psychologist, after a course in Human Computer Interaction. I decided I couldn’t do only psychological research and abandon the creative process, though, and thus I am still a designer today. I owe everything I know about research to my Methods of Inquiry course, for it provided me with a foundation of approaching all psychological and design research in the future.

2009

Psychology of Ethnic Conflict Statistics with SPSS Dream Interpretation

Interface Agents Research

PSYCHOLOGY

Fundamentals of Psychology

Psychoanalyzing Greek & Roman Mythology Culture, Ethnicity and Mental Health

A project on corporate funding for private spaces caused me to have an interest in designing for public use, in public environments. I realized that those who design for public spaces serve a community of people, working essentially for a greater good.

URBAN STUDIES

2011

Public Space & the City

I spent hours obersving people and doing ethonographic research in New York City for this course. It lead me to appreciate observational research of a City.

In “Origins of Contemporary Visual Culture” I learned of classic film and artists which defined the progression of art and design. I feel enriched for knowing so much about the history of my field, and the way it shaped the World.

Origins of Contemporary Visual Culture New Berlin & Place of Memory Cambodia Study Abroad

Research Practicum 1 Research Practicum 2: Senior Work Proposals Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology

Research Practicum 3 Human Computer Interaction

Projects in-progress:

Voting Project

Chloe Chic

2010

Fundamentals of Social Psychology Theories of Personality

Visual Perception & Cognition

DrawAFriend Game

These courses provided me with an appreciation for form, and often I consider a tactile approach when investigating design solutions because of my time spent in Product Design. Packaging concepts in Communication Design were improved by what I learned of form and material manipulation. I learned a good deal about user testing and interviewing from Design, Research & Development and gained a perspective of the design process. This was by far the most difficult course, however it taught me to work with all types of groups.

Berlin’s Moderisms

HISTORY

The FDR Years

In Cambodia my perspective on the US involvement in Viet Nam was turned upsidown.

Not only did I learn of a history that I never would have otherwise, but it changed my view of truth and exposure to history.

In Berlin I gained an appreciation for memorializing history and how impactful deisgn can be as a place of learning, mourning, and memorializing. I learned that I’d love to live in Europe, and in Cambodia that I love to travel to around Asia.

Romantic • Re-vintage • Clothing

Independent Senior Project Methods of Inquiry For two and a half years I studied with one particular Psychology Professor, Dr. Marcel Kinsbourne, who allowed to to meld my two fields of study; psychology and design. As a result I spent my time in the Psychology department designing experiment rooms, assisting the design of media presentations for other students’ experiments. I also used Adobe Flash to animate a transition of words and audio for an experiment on the Redundancy Principle with near significant findings. This professor also advised me and a Parsons professor as I ran a dual-school experiment on Human-Computer Interaction. I tested the significance an interface agent has on users who are frustrated and attempting to persist with an impossible task. Doing all of these experiments enabled me to look at a variety of types of data and analyze them in means of eye-tracking, statistical analysis, and qualitatively.

The rate at which I wrote and completed pepers in this course caused me to start and efficiency finish papers expediently in the future.

Writing the Essay 1 Writing the Essay 2

New Arrivals

•

Apparel

•

Accessories

•

Re-Vintage

WRITING

Learning to write at a Liberal Arts school, I found, prepared me to be a better writer than those who only learned to write at Design School.

Clothing Dresses Tops Bottoms Accessories Jewelry Scarves Home office Re-Vintage Giftcard Sales

>

About me

Senior Seminar

Painting 2 I didn’t want to leave Parsons without a series of oil paintings, and working with painters such as David Mann helped me improve a lot.

2D Integrated Studio 2

One particular project forced me to get very comfortable with New York City very quickly. We were given chalk, an adjective, and a particular neighborhood in New York. We were to take the chalk and make street art, not graffiti as the chalk would wash off, but something that engaged the pedestrians around with their physical environment. I was assigned Chinatown. This is arguably the most smelly, crowded neighborhood in Manhattan, with fish markets, small turtles, snails and other live creatures for sale right on the sidewalk. In addition, thousands of tourists grace the streets every day, and stopping to look around, let alow sitting down to draw, is a challenge.

Regadless, I got down on my hands and keens and drew on the dirty Chinatown pavement for hours as people walked by, pointed and took photos.

DESIGN & MANAGEMENT

Drawing & Painting

Drawing Studio 1

FOUNDATION

Design and management students gave me a fresh perspective on my thesis and encouraged me to think of a 360 approach to marketing the product towards all types of users.

Similarly, a recruiter helped me polish a graduate admissions essay and create a unique resume.

I found that painting calms me down in times of stress, and now I resume it whenever I feel the need to be creative in a more physical way than design on the computer. I took painting courses durig my thesis year for this exact reason.

Back

< Page

Mobile Application for parents of an infant or toddler Basic Interaction Design Fall 2011 | Emily Sappington, James Laslavic, Somya Jampala

User-group brainstorm

Eating schedule Baby food products

Weight/ fitness

Allergies

Nutrition

Lack of sleep

We brainstormed on the different issues related to parents of infants and toddlers.

Infections

Management of time Social networking

Balanced diet Mothers

Medical concerns

Vaccinations Baby care/ cleanliness Emergency care

Parents of infants/ toddlers

Hearing, eye, speech problems

Fun

Socialize (other kids)

Behavior diagnosis

Physical development

Materials

Media/ Entertainment

Active-ness

Mental development

Learning

Toys/ play objects

Baby language

Discipline

Baby yoga

Interaction with pets

How do I monitor allergies?

How can I share my childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experience with my spouse?

How do I know that my child has eye, speech problems?

Where can I get a baby-sitter?

How should I take care of my child in different temperatures?

Where are other parents?

Do I need to contact the doctor?

Where can I do with other parents while the kids play?

We brainstormed on the different problem statements for the parents of infants/ toddlers.

Where can I meet other parents?

When should my child be vaccinated?

Parents/ Mother

Medical concerns

Is it clean?

Problem statements for parents of infants/ toddlers What should I start with?

Getting enough nutrients?

Is my child eating enough?

What are the healthier options?

What should I not feed?

How often should I feed?

What can I cook rather than buy?

Why is my child so picky, what should I do?

Nutrition

Behavior development

Is my child hitting right milestones?

What activities can I do with my child?

What can I brag about?

How will my child develop a sleep schedule?

What are the signs of autism?

What is an appropriate disciplinary response?

How do I make my child shut?

Relatives Grandparents

Hospitals

Parents

Pediatricians

The potential stake-holders for this mobile application would range from parents to doctors and day-care centres to children organizations.

American Academy of Pediatrics

Stake-holders

Teachers

Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Organizations

Zero to Three Policy Center

Day-care centres

Child Development Association

Baby-sitters Pre-schools

Autism Speaks

Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Product Companies

Toy Companies

Gerber

Research synthesis

User interviews We interviewed 6 sets of parents to get their insights.

How much help did you get from family in taking care of the baby?

What do you do when you have questions and concerns? Why? How often do you ask questions?

Do you often question ‘what is the right way to do it’?

How often do you call you pediatrician/ask them questions?

Do you consult alternative medicine sources?

Do you do anything to monitor your child’s cognitive development?

When do you find that you wonder about your child’s development?

Do you talk/ brag/ share about your child’s development?

How do you record your child’s development?

6 interviewees aged 34 – 42 years Having baby aged between 6 – 16 months First-time parents Mothers –­ working part-time and non-working Living in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Texas, California, Pennsylvania

How do you manage time with child and other activities?

What activities do you do with your child when you have free time?

Do you base your interactions with your child on their development?

Do you discuss when you see a different behavior in your child?

Whom do you discuss it with?

Research & Persona synthesis

Persona 1: Jane, 36 years old

Jane and her daughter Chelsea on a Summer vacation

New-born baby girl Chelsea First-time parent Not working, used to be a real estate agent Lives in Chicago Parents visit often Attends library group meetings Read books on parenting while pregnant

End goals Wants to do the right activities with Chelsea at the right age Wants to document all the moments of Chelseaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s milestones Life style goals Wants to be well aware generally and as a mother Likes to document to keep memories

Persona 2: Christina, 38 years old 7 month-old baby boy William First-time parent Working part-time doing freelance work Lives in New York Christina and her son William walking on a sunny Spring day

Is determined to be a “cool mom” Views blogs on parenting between work calls Baby-sits her sister’s 12 month-old daughter Sarah

End goals Wants to plan activities to play with William Wants to follow development milestones of Sarah Life style goals Wants to be well-organized Want to manage her time well for William and her work

Icons are both original and borrowed from Android phone conventions.

When designing the interface and buttons for the FirstSteps app, ergonomics and hit area were considered. To the right, two sketches of potential home screen designs show hierarchy of buttons as determined from user interviews.

Home screen sketch 1 allows users to easily hit the “Play Now” button for expedient activity delivery.

Home screen sketch 2 gives users a dashboard of options to chosoe from, all of equal size.

Both designs include a top bar area reserved for the baby’s profile.

Buttons in grey or white become blue when hit or active

“Add Photo” being pressed, turns blue to confirm hit

Active State - in “Play Now” mode

Transitioning the scroll-slider to different ages, sliding left to right

Opening the FirstSteps App first time user

Add your baby’s profile

Browse activities (default to baby’s age)

returning user

List of baby profiles (home screen)

Share

Play Now

(first new activity of baby’s age)

scroll to specific age

view recordings

gallery email

play and record

Select Activity

play add to favorites

delete

More favorites past activities

Color choices allow for easy recognition of different button hit areas

Inspiration was drawn from websites and brands that are familiar to our user.

The color schemes are obviously targeted towards mothers, but donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have an overly feminine aesthetic as shades of pink might.

Menu Item & Main Accent Color

Background Color & main icons

Highlight & Accent Color for Pressed Buttons (Android standard)

Text Color

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

1. Make a babyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile 2. Play now 3. Share 4. Browse 5. More and favorites

FIVE YEARS AT THE NEW SCHOOL This course was my first at Parsons and my teacher made me believe I’d pass.

I spent hours roaming the Metropolitan Museum of Art for these courses, which I grew to love. I gained an appreciation for ancient art history and now can find my ways around the ancient art galleries knowing exactly where the Byzantene and the Medieval art lives in this massive museum.

In my “Foundation Year” at Parsons, I learned that sometimes repetition can be extremely constructive. We would draw for hours and hours, creating work off of the same still life or model pose and sometimes by the 20th drawing, a perfect composition would appear. It was this act of struggling through a process that fostered an endurance in me as an artist and designer.

ART HISTORY

3D Body as Form Studio Laboratory 1 3D Studio 1

Perspectives in World Art & Design 1 Perspectives in World Art & Design 2

Elective Painting

FINE ART

My professor was a practicing artist in New York, and he provided me with an introcutin to the local art scene. It is because of his suggestions for how to get into the art scene in New York that I began visiting gallery openings around the City, something I still enjoy every Thursday.

Laboratory 2

Web Media 1

2006

Self-Portrait Poster

I’d later use these skills in my Independent Study, and even later in Grad school.

Typography and Visual Design

In IDC, the Integrated Design Program, I found my home and my major.

The curricilum encouraged creativity and research, something I valued in both of my degrees. It is because of this school at Parsons that I discovered Service Design and then Interaction Design. I loved my projects in Service Design and felt that my Psychology background was finally being applied for ethical reasons, and not just in my advertising courses. The teachers encouraged my psychological approach to research but also taught me the basics of ethonographic research methodology.

Corporate Identity & Packaging

Typography and Visual Design

INTEGRATED DESIGN

GPIA

Health, Inequality & Development

Advertising & Marketing Information Design These courses in Communication Design gave me the foundation for making posters, ads, and all other two-dimensional, graphical pieces that communicate effectively. I learned the basics of color, composition, negative space and type.

COMMUNICATION DESIGN

Invention Service Concepts Global Issues in Design Media & Representation

DIGITAL DESIGN

Design & Sustainability Design(ing) Culture Service Concepts

In the Graduade Program in Internation Affairs I met the most brave, conscious, and well-traveled students I had ever encountered. These students inspired me to be equally confident in traveling the World.

The other students gave me a “just make it happen” perspective with my projects.

I learned I sincerely enjoy advertising in terms of solving problems visually and with copywriting, however I’m not sure I could make it a career forever.

2D Integrated Studio 1

Drawing Studio 2

In this class I learned the basics of Flash and Action Scripting.

Portfolio Strategies

Senior Seminar These courses in the Integrated Design Curricilum allowed me the chance to meet faculty with backgrounds in Philosophy, Anthropology, Ethnographic Research, Service Design, and New Media Design, which gave me a diverse perspective on what design could be. These faculty would be helpful in advising me towards which fields of design would most benefit from my particularly diverse and acedemic skill set.

2007

I learned of problems that are “too wicked” to be solved by simple design. Directly after this course I volunteered abroad in Cambodia and witnessed such struggling systems first-hand while trying to offer what little help I could.

I originally thought I wanted to be a product designer, but after taking some courses I decided my strengths could be better applied in other disciplines. I did not like having to choose materials and measure. I did, however, enjoy learning Solid Works and how things are made.

Solid Works How Things Work

PRODUCT DESIGN

Design, Research & Development Technical Rendering 1 Models 1

2008

FirstSteps Urban Cycling

The Psychology Fundamentals courses I took gave me a basic understanding of Psychology, and monumental studies and findings that I would continue to draw on years after these courses. Psychoanalysis was alsways an interest of mine, but it was more of a hobby than a career in my mind. I enjoy reading Freud and Jung but in the same way I enjoy painting, as a recreational break form the more intense practices of design and research.

Conducting experiments and other sorts of research in my Research Practicum courses, alongside Masters and PhD students, proved to be the most stimulating environment for me.

Conversations on cognitive neuroscience, theories of treatment for autism and experiments involving eye-tracking elevated my understanding of human behavior. While I knew I didn’t want to be a therapist, I debated becoming a Human Factors Psychologist, after a course in Human Computer Interaction. I decided I couldn’t do only psychological research and abandon the creative process, though, and thus I am still a designer today. I owe everything I know about research to my Methods of Inquiry course, for it provided me with a foundation of approaching all psychological and design research in the future.

2009

Psychology of Ethnic Conflict Statistics with SPSS Dream Interpretation

Interface Agents Research

PSYCHOLOGY

Fundamentals of Psychology

Psychoanalyzing Greek & Roman Mythology Culture, Ethnicity and Mental Health

A project on corporate funding for private spaces caused me to have an interest in designing for public use, in public environments. I realized that those who design for public spaces serve a community of people, working essentially for a greater good.

URBAN STUDIES

2011

Public Space & the City

I spent hours obersving people and doing ethonographic research in New York City for this course. It lead me to appreciate observational research of a City.

In “Origins of Contemporary Visual Culture” I learned of classic film and artists which defined the progression of art and design. I feel enriched for knowing so much about the history of my field, and the way it shaped the World.

Origins of Contemporary Visual Culture New Berlin & Place of Memory Cambodia Study Abroad

Research Practicum 1 Research Practicum 2: Senior Work Proposals Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology

Research Practicum 3 Human Computer Interaction

Projects in-progress:

Voting Project

Chloe Chic

2010

Fundamentals of Social Psychology Theories of Personality

Visual Perception & Cognition

DrawAFriend Game

These courses provided me with an appreciation for form, and often I consider a tactile approach when investigating design solutions because of my time spent in Product Design. Packaging concepts in Communication Design were improved by what I learned of form and material manipulation. I learned a good deal about user testing and interviewing from Design, Research & Development and gained a perspective of the design process. This was by far the most difficult course, however it taught me to work with all types of groups.

Berlin’s Moderisms

HISTORY

The FDR Years

In Cambodia my perspective on the US involvement in Viet Nam was turned upsidown.

Not only did I learn of a history that I never would have otherwise, but it changed my view of truth and exposure to history.

In Berlin I gained an appreciation for memorializing history and how impactful deisgn can be as a place of learning, mourning, and memorializing. I learned that I’d love to live in Europe, and in Cambodia that I love to travel to around Asia.

Romantic • Re-vintage • Clothing

Independent Senior Project Methods of Inquiry For two and a half years I studied with one particular Psychology Professor, Dr. Marcel Kinsbourne, who allowed to to meld my two fields of study; psychology and design. As a result I spent my time in the Psychology department designing experiment rooms, assisting the design of media presentations for other students’ experiments. I also used Adobe Flash to animate a transition of words and audio for an experiment on the Redundancy Principle with near significant findings. This professor also advised me and a Parsons professor as I ran a dual-school experiment on Human-Computer Interaction. I tested the significance an interface agent has on users who are frustrated and attempting to persist with an impossible task. Doing all of these experiments enabled me to look at a variety of types of data and analyze them in means of eye-tracking, statistical analysis, and qualitatively.

The rate at which I wrote and completed pepers in this course caused me to start and efficiency finish papers expediently in the future.

Writing the Essay 1 Writing the Essay 2

New Arrivals

•

Apparel

•

Accessories

•

Re-Vintage

WRITING

Learning to write at a Liberal Arts school, I found, prepared me to be a better writer than those who only learned to write at Design School.

Clothing Dresses Tops Bottoms Accessories Jewelry Scarves Home office Re-Vintage Giftcard Sales

>

About me

Senior Seminar

Painting 2 I didn’t want to leave Parsons without a series of oil paintings, and working with painters such as David Mann helped me improve a lot.

2D Integrated Studio 2

One particular project forced me to get very comfortable with New York City very quickly. We were given chalk, an adjective, and a particular neighborhood in New York. We were to take the chalk and make street art, not graffiti as the chalk would wash off, but something that engaged the pedestrians around with their physical environment. I was assigned Chinatown. This is arguably the most smelly, crowded neighborhood in Manhattan, with fish markets, small turtles, snails and other live creatures for sale right on the sidewalk. In addition, thousands of tourists grace the streets every day, and stopping to look around, let alow sitting down to draw, is a challenge.

Regadless, I got down on my hands and keens and drew on the dirty Chinatown pavement for hours as people walked by, pointed and took photos.

DESIGN & MANAGEMENT

Drawing & Painting

Drawing Studio 1

FOUNDATION

Design and management students gave me a fresh perspective on my thesis and encouraged me to think of a 360 approach to marketing the product towards all types of users.

Similarly, a recruiter helped me polish a graduate admissions essay and create a unique resume.

I found that painting calms me down in times of stress, and now I resume it whenever I feel the need to be creative in a more physical way than design on the computer. I took painting courses durig my thesis year for this exact reason.

Back

< Page

Urban Cycling

Ubiquitous Computing Improving Safety for Cyclists + Drivers

Table of Contents Introduction Abstract

Initial Ideation Initial Ideation Elderly Users

Design DTSS Signage Sign Ideation DTSS Design DTSS Features

Urban Cyclists

Video Sketch

Research

Video Sketch

OTB Bike Cafe Safety Concerns Surveys Survey Results Rapid Ideation Storyboarding Storyboards Research Notes

Conclusion Looking Forward

An Interaction Design project by Emily Sappington, John Gruen and Priscilla Mok Carnegie Mellon, MDes Interaction Design 2013

Abstract O

ur ubiquitous computing project focused on urban cycling in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Through research we gained a sense of differing perspectives on urban cycling safety between two very different stakeholders: cyclists and drivers. As cycling increases in popularity, both groups must learn how to share the road. Our proposed system reaches out to drivers to be aware of a cyclistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s presence, in order to prevent accidents. This notification does not distract or endanger either group, but rather raises attention through a familiar channel. We employ the common visual language of a flashing light at an intersection, and use simple motion tracking sensors to detect and capture cyclist movement in the area. Our research indicates that safety is the primary concern for both cyclists and drivers in Pittsburgh, and the DTSS solution helps to increase safety for cyclists and drivers alike.

Initial Ideation I

nitial brainstorming on potential areas for ubiquitous computing solutions was done through post-it sessions of mapping ideas. We generated concepts in a variety of areas surrounding the terms live, move, work, play. These areas included health monitoring, public transit, elder care, cycling, gaming, playful offices and civic/aesthetic realms.

Though we liked the idea of working on a project that involved Pittsburgh urban cyclists, we first went with the idea of researching elder care. We quickly arranged a site visit to a local rehabilitation and nursing center in Shadyside.

Elderly Users W

e began our research at Shadyside Nursing and Rehabilitation Center on Fifth Avenue in Pittsburgh, PA. We were initially met with the staff who were happy to let us photograph the rooms, take a tour, and ask questions of various staff members. With invitations to visit again, we planned to design ubiquitous computing solutions for the elderly, particularly those in assisted living and rehabilitation centers. During our visit we documented several areas of concern, such as call signals to nurses that did not vary based on urgency.

Opposite:

Above:

Our first brainstorming postit session

Materials from our first site visit to Shadyside Nursing and Rehabilitation

The environment itself yearned to be designed for the patient’s experience, as the many cues, audio tones, and the overall aesthetic seemed to serve the staff and nurses’ needs.

We were excited to begin interviews with patients, and drafted a long list of questions to ask each of the residents at Shadyside Nursing and Rehabilitation.

It was at this juncture that our project came to a screeching halt, as restrictions on speaking with and visiting patients kept us from moving forward. A requirement of having our project pass at the center’s

quarterly research meeting would suspend any further interactions, and thus force us to change our user group completely.

After the disappointment of being locked out from access to our user group of the elderly, we chose to research a more accessible group of mobile individuals: cyclists. We would later find that urban cycling provided a number of interesting and challenging design problems.

Opposite and Above: Images of the workout and rehabilitation room, activities board, nursing information screen, and call button. Photos taken during a tour of Shadyside Nursing and Rehabilitation Center on Fifth Avenue.

Urban Cyclists C

yclists in Pittsburgh are fewer than in cities like Portland or Amsterdam in part because Pittsburgh is an extremely hilly city, and very few bike lanes are painted directly on the roads. Regular commuting by bike in Pittsburgh is no easy task. Our group began research on this urban cyclist user group with investigations into organizations such as Bike PGH and Flock of Cycles, in settings such as Over The Bar Bicyle CafĂŠ in Southside. We also started interviewing local cyclists and drivers in Shadyside and Oakland about their experience coexisting on the roads in Pittsburgh.

Opposite: A locked bike in Oakland, Pittsburgh.

Photo credit: Emily Sappington

Our first urban cycling site visit was to Over the Bar Bicycle CafĂŠ in the Southside of Pittsburgh, PA. There we distributed links to our online survey and talked with drivers and cyclists alike about their perspectives on cycling or driving in Pittsburgh. Their opinions varied, and most noticeably, drivers did not seem to feel there was a problem with how cyclists and drivers interact in Pittsburgh, while cyclists felt that cycling in Pittsburgh was dangerous. Weather was noted as the biggest concern for cyclists, and most rode for just three seasons to avoid the snow and ice in this already hilly city. Drivers responded that they felt there was little to no problem with cyclists in Pittsburgh, reflecting less concern.

If an accident did occur, the driver would be in far less physical danger

OTB Bike Cafe

Opposite: Survey distribution at Over the Bridge Bike Cafe.

Photos of food, mural, wall and ceiling decorations, the bar and bartender, and bicycle locked outside OTB.

than the cyclist. This discrepancy in perspectives on the severity of the problem of safety with urban cycling gave us the early belief that we could not expect drivers to pay for or implement themselves a design to help increase cyclist safety.

From this point forward we focussed our designs on the interaction of three realms:

Photo credits: Jon Pratt & Priscilla Mok

the city of Pittsburgh

drivers

cyclists

Cyclists in Pittsburgh expressed that weather was one of their main concerns when cycling. Most ride 3 of 4 seasons.

Photo credit:

Safety Concerns T

he main concern for most cyclists in Pittsburgh was the weather, but because our design brief asked that we focus on ubiquitous computing, we felt that weather issues were somewhat outside of our scope.

Instead, we zeroed in on safety as a major issue. In terms of sharing the road, many cyclists we interviewed expressed that they were fearful of cars not seeing them and of getting into accidents, especially while riding at night.

Interestingly, regarding accidents one bartender at OTB Bicycle Café told us “not a month goes by when I haven’t heard of one if my [cyclist] friend’s getting in an accident [with a car]”. This alarming anecdote directly contrasted what one driver revealed to us when we asked his opinion. “There’s a cycling problem in Pittsburgh?” the driver responded. This feedback would help us in our next rapid ideation phase, as we explored potential frames for our problem.

Surveys W

e created two surveys, one for drivers and one for cyclists. Questions on these surveys ranged in depth, and some examples include “Have you ever been in an accident with a cyclist or driver?” and “What is the most difficult thing about sharing the road with a bikes?” Respondents answered frankly, and overall we collected a combined 105 survey responses from cyclists and drivers. An interesting finding from the driver survey, is that 73% of respondents were indifferent about sharing the road with cyclists, indicating a similar finding to those we heard from at

OTB-- namely, a lack of consciousness on the part of drivers regarding the safety concerns of cyclists.

Our surveys were posted at the OTB cafe, sent to local drivers in Pittsburgh, and posted on the Bike PGH website. This posting helped us get a lot of feedback from local cyclists, and helped us better frame our design problem.

Top 3 Cyclist Concerns

Top 3 Driver Concerns

Survey results

Survey Results O

ur surveys provided us with a lot of data with which to frame our design problem. We realized that the top concerns for cyclists, in order are the weather, nighttime, and cycling in traffic. For Drivers the top three concerns that they had regarding sharing the road with cyclists were having enough space on the road, passing cyclists, and nighttime. We saw similarities from this, as both groups were concerned with nighttime, which we interpreted as visibility and awareness of cyclists.

This was underscored by feedback at Over the Bar Bike Café of drivers being weary of “ninja cyclists” who seemed to pop up out of nowhere at night. Both groups were concerned with issues of traffic and sharing the road, which helped us frame our project around Pittsburgh’s roads.

Out of our 90 cyclist responses, 67 people took the time to write additional comments about their run-ins with cars. This expressed to us a desire for cyclists to have their stories heard, and to be taken seriously, for they perceive the problem of sharing the road to be far more dire than drivers do.

This Page: Organizing cyclist and driver feedback with post-its.

Opposite: An online spreadsheet with all of our ideas.

Rapid Ideation A

fter our first site visit to Over The Bar Bike Café, we created 75 quick ideas addressing cyclists, drivers, and the urban environment. Each of us looked over our notes and from the feedback we got from our interviews at OTB and then conceptualized design solutions for cyclists and drivers. These ideas ranged from lights that would burn through snow, to apps that facilitate group rides, to futuristic goggles with information feedback. Initially, many of these concepts were initially product-based, but after a few rounds of ideation, we saw such solutions as untenable. We realized that because drivers and cyclists do not see eye-to-eye on the issue of cars and cyclists sharing the road, it would be hard to implement a new safety product. Particularly, drivers didn’t even acknowledge that there was a problem with cyclists or accidents with drivers, and so encouraging them to purchase a new product for a problem they don’t even perceive to exist would be an uphill battle.

After this ideation exercise, we began to focus our ideas more on urban interventions, dealing with the roads themselves and things the city of Pittsburgh could do to improve safety between cyclists and drivers.

Storyboarding R

esearch findings lead us to develop six design concepts to storyboard. These ideas were based on our interviews at Over the Bar Bike Cafe, and the surveys we posted for cyclists and drivers.

Our storyboards centered around the areas of traffic, visibility, and awareness. While weather was a concern to cyclists, we decided to not combat mother nature with a ubiquitous computing project. We instead developed concepts centered around signage and signaling drivers to be aware of cyclists. We also devised projects that would use audio and visual cues to alert

drivers of their proximity to cyclists. As research at OTB and from our surveys indicated, we would develop designs that were not reliant on drivers being proactive and purchasing new technology.

Our design concepts are presented in brief on the following pages.

Since we sought design solutions for both groups, we varied these concepts for both drivers and cyclists. Each design was shown from either the driver or cyclist point of view, highlighting each user groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s benefits from the design.

Opposite:

Above:

Priscilla Mok and John Gruen ideating at the Coffee Tree in Shadyside, photo by Emily Sappington.

A close-up of notebook sketches,

Storyboards Cyclist Indication Light

Question: Have you ever felt that you didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t see a cyclist until the very last minute?

Dynamic Cateyes

Question: Would you like to know how much room to give to a cyclist when passing?

Sound Spots

Question: Can we make it more fun for cyclists to stay on the right side of the road?

Sound Sensor

Question: need to know how much space to allow when passing bikers in the road?

Smart Street Signs

Question: Would you like to know more about cycling laws?

Left Turn Signal

Question: Would you like to know when the bikes around you are making left turns?

Storyboards O

ur second visit to Over the Bar was planned to coincide with a meeting of Flock of Cycles, a cycling advocacy group in Pittsburgh. This group goes on monthly rides in order to educate new cyclists and create a responsible cycling community in Pittsburgh. We attended their meeting, run by Nick Drombosky (the President of Flock of Cycles) and spoke with the groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s members. In this meeting we were also able to discuss our ideas with Pittsburgh City Planner, Sarah Walfoort.

During this visit we conducted â&#x20AC;&#x153;speed datingâ&#x20AC;? inspired interviews with individuals for a few minutes, sharing with them our design concepts and getting helpful feedback. We created six different design interventions and drew up storyboards from both a driver and cyclist perspective. The feedback for each varied quite a bit, but most often focused on optimizing cyclist safety.

Opposite: A photograph from showing our storyboards

Above,Clockwise from top left: Storyboarding with drivers, Nick Drombosky, Sarah Walfoort, and more storyboard sessions

“I think drivers believe cyclists to be stereotypical, and this billboard design breaks the stereotype of a ‘roadie’, which we aren’t. From tonight you can see we’re a pretty diverse group.” -Cyclist at Flock of Cycles meeting [On cyclist indication light] “I would like that, an alert to help me know that someone is coming on a bike, I would then look around me, in my rear and side mirrors and try to find the bike! And drivers, if we had this sign and knew the biker was there we would yield” -Driver

“Yeah when I’m at an intersection and they pass like that sometimes I want to say WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING to the bike.” -Driver

[On singage for cyclist awareness] “That’d be good, for safety it could just be lit-up, not such an elaborate design.”

-Cyclist & City Planner

“...Really – nothing beats a [flashing] bike light, those things are the best and I really notice them on the road.” -Driver

[On a sound sensor in the car] ”The car would be beeping and the kids yelling and I’d just say ‘SHUT UP – I don’t care about the the bike anymore, I’ll hit it!’”

-Driver

[On a sound sensor in the car] “This is better than the cateye, but the sound could also cause drivers to swerve away from bikers, it could scare them.” -Cyclist

Research Notes I

n our story board sessions, we received lots of excellent feedback from both drivers and cyclists. Drivers in particular wanted help negotiating the space around cyclists on the road. Many drivers noted that they often don’t think about sharing the road with cyclists. One respondent in particular noted “I admit to not paying attention to cyclists.” We saw a clear need for more awareness of where a cyclist is on the road. Simultaneously, it was obvious that both cyclists and drivers were unaware of the laws governing cyclists’ behavior on the road.

Many drivers interviewed seemed to wonder why cyclists didn’t stay on the sidewalks. We also learned that driver distractibility posed a problem as well. At the same time, many interviewees were concerned about the feasibility and scalability of our of our storyboard concepts, and expressed that systems needed to be easily understood by visitors, and should be simple enough so that they didn’t need to go back to drivers ed. to understand it.

“This [a flashing light] is helpful because most drivers treat a bike lane as a right turn lane, and this reminds them ‘I’m here’” -Cyclist

“Why should we have this [a bike lane left turn signal] for bikers and not pedestrians?”

-Driver

DTSS Signage

Opposite: Various road signs from around the World.

W

e began our research on signage with a comprehensive look at what shapes, iconography, and colors are used in road signs, specifically those used to alert drivers to changes in traffic patterns. The original concept was born out school zone signs. These signs run on timers with lights that flash when school is let out, to remind drivers to be aware that children may be walking near the street. We aimed to remind drivers of cyclists on the road by utilizing similar flashing, which would use a familiar convention of alerting drivers. One important point which arose from our storyboard speed dating interviews is that both cyclists and drivers alike were fearful of distracting drivers with too much signage. When presented with concepts such as large illuminated billboards or sonic, many feared that drivers would swerve out of their lane into oncoming traffic, or just be too distracted to pay attention for cyclists. These concerns caused us to look at our design in terms of practical application, and thus the decision to build off of a safe and established design convention was made.

Sign Ideation W

e began our ideation for the DTSS with sketches based on our storyboards. We removed the number counter we had first included in our storyboard, based on our speed dating feedback, and focused on simple bike rider iconography. Signs that inspired us in particular included school zone signs. These are easily understood by driers, incorporate a flashing light, and do not distract drivers.

This sort of signageâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s main purpose is to call attention to the possibility of children on or nearby the roads, and we intended to raise similar attention of cyclists on the roads

in Pittsburgh. We realized after several conversations that the functionality of our design would have to fit with cyclist culture. After feedback from a city planner, we changed our initial plan to trigger the light with RFID sensors. Both cyclists and the city planner we consulted told us that people don’t want to feel that they are being tracked throughout the city. This “big brother” fear doesn’t sit well with cyclists, and thus we altered the design from RFID censors, to motion detectors programmed to recognize cyclistshaped silhouettes on the street.

Opposite:

Above:

Early concept sketches

We found that most cyclists don’t like the idea of being tracked via RFID

DTSS Design O

ur final design solution is grounded in our user research, rather than in an attempt to create a futuristic ubiquitous computing solution for its own sake. Safety was of the utmost importance in this project. On countless occasions both drivers and cyclists alike mentioned that drivers needed to be aware of cyclistsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; presence and to remain aware even if they cannot see any cyclists. The feedback we gathered during our storyboarding interviews lead us to choose the Directional Traffic Safety Sensor as our ubiquitous computing solution for urban cyclists and drivers in Pittsburgh.

Opposite: A rendering of the DTSS, including both the tracking eye below the traffic signal, and the LED light up sign next to it.

Our final design looks simple, but is quite smart. It consists of a series of motion sensors, which detect and track the motion of cyclists through traffic. Because this sort of blob detection is fairly simple, the DTSS signage could easily be made to work to indicate motorcyclists, fire trucks, ambulances, and other vehicles which drivers need to be aware of. The DTSS generally intended for high traffic streets. Examples of these streets in Pittsburgh include Forbes Avenue, Fifth Avenue and Centre Avenue, the location of our video sketch.

Emily Sappington taking video sketch photos on Centre Avenue.

Video Sketch W

e photographed for our video sketch over the span of two days, timing carefully to accommodate weather, lighting, and our guest actress. On the first day, we photographed John Gruen, cycling on Centre Avenue in Pittsburgh in the late afternoon at a time when some drivers would have their lights on, and yet there would be enough natural light to get quality images. With each shoot, one of the team members would reference a detailed storyboard to be sure that we captured images from the angles we intended. Frames from these storyboards are included here, drawn by Priscilla Mok.

Our process required careful planning of shots while remaining aware of traffic patterns and ways in which both actor and photographer could achieve the image they want while remaining safe. Some images such as those of John or “Patrick” walking into Whole Foods or cycling on a quiet street were relatively easy. However, others where John would pass between cars and through traffic lights proved to be a more thrilling process for cyclist and photographer alike.

On the second day of shooting, Kimberly Harvey played the role of “Megan” in our video sketch, the fun-loving, and distracting passenger

Video Sketch

Opposite: Stills from the video sketch

in Sarah’s car. Emily Sappington played the role of Sarah, driving to Target with Megan. All of our actors wore bright colors so that they would pop on camera, and the expressions captured in the car suited our story well. Timing shots where both characters in the car were visible as they passed Patrick, our cyclist character, on the road required careful timing. Shooting each scene several times and taking photos with plenty of area to zoom in and pan gave us a bevy of options when choosing which photos to use. By the end of the two days we had taken well over 700 photos to use in our video sketch. From this point on we would construct our video by sequencing layers in Adobe After Effects.

To this we added narration by Alison Servis, recorded at the Carnegie Mellon College of Fine Arts audio booth. The script when edited into a video explaining two sides of the story, one from our cyclist Patrick’s perspective, and one from the drivers, Sarah and Megan’s perspectives.

Both user groups interact with the the DTSS in a unique way, and all arrive at their destinations safely because of it.

This Page: Still from the videosketch showing the DTSS in action Opposite: Close up views of the motion sensor array and the led sign.

DTSS Features W

ith continued use throughout the city, the DTSS will form a citywide network of sensors to help city planners better understand city traffic. The more lights and sensors that are implemented, the more complete the sensorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s effect will be. The DTSS is useful for data collection that can improve upon a cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s decisions about where to put bike lanes, which would make the minimal investment worthwhile to city planners. The design also is easily extensible and could be applied to other vehicles that share the road such motorcyclists, and special traffic like funerals or ambulances. This same technology could be used to observe pedestrian behavior as well. The DTSS design is also easily adaptable to any urban environment. As long as the DTSS in its current design state lives on arterial roads in urban areas, it is applicable outside of Pittsburgh.

Looking Forward T

he future of the DTSS has a wider application to urban environments as cities envision ways to best serve their populations.

The sensor of the DTSS observes city traffic and thus could collect data for city planners to better design roads for traffic flow. LED lights were chosen for this design specifically so that future versions of the DTSS could be changed to alert of other vehicles. Any graphic could be formed out of the grid of LEDs, so that cars can potentially be alerted to other vehicles, such as motorcyclists, ambulance and fire trucks on their roads.

C

yclists and drivers we interviewed early-on in our research process returned to offer feedback on our final design solution. Here’s what they had to say about the DTSS:

“As a commuter cyclist who occasionally uses her driver’s license, I understand the importance of cyclist visibility—especially at night. And even when cyclists are visible, drivers are often reluctant to share the road.

It would be helpful for both drivers and cyclists if there were a way to increase visibility while also making space for cyclists.”

Julia - Pittsburgh cyclist

“It would be a smart idea...if its like a school zone light it could work. It would work if its not not too close to red light to where an elderly person that may not be fully there might get confused.

Curt - Pittsburgh driver

FIVE YEARS AT THE NEW SCHOOL This course was my first at Parsons and my teacher made me believe I’d pass.

I spent hours roaming the Metropolitan Museum of Art for these courses, which I grew to love. I gained an appreciation for ancient art history and now can find my ways around the ancient art galleries knowing exactly where the Byzantene and the Medieval art lives in this massive museum.

In my “Foundation Year” at Parsons, I learned that sometimes repetition can be extremely constructive. We would draw for hours and hours, creating work off of the same still life or model pose and sometimes by the 20th drawing, a perfect composition would appear. It was this act of struggling through a process that fostered an endurance in me as an artist and designer.

ART HISTORY

3D Body as Form Studio Laboratory 1 3D Studio 1

Perspectives in World Art & Design 1 Perspectives in World Art & Design 2

Elective Painting

FINE ART

My professor was a practicing artist in New York, and he provided me with an introcutin to the local art scene. It is because of his suggestions for how to get into the art scene in New York that I began visiting gallery openings around the City, something I still enjoy every Thursday.

About me

2D Integrated Studio 1 Laboratory 2

Web Media 1

2006

Self-Portrait Poster

I’d later use these skills in my Independent Study, and even later in Grad school.

GPIA

Health, Inequality & Development

The other students gave me a “just make it happen” perspective with my projects.

Typography and Visual Design

In IDC, the Integrated Design Program, I found my home and my major.

The curricilum encouraged creativity and research, something I valued in both of my degrees. It is because of this school at Parsons that I discovered Service Design and then Interaction Design. I loved my projects in Service Design and felt that my Psychology background was finally being applied for ethical reasons, and not just in my advertising courses. The teachers encouraged my psychological approach to research but also taught me the basics of ethonographic research methodology.

Corporate Identity & Packaging

Typography and Visual Design

INTEGRATED DESIGN

Advertising & Marketing Information Design These courses in Communication Design gave me the foundation for making posters, ads, and all other two-dimensional, graphical pieces that communicate effectively. I learned the basics of color, composition, negative space and type.

COMMUNICATION DESIGN

Invention Service Concepts Global Issues in Design Media & Representation

DIGITAL DESIGN

Design & Sustainability Design(ing) Culture Service Concepts

In the Graduade Program in Internation Affairs I met the most brave, conscious, and well-traveled students I had ever encountered. These students inspired me to be equally confident in traveling the World.

Portfolio Strategies

I learned I sincerely enjoy advertising in terms of solving problems visually and with copywriting, however I’m not sure I could make it a career forever.

Drawing Studio 2

In this class I learned the basics of Flash and Action Scripting.

Senior Seminar

Painting 2 I didn’t want to leave Parsons without a series of oil paintings, and working with painters such as David Mann helped me improve a lot.

2D Integrated Studio 2

One particular project forced me to get very comfortable with New York City very quickly. We were given chalk, an adjective, and a particular neighborhood in New York. We were to take the chalk and make street art, not graffiti as the chalk would wash off, but something that engaged the pedestrians around with their physical environment. I was assigned Chinatown. This is arguably the most smelly, crowded neighborhood in Manhattan, with fish markets, small turtles, snails and other live creatures for sale right on the sidewalk. In addition, thousands of tourists grace the streets every day, and stopping to look around, let alow sitting down to draw, is a challenge.

Regadless, I got down on my hands and keens and drew on the dirty Chinatown pavement for hours as people walked by, pointed and took photos.

DESIGN & MANAGEMENT

Drawing & Painting

Drawing Studio 1

FOUNDATION

Design and management students gave me a fresh perspective on my thesis and encouraged me to think of a 360 approach to marketing the product towards all types of users.

Similarly, a recruiter helped me polish a graduate admissions essay and create a unique resume.

I found that painting calms me down in times of stress, and now I resume it whenever I feel the need to be creative in a more physical way than design on the computer. I took painting courses durig my thesis year for this exact reason.

Senior Seminar These courses in the Integrated Design Curricilum allowed me the chance to meet faculty with backgrounds in Philosophy, Anthropology, Ethnographic Research, Service Design, and New Media Design, which gave me a diverse perspective on what design could be. These faculty would be helpful in advising me towards which fields of design would most benefit from my particularly diverse and acedemic skill set.

2007

I learned of problems that are “too wicked” to be solved by simple design. Directly after this course I volunteered abroad in Cambodia and witnessed such struggling systems first-hand while trying to offer what little help I could.

I originally thought I wanted to be a product designer, but after taking some courses I decided my strengths could be better applied in other disciplines. I did not like having to choose materials and measure. I did, however, enjoy learning Solid Works and how things are made.

Solid Works How Things Work

PRODUCT DESIGN

Design, Research & Development Technical Rendering 1 Models 1

2008

FirstSteps Urban Cycling

The Psychology Fundamentals courses I took gave me a basic understanding of Psychology, and monumental studies and findings that I would continue to draw on years after these courses. Psychoanalysis was alsways an interest of mine, but it was more of a hobby than a career in my mind. I enjoy reading Freud and Jung but in the same way I enjoy painting, as a recreational break form the more intense practices of design and research.

Conducting experiments and other sorts of research in my Research Practicum courses, alongside Masters and PhD students, proved to be the most stimulating environment for me.

Conversations on cognitive neuroscience, theories of treatment for autism and experiments involving eye-tracking elevated my understanding of human behavior. While I knew I didn’t want to be a therapist, I debated becoming a Human Factors Psychologist, after a course in Human Computer Interaction. I decided I couldn’t do only psychological research and abandon the creative process, though, and thus I am still a designer today. I owe everything I know about research to my Methods of Inquiry course, for it provided me with a foundation of approaching all psychological and design research in the future.

2009

Psychology of Ethnic Conflict Statistics with SPSS Dream Interpretation

Interface Agents Research

PSYCHOLOGY

Fundamentals of Psychology

These courses provided me with an appreciation for form, and often I consider a tactile approach when investigating design solutions because of my time spent in Product Design. Packaging concepts in Communication Design were improved by what I learned of form and material manipulation. I learned a good deal about user testing and interviewing from Design, Research & Development and gained a perspective of the design process. This was by far the most difficult course, however it taught me to work with all types of groups.

2010

A project on corporate funding for private spaces caused me to have an interest in designing for public use, in public environments. I realized that those who design for public spaces serve a community of people, working essentially for a greater good.

URBAN STUDIES

I spent hours obersving people and doing ethonographic research in New York City for this course. It lead me to appreciate observational research of a City.

Fundamentals of Social Psychology Theories of Personality Psychoanalyzing Greek & Roman Mythology Culture, Ethnicity and Mental Health

In “Origins of Contemporary Visual Culture” I learned of classic film and artists which defined the progression of art and design. I feel enriched for knowing so much about the history of my field, and the way it shaped the World.

Origins of Contemporary Visual Culture New Berlin & Place of Memory Cambodia Study Abroad

Research Practicum 1 Research Practicum 2: Senior Work Proposals Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology

DrawAFriend Game

2011

Public Space & the City

Visual Perception & Cognition Research Practicum 3 Human Computer Interaction

Berlin’s Moderisms

HISTORY

The FDR Years

In Cambodia my perspective on the US involvement in Viet Nam was turned upsidown.

Not only did I learn of a history that I never would have otherwise, but it changed my view of truth and exposure to history.

In Berlin I gained an appreciation for memorializing history and how impactful deisgn can be as a place of learning, mourning, and memorializing. I learned that I’d love to live in Europe, and in Cambodia that I love to travel to around Asia.

Romantic • Re-vintage • Clothing

Independent Senior Project

Projects in-progress:

Voting Project

Chloe Chic

The rate at which I wrote and completed pepers in this course caused me to start and efficiency finish papers expediently in the future.

Writing the Essay 1 Writing the Essay 2

New Arrivals

•

Apparel

•

Accessories

•

Re-Vintage

WRITING

Learning to write at a Liberal Arts school, I found, prepared me to be a better writer than those who only learned to write at Design School.

Clothing Dresses Tops Bottoms Accessories Jewelry Scarves Home office Re-Vintage Giftcard Sales

>

Methods of Inquiry For two and a half years I studied with one particular Psychology Professor, Dr. Marcel Kinsbourne, who allowed to to meld my two fields of study; psychology and design. As a result I spent my time in the Psychology department designing experiment rooms, assisting the design of media presentations for other students’ experiments. I also used Adobe Flash to animate a transition of words and audio for an experiment on the Redundancy Principle with near significant findings. This professor also advised me and a Parsons professor as I ran a dual-school experiment on Human-Computer Interaction. I tested the significance an interface agent has on users who are frustrated and attempting to persist with an impossible task. Doing all of these experiments enabled me to look at a variety of types of data and analyze them in means of eye-tracking, statistical analysis, and qualitatively.

Back

< Page

CHI Research Interface Agents & The Impossible Task A human-computer interaction research study on how users persist with a persuasive interface agent during an impossible task.

Scott Pobiner Parsons The New School for Design Collaborated on:

Overall study concept

Interface look & feel

Interface creation

Research objectives for design implications

Dr. Marcel Kinsbourne The New School for Social Research Collaborated on:

IRB proposal

Psychological research methods

Testing room and equipment

Statistical analysis of results

camera 1

computer

participant

camera 2

211 166 167 175 176 96108 97 146 147 184 197 174 18 183 182 198 181 199 180 98 185 35 145 168 177 17 68 69 76 7 0 186 99 109 95 190 79 81 73 148 169 147 146 145 144 16 34 72 182181 148 178 142 10 71 77 15 14 12 11 13 187 1144 173 42 4 46 47 3 149 189 141 80 82 67 36 66 103 102 53 2143 104 191 101 100 149 107 41 88 4 3 110 170 179 124 123 122 45 44 54 5 150 140 188 106 105 172 171 193 192 140 1 151 180 128 142 141 43 154 153 152 129 125 6 196 89 33 87 156 155 127 126 9157 75 7478 4 187 60 93 38 37 164 139 59 786 8134 28 30 183 61 39 4165 32 25 24 52 31 26 95 051 27 29 163 55 162 161 158 40 83 48 130 138 90 19 65 135 136 133 137 194 160 159 20 56 132 62 92 91 131 121 84 58 57 85 21 195 63 64120 184 186 119 185 118 111112 113 117 22 114 115 116

122 212 87 84 139 123 83 127 124 88 133 126 129 128 125 86 81 61 60 50 89 111 112 132 62 77 110 117 116 118 138 16 15 14 107 59 78 79 80 189 92 93 210 91 90 137 85 13 12 120 119 121 49 130 94 95 63 5 2 154 155 172 171 47 188 187 170 51 153 10 9200 8 167 64 5455 56 7190 173 193194195 141 142 168 11 213 169 58 46 76 57 162 164 163 102 109 101 103 100 97 99 53 6207 5 8196 166 165 131 72 49 203 48 17 3 206 136 192 204 159 186 65 67 70 69 209 197 113 96 75 66 2 208 205 115 106 105 74 73 202 201 108 114 30 29 3 18 1 168 19 21 20 174 152 135 191 185 23 22 2 25 33 32 4 198 161 183 28 26 160 140 27 145 184 34 146 176 175 45 104 44 37 43 42 41 177 38 39 40 199 35 143 150 156 151 158 182 149 148 144 147 179 178 157181 180 82

71 36

23

215

214

(1, 15 26 38 49 60 70 83 94 10 11 11 12 13 14 15 15 16 17 18 19 20 20

Research Findings: The female interface agent was regarded more favorably in respect to trustworthiness and how much users reported to like the agent.

In post-experiment surveys, the male interface agent was reported as the most frustrating of the three agents to work with.

The text-only interface afforded the best results for persisting with an impossible task. This finding is credited in part due to the lack of audio feedback.

Users who became frustrated during the impossible task often spoke to the computer, and some exhibited the frustration-aggression principle in clicking the mouse more aggressively and forcefully.

FIVE YEARS AT THE NEW SCHOOL This course was my first at Parsons and my teacher made me believe I’d pass.

I spent hours roaming the Metropolitan Museum of Art for these courses, which I grew to love. I gained an appreciation for ancient art history and now can find my ways around the ancient art galleries knowing exactly where the Byzantene and the Medieval art lives in this massive museum.

In my “Foundation Year” at Parsons, I learned that sometimes repetition can be extremely constructive. We would draw for hours and hours, creating work off of the same still life or model pose and sometimes by the 20th drawing, a perfect composition would appear. It was this act of struggling through a process that fostered an endurance in me as an artist and designer.

ART HISTORY

3D Body as Form Studio Laboratory 1 3D Studio 1

Perspectives in World Art & Design 1 Perspectives in World Art & Design 2

Elective Painting

FINE ART

My professor was a practicing artist in New York, and he provided me with an introcutin to the local art scene. It is because of his suggestions for how to get into the art scene in New York that I began visiting gallery openings around the City, something I still enjoy every Thursday.

About me

Laboratory 2

Web Media 1

2006

Self-Portrait Poster

I’d later use these skills in my Independent Study, and even later in Grad school.

GPIA

Health, Inequality & Development

The other students gave me a “just make it happen” perspective with my projects.

Typography and Visual Design

In IDC, the Integrated Design Program, I found my home and my major.

The curricilum encouraged creativity and research, something I valued in both of my degrees. It is because of this school at Parsons that I discovered Service Design and then Interaction Design. I loved my projects in Service Design and felt that my Psychology background was finally being applied for ethical reasons, and not just in my advertising courses. The teachers encouraged my psychological approach to research but also taught me the basics of ethonographic research methodology.

Corporate Identity & Packaging

Typography and Visual Design

INTEGRATED DESIGN

Advertising & Marketing Information Design These courses in Communication Design gave me the foundation for making posters, ads, and all other two-dimensional, graphical pieces that communicate effectively. I learned the basics of color, composition, negative space and type.

COMMUNICATION DESIGN

Invention Service Concepts Global Issues in Design Media & Representation

DIGITAL DESIGN

Design & Sustainability Design(ing) Culture Service Concepts

In the Graduade Program in Internation Affairs I met the most brave, conscious, and well-traveled students I had ever encountered. These students inspired me to be equally confident in traveling the World.

Portfolio Strategies

I learned I sincerely enjoy advertising in terms of solving problems visually and with copywriting, however I’m not sure I could make it a career forever.

2D Integrated Studio 1

Drawing Studio 2

In this class I learned the basics of Flash and Action Scripting.

Senior Seminar

Painting 2 I didn’t want to leave Parsons without a series of oil paintings, and working with painters such as David Mann helped me improve a lot.

2D Integrated Studio 2

One particular project forced me to get very comfortable with New York City very quickly. We were given chalk, an adjective, and a particular neighborhood in New York. We were to take the chalk and make street art, not graffiti as the chalk would wash off, but something that engaged the pedestrians around with their physical environment. I was assigned Chinatown. This is arguably the most smelly, crowded neighborhood in Manhattan, with fish markets, small turtles, snails and other live creatures for sale right on the sidewalk. In addition, thousands of tourists grace the streets every day, and stopping to look around, let alow sitting down to draw, is a challenge.

Regadless, I got down on my hands and keens and drew on the dirty Chinatown pavement for hours as people walked by, pointed and took photos.

DESIGN & MANAGEMENT

Drawing & Painting

Drawing Studio 1

FOUNDATION

Design and management students gave me a fresh perspective on my thesis and encouraged me to think of a 360 approach to marketing the product towards all types of users.

Similarly, a recruiter helped me polish a graduate admissions essay and create a unique resume.

I found that painting calms me down in times of stress, and now I resume it whenever I feel the need to be creative in a more physical way than design on the computer. I took painting courses durig my thesis year for this exact reason.

Senior Seminar These courses in the Integrated Design Curricilum allowed me the chance to meet faculty with backgrounds in Philosophy, Anthropology, Ethnographic Research, Service Design, and New Media Design, which gave me a diverse perspective on what design could be. These faculty would be helpful in advising me towards which fields of design would most benefit from my particularly diverse and acedemic skill set.

2007

I learned of problems that are “too wicked” to be solved by simple design. Directly after this course I volunteered abroad in Cambodia and witnessed such struggling systems first-hand while trying to offer what little help I could.

I originally thought I wanted to be a product designer, but after taking some courses I decided my strengths could be better applied in other disciplines. I did not like having to choose materials and measure. I did, however, enjoy learning Solid Works and how things are made.

Solid Works How Things Work

PRODUCT DESIGN

Design, Research & Development Technical Rendering 1 Models 1

2008

FirstSteps Urban Cycling

The Psychology Fundamentals courses I took gave me a basic understanding of Psychology, and monumental studies and findings that I would continue to draw on years after these courses. Psychoanalysis was alsways an interest of mine, but it was more of a hobby than a career in my mind. I enjoy reading Freud and Jung but in the same way I enjoy painting, as a recreational break form the more intense practices of design and research.

Conducting experiments and other sorts of research in my Research Practicum courses, alongside Masters and PhD students, proved to be the most stimulating environment for me.

Conversations on cognitive neuroscience, theories of treatment for autism and experiments involving eye-tracking elevated my understanding of human behavior. While I knew I didn’t want to be a therapist, I debated becoming a Human Factors Psychologist, after a course in Human Computer Interaction. I decided I couldn’t do only psychological research and abandon the creative process, though, and thus I am still a designer today. I owe everything I know about research to my Methods of Inquiry course, for it provided me with a foundation of approaching all psychological and design research in the future.

2009

Psychology of Ethnic Conflict Statistics with SPSS Dream Interpretation

Interface Agents Research

PSYCHOLOGY

Fundamentals of Psychology

These courses provided me with an appreciation for form, and often I consider a tactile approach when investigating design solutions because of my time spent in Product Design. Packaging concepts in Communication Design were improved by what I learned of form and material manipulation. I learned a good deal about user testing and interviewing from Design, Research & Development and gained a perspective of the design process. This was by far the most difficult course, however it taught me to work with all types of groups.

2010

A project on corporate funding for private spaces caused me to have an interest in designing for public use, in public environments. I realized that those who design for public spaces serve a community of people, working essentially for a greater good.

URBAN STUDIES

I spent hours obersving people and doing ethonographic research in New York City for this course. It lead me to appreciate observational research of a City.

Fundamentals of Social Psychology Theories of Personality Psychoanalyzing Greek & Roman Mythology Culture, Ethnicity and Mental Health

In “Origins of Contemporary Visual Culture” I learned of classic film and artists which defined the progression of art and design. I feel enriched for knowing so much about the history of my field, and the way it shaped the World.

Origins of Contemporary Visual Culture New Berlin & Place of Memory Cambodia Study Abroad

Research Practicum 1 Research Practicum 2: Senior Work Proposals Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology

DrawAFriend Game

2011

Public Space & the City

Visual Perception & Cognition Research Practicum 3 Human Computer Interaction

Berlin’s Moderisms

HISTORY

The FDR Years

In Cambodia my perspective on the US involvement in Viet Nam was turned upsidown.

Not only did I learn of a history that I never would have otherwise, but it changed my view of truth and exposure to history.

In Berlin I gained an appreciation for memorializing history and how impactful deisgn can be as a place of learning, mourning, and memorializing. I learned that I’d love to live in Europe, and in Cambodia that I love to travel to around Asia.

Romantic • Re-vintage • Clothing

Independent Senior Project

Projects in-progress:

Voting Project

Chloe Chic

The rate at which I wrote and completed pepers in this course caused me to start and efficiency finish papers expediently in the future.

Writing the Essay 1 Writing the Essay 2

New Arrivals

•

Apparel

•

Accessories

•

Re-Vintage

WRITING

Learning to write at a Liberal Arts school, I found, prepared me to be a better writer than those who only learned to write at Design School.

Clothing Dresses Tops Bottoms Accessories Jewelry Scarves Home office Re-Vintage Giftcard Sales

>

Methods of Inquiry For two and a half years I studied with one particular Psychology Professor, Dr. Marcel Kinsbourne, who allowed to to meld my two fields of study; psychology and design. As a result I spent my time in the Psychology department designing experiment rooms, assisting the design of media presentations for other students’ experiments. I also used Adobe Flash to animate a transition of words and audio for an experiment on the Redundancy Principle with near significant findings. This professor also advised me and a Parsons professor as I ran a dual-school experiment on Human-Computer Interaction. I tested the significance an interface agent has on users who are frustrated and attempting to persist with an impossible task. Doing all of these experiments enabled me to look at a variety of types of data and analyze them in means of eye-tracking, statistical analysis, and qualitatively.

Back

< Page

DrawAFriend In-progress stills, iconograhy and screenshots from the facebook game â&#x20AC;&#x153;DrawAFriendâ&#x20AC;?

Designed by Emily Sappington in a collaborative effort with students and faculty from Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft Research.

Fall 2011-Present

Interaction Task Flow This task flow was generated to help the team understand the interactions that users have with the game. It maps how users enter the environment and what choices they have to make as they proceed.

It was also helpful in planning which design elements would be addressed, and when.

key: very involved user

system checks if user has enough “credit” to draw - ongoing with updates

medium involved user

system checks if user has enough “credit” to draw - ongoing with updates

semi involved user current state go to my gallery

ways of viewing

enough canvas to draw? must earn money

addition details TBD

animate transition 1st time • link (newsfeed, external blog, link listed on friend’s page)

er

in urn ret

home page with galleries

s gu

draw

be comissioned to do a drawing

paper with photo

asked by friend or game interface agent

r

scavenger hunt gallery

create a new gallery

*default setting

as prompted by the game

and/or

paper only square organization:

comission a drawing

view friend’s gallery image appears as close-up on gallery wall

scroll through list or

use

ing

rn retu

Enter

view drawing close-up

create a museum /museum exhibit

changes & additions

view drawing close-up

popup prompts user to post

comment like award

view all friends

privacy settings

open app g rnin

use

*if user has 1 photo, automatically select

r

retu

view image close-up

type in friend’s name

lorem ipsum

post to friend’s wall

post to wall save to gallery

given one each day

view my gallery purchase

tools:

add to my gallery

view drawing close-up

back

undo

• visual explanation of process • images from friends’ galleries or • example gallery

posting

save

select friend

additional tools/stencils/stamps

back

zoom

• photo posted on wall

posting options * edit my gallery • post to my wall

pan/grab

back

or

write custom post or

• post to friend’s wall • don’t post

standard posting caption

width:

pencil width:

watercolor eraser back

erase paint or pencil

* privacy /publishing permission

add and delete drawings in gallery

advanced editing change scale, order and wall color

limit time on the game? gallery “closes” after X amount of time played in 1 day

entry

permission 1

user opens game via:

introduction & friend photo choice

user allows permission

drawing pagef

user selects a friend & photo

raming & permission 2

user draws

• photo posted on wall

frames image & agrees to “publishing” settings

sharing

user shares image

ways of viewing animate transition

or • link (newsfeed, external blog, link listed on friend’s page)

paper with photo *default setting

paper only

choose a frame

square organization: scroll through list

privacy settings

click photo

instruction page

view all friends

save/frame

select friend *if user has 1 photo, automatically select

type in friend’s name

back including:

key:

• images that friends have made

back

tools: privacy /publishing permission undo

• link to friends’ galleries or

changes & additions

• link to example gallery

post to friend’s wall back

zoom width:

pencil watercolor

back

write custom post or

standard posting caption width:

eraser

and / or

lorem ipsum dolor privacy yes no

pan/grab

• visual explanation

current state

save to gallery

erase paint or pencil

Draw A Friend Pick a Friend

Gallery Choose Photo

Draw

Aesthetic goals included: • An approachable user interface that wouldn’t intimidate users into thinking this was a game or program only for experts • Iconography that took little explanation •A drawing page that maximizes canvas space About Draw A Friend

Draw A Friend

Gallery

Draw A Friend

Gallery

Share your Art A drawing of my friend Larry.

Post to My Wall Post to Larryʼs Wall

Post

Allow Draw A Friend to see my art

whats this?

“Larry”

by Alex Limpaecher 10/12/2011

Like

“Larry”

by Alex Limpaecher

Buy

About Draw A Friend

10/12/2011

About Draw A Friend

Draw A Friend Pick a Friend

Draw Choose Photo

Gallery Draw

DrawAFriend Pick A Friend

View Drawing with Photo

View Drawing without Photo

Show Photo

Frame

Save to Gallery

Draw Choose Photo

Gallery Draw

choose a friend

pick a photo

draw a friend

save to gallery

DrawAFriend

darkness

width

DrawAFriend

widt hd

arknes s

ch oos e a fr ie nd

p

ick a ph ot o

draw a fr ie nd

sa ve to gall er y

DrawAFriend zoom +

ch oos e a fr ie nd

studio p

ick a ph ot o

draw a fr ie nd

gall ery sa ve to gal le ry

DrawAFriend choos e a fr iend p

ick a phot o

draw a fr iend

save to gallery

zoom grab

pencil watercolor eraser

width

darknes s view photo

save

save

DrawAFriend

gall ery

studio ch oo se a f ri en d

pick a pho to

draw a f ri en d

s

ave to gal le ry

DrawAFriend

gall ery

studio ch oo se a f ri en d

pick a pho to

draw a f ri en d

s

ave to gal le ry

Gallery

Draw A Friend

Gallery Edit My Gallery Click and drag drawings to place in the Gallery

add a drawing

The gallery started as an environment for users to curate their art in. In the gallery they can view past work, friend’s drawings, and like or post drawings.

lorem ipsum dolor

add a drawing

lorem ipsum dolor

The role of user-as-curator is been one that was important in the early development of the game. To the right is an early mock-up of how this process would look.

lorem ipsum dolor

“Larry”

by Alex Limpaecher 10/12/2011

Like Buy

“Larry”

by Alex Limpaecher 10/12/2011

Like

lorem ipsum dolor

Buy

Each facebook friend who uses the game has their own gallery, and their faces would identify a link to their gallery on the bottom menu bar.

more

Adrien Treuilleʼs Gallery

more

My Gallery

Alex Limpaecherʼs Gallery

Elizabeth Warrenʼs Gallery

Sample Gallery

About Draw A Friend

The gallery concept evolved as a means to exhibit work that was created in the drawing studio.

Over time, the concept of users in the gallery was suggested, and thus silhouetted people were generated to match the design aesthetic. These silhouettes have evolved with the game, and may eventually help articulate which drawings are more popular.

DrawAFriend

studio

gall ery

Draw your friend Alex

Draw your friend Elizabeth

Draw your friend Adrien

DrawAFriend

studio

Alex Limpeacherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

DrawAFriend Gallery created on Nov. 19th

gall ery

Iconography A bevy of original icons were created for the DrawAFriend game. Below are the most commonly used icons for the studio page. Above are icons from the gallery, which indicate posting, liking, or discarding drawings, and inviting a friend to play the game.

Save to my gallery?

Save Cancel

Drawing saved to your gallery go to my gall ery back to draw ing

Future Game Development In future phases of the game we plan to emphasize the social aspect of the gallery. For users, this may translate to their having a virtual avatar of one of the silhouettes in the gallery space.

DrawAFriend

Adrien Treuille

Adrienʻs gallery

Emily Sappington

DrawAFriend

Adrienʻs gallery

FIVE YEARS AT THE NEW SCHOOL This course was my first at Parsons and my teacher made me believe I’d pass.

I spent hours roaming the Metropolitan Museum of Art for these courses, which I grew to love. I gained an appreciation for ancient art history and now can find my ways around the ancient art galleries knowing exactly where the Byzantene and the Medieval art lives in this massive museum.

In my “Foundation Year” at Parsons, I learned that sometimes repetition can be extremely constructive. We would draw for hours and hours, creating work off of the same still life or model pose and sometimes by the 20th drawing, a perfect composition would appear. It was this act of struggling through a process that fostered an endurance in me as an artist and designer.

ART HISTORY

3D Body as Form Studio Laboratory 1 3D Studio 1

Perspectives in World Art & Design 1 Perspectives in World Art & Design 2

Elective Painting

FINE ART

My professor was a practicing artist in New York, and he provided me with an introcutin to the local art scene. It is because of his suggestions for how to get into the art scene in New York that I began visiting gallery openings around the City, something I still enjoy every Thursday.

About me

Laboratory 2

Web Media 1

2006

Self-Portrait Poster

I’d later use these skills in my Independent Study, and even later in Grad school.

GPIA

Health, Inequality & Development

The other students gave me a “just make it happen” perspective with my projects.

Typography and Visual Design

In IDC, the Integrated Design Program, I found my home and my major.

The curricilum encouraged creativity and research, something I valued in both of my degrees. It is because of this school at Parsons that I discovered Service Design and then Interaction Design. I loved my projects in Service Design and felt that my Psychology background was finally being applied for ethical reasons, and not just in my advertising courses. The teachers encouraged my psychological approach to research but also taught me the basics of ethonographic research methodology.

Corporate Identity & Packaging

Typography and Visual Design

INTEGRATED DESIGN

Advertising & Marketing Information Design These courses in Communication Design gave me the foundation for making posters, ads, and all other two-dimensional, graphical pieces that communicate effectively. I learned the basics of color, composition, negative space and type.

COMMUNICATION DESIGN

Invention Service Concepts Global Issues in Design Media & Representation

DIGITAL DESIGN

Design & Sustainability Design(ing) Culture Service Concepts

In the Graduade Program in Internation Affairs I met the most brave, conscious, and well-traveled students I had ever encountered. These students inspired me to be equally confident in traveling the World.

Portfolio Strategies

I learned I sincerely enjoy advertising in terms of solving problems visually and with copywriting, however I’m not sure I could make it a career forever.

2D Integrated Studio 1

Drawing Studio 2

In this class I learned the basics of Flash and Action Scripting.

Senior Seminar

Painting 2 I didn’t want to leave Parsons without a series of oil paintings, and working with painters such as David Mann helped me improve a lot.

2D Integrated Studio 2

One particular project forced me to get very comfortable with New York City very quickly. We were given chalk, an adjective, and a particular neighborhood in New York. We were to take the chalk and make street art, not graffiti as the chalk would wash off, but something that engaged the pedestrians around with their physical environment. I was assigned Chinatown. This is arguably the most smelly, crowded neighborhood in Manhattan, with fish markets, small turtles, snails and other live creatures for sale right on the sidewalk. In addition, thousands of tourists grace the streets every day, and stopping to look around, let alow sitting down to draw, is a challenge.

Regadless, I got down on my hands and keens and drew on the dirty Chinatown pavement for hours as people walked by, pointed and took photos.

DESIGN & MANAGEMENT

Drawing & Painting

Drawing Studio 1

FOUNDATION

Design and management students gave me a fresh perspective on my thesis and encouraged me to think of a 360 approach to marketing the product towards all types of users.

Similarly, a recruiter helped me polish a graduate admissions essay and create a unique resume.

I found that painting calms me down in times of stress, and now I resume it whenever I feel the need to be creative in a more physical way than design on the computer. I took painting courses durig my thesis year for this exact reason.

Senior Seminar These courses in the Integrated Design Curricilum allowed me the chance to meet faculty with backgrounds in Philosophy, Anthropology, Ethnographic Research, Service Design, and New Media Design, which gave me a diverse perspective on what design could be. These faculty would be helpful in advising me towards which fields of design would most benefit from my particularly diverse and acedemic skill set.

2007

I learned of problems that are “too wicked” to be solved by simple design. Directly after this course I volunteered abroad in Cambodia and witnessed such struggling systems first-hand while trying to offer what little help I could.

I originally thought I wanted to be a product designer, but after taking some courses I decided my strengths could be better applied in other disciplines. I did not like having to choose materials and measure. I did, however, enjoy learning Solid Works and how things are made.

Solid Works How Things Work

PRODUCT DESIGN

Design, Research & Development Technical Rendering 1 Models 1

2008

FirstSteps Urban Cycling

The Psychology Fundamentals courses I took gave me a basic understanding of Psychology, and monumental studies and findings that I would continue to draw on years after these courses. Psychoanalysis was alsways an interest of mine, but it was more of a hobby than a career in my mind. I enjoy reading Freud and Jung but in the same way I enjoy painting, as a recreational break form the more intense practices of design and research.

Conducting experiments and other sorts of research in my Research Practicum courses, alongside Masters and PhD students, proved to be the most stimulating environment for me.

Conversations on cognitive neuroscience, theories of treatment for autism and experiments involving eye-tracking elevated my understanding of human behavior. While I knew I didn’t want to be a therapist, I debated becoming a Human Factors Psychologist, after a course in Human Computer Interaction. I decided I couldn’t do only psychological research and abandon the creative process, though, and thus I am still a designer today. I owe everything I know about research to my Methods of Inquiry course, for it provided me with a foundation of approaching all psychological and design research in the future.

2009

Psychology of Ethnic Conflict Statistics with SPSS Dream Interpretation

Interface Agents Research

PSYCHOLOGY

Fundamentals of Psychology

These courses provided me with an appreciation for form, and often I consider a tactile approach when investigating design solutions because of my time spent in Product Design. Packaging concepts in Communication Design were improved by what I learned of form and material manipulation. I learned a good deal about user testing and interviewing from Design, Research & Development and gained a perspective of the design process. This was by far the most difficult course, however it taught me to work with all types of groups.

2010

A project on corporate funding for private spaces caused me to have an interest in designing for public use, in public environments. I realized that those who design for public spaces serve a community of people, working essentially for a greater good.

URBAN STUDIES

I spent hours obersving people and doing ethonographic research in New York City for this course. It lead me to appreciate observational research of a City.

Fundamentals of Social Psychology Theories of Personality Psychoanalyzing Greek & Roman Mythology Culture, Ethnicity and Mental Health

In “Origins of Contemporary Visual Culture” I learned of classic film and artists which defined the progression of art and design. I feel enriched for knowing so much about the history of my field, and the way it shaped the World.

Origins of Contemporary Visual Culture New Berlin & Place of Memory Cambodia Study Abroad

Research Practicum 1 Research Practicum 2: Senior Work Proposals Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology

DrawAFriend Game

2011

Public Space & the City

Visual Perception & Cognition Research Practicum 3 Human Computer Interaction

Berlin’s Moderisms

HISTORY

The FDR Years

In Cambodia my perspective on the US involvement in Viet Nam was turned upsidown.

Not only did I learn of a history that I never would have otherwise, but it changed my view of truth and exposure to history.

In Berlin I gained an appreciation for memorializing history and how impactful deisgn can be as a place of learning, mourning, and memorializing. I learned that I’d love to live in Europe, and in Cambodia that I love to travel to around Asia.

Romantic • Re-vintage • Clothing

Independent Senior Project

Projects in-progress:

Voting Project

Chloe Chic

The rate at which I wrote and completed pepers in this course caused me to start and efficiency finish papers expediently in the future.

Writing the Essay 1 Writing the Essay 2

New Arrivals

•

Apparel

•

Accessories

•

Re-Vintage

WRITING

Learning to write at a Liberal Arts school, I found, prepared me to be a better writer than those who only learned to write at Design School.

Clothing Dresses Tops Bottoms Accessories Jewelry Scarves Home office Re-Vintage Giftcard Sales

>

Methods of Inquiry For two and a half years I studied with one particular Psychology Professor, Dr. Marcel Kinsbourne, who allowed to to meld my two fields of study; psychology and design. As a result I spent my time in the Psychology department designing experiment rooms, assisting the design of media presentations for other students’ experiments. I also used Adobe Flash to animate a transition of words and audio for an experiment on the Redundancy Principle with near significant findings. This professor also advised me and a Parsons professor as I ran a dual-school experiment on Human-Computer Interaction. I tested the significance an interface agent has on users who are frustrated and attempting to persist with an impossible task. Doing all of these experiments enabled me to look at a variety of types of data and analyze them in means of eye-tracking, statistical analysis, and qualitatively.

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< Page

Voting Project Team TGM Emily Sappington Kyree Holmes Mark Choi

Exploratory Research User Enactment “What does Luke think?”

Literature Review “True Enough” by Farhad Manjoo “The accessibility bias in politics”

by Shanto Iyengar Surveys 40 Participants Interviews Think Aloud Exercise 9 participants Recap

•

Generative Research

•

Personas

•

Design Concepts

•

Next Steps

Exploratory Research Findings An excess of information Unapproachable language Difficulty keeping current

Recap

•

Generative Research

•

Personas

•

Design Concepts

•

Next Steps

Why Workshop?

How do they go about finding their information?

What type of content do they want to see?

What level of commitment are they willing to make to finding information?

What degree of ownership do they want to have over their information?

What moves them to action?

Recap

•

Generative Research

•

Personas

•

Design Concepts

•

Next Steps

Research Findings What’s On My Radar?

“The info I need may not coincide with the info I want to hear.”

My Top 10

Top eligibility requirement: Integrity Top expectation: Follow through

Recap

•

Generative Research

•

Personas

•

Design Concepts

•

Next Steps

Research Findings Political Butler

“We want matrix-type unlimited uploading.”

Card Sorting

Politician’s voting records Entertainment

Recap

•

Generative Research

•

Personas

•

Design Concepts

•

Next Steps

Workshop Findings Entertainment Convenience Filtering (Truthiness) Social Experience

Recap

•

Generative Research

•

Personas

•

Design Concepts

•

Next Steps

The “HaHa Hmm...” Model

Haha Hmm...

ENTERTAINING EXCITING

Recap

ENGAGING INTERESTING

•

Generative Research

•

Personas

ACTIONABLE SELF CHOICE

PERSONABLE

•

Design Concepts

•

Next Steps

The “HaHa Hmm...” Model Reaction

Genuine Interest

Investigation

“What’s going on?”

Involvement

Recap

•

Generative Research

•

Personas

•

Design Concepts

•

Next Steps

The “HaHa Hmm...” Model Reaction

Genuine Interest

Investigation

“This has my attention. I think it’s important.”

Involvement

Recap

•

Generative Research

•

Personas

•

Design Concepts

•

Next Steps

The “HaHa Hmm...” Model Reaction

Genuine Interest

Investigation

“I’m very curious about this.

I want to learn more.”

Involvement

Recap

•

Generative Research

•

Personas

•

Design Concepts

•

Next Steps

The “HaHa Hmm...” Model Reaction

Genuine Interest

Investigation

“How can I affect this?

I want to vote.”

Involvement

Recap

•

Generative Research

•

Personas

•

Design Concepts

•

Next Steps

Jeff, 26

“The Disenfranchised Voter” Recently graduated from Robert Morris College Employed at an optometrist’s office Has not voted in three years Commutes into the city and is occasionally late for work because the buses are always crowded Upgrades electronics frequently

Amber, 23

Beth, 19

Full-time graduate student studying public policy at UPitt

Goes to school full-time at CMU

“The Rabid Voter”

“The Issue Voter”

Votes every year in all elections

Is registered to vote in her hometown of Arlington, Virginia

Concerned about all of the “hot issues” (e.g. abortion, healthcare, war)

Always recycles, reuses, and looks for ways to reduce carbon footprint

Easily distracted when she tries to do schoolwork online

Is on the verge of reaching her 10,000th tweet next month

Tries to go to talks and lectures on campus weekly

Selectively watches news for information about politics

Listens to NPR every morning

Recap

•

Generative Research

•

Personas

•

Design Concepts

•

Next Steps

Political Pantry

Recap

•

Generative Research

Users make a shopping list and embark on an interactive shopping experience in a pop-up installation.

Using smart phones, shoppers can engage with political characters.

•

Personas

•

Design Concepts

•

Next Steps

Political Pantry Satisfies the following research insights: Entertaining Fosters a closer relationship to politicians Allows voters to be selective with their information An idealistic approach

Recap

•

Generative Research

•

Personas

•

Design Concepts

•

Next Steps

An online information graphic generator creates info-graphics based on the user’s particular interests. Content on political interests can be updated and shared.

MycroView

Recap

•

Generative Research

•

Personas

•

Design Concepts

•

Next Steps

MycroView Satisfies the following research insights: Allows users to crossreference research Social and post-able Users can see information, and not do a serial search A realistic approach

Recap

•

Generative Research

•

Personas

•

Design Concepts

•

Next Steps

Fantasy Congress

Recap

•

Generative Research

Inspired by fantasy sports, users engage in politics like a game, picking candidates and positioning them in the government in the way they see fit. Users are challenged to inspiration to monitor political movement and progress.

•

Personas

•

Design Concepts

•

Next Steps

Fantasy Congress Satisfies the following research insights: Works well for issue voters Illustrates democracy as a team sport Allows users to post and edit content like Wikipedia An idealistic approach

Recap

•

Generative Research

•

Personas

•

Design Concepts

•

Next Steps

Concept Evaluation

Voter

Mycro View

Fantasy Congress

Reaction Entertainment Genuine Interest Convenience Investigation Filtering (Truthiness) Involvement Social Experience Recap

•

Generative Research

•

Personas

•

Design Concepts

•

Next Steps

What we want to find out Feasibility of concepts Different entertainment models Likeliness of use Design details Changes in behavior of how users get information

Recap

•

Generative Research

•

Personas

•

Design Concepts

•

Next Steps

Next Steps Participatory research Speed dating Mockups Think-aloud protocol Evaluative research Experience vs concepts Usability analysis

Recap

•

Generative Research

•

Personas

•

Design Concepts

•

Next Steps

FIVE YEARS AT THE NEW SCHOOL This course was my first at Parsons and my teacher made me believe I’d pass.

I spent hours roaming the Metropolitan Museum of Art for these courses, which I grew to love. I gained an appreciation for ancient art history and now can find my ways around the ancient art galleries knowing exactly where the Byzantene and the Medieval art lives in this massive museum.

In my “Foundation Year” at Parsons, I learned that sometimes repetition can be extremely constructive. We would draw for hours and hours, creating work off of the same still life or model pose and sometimes by the 20th drawing, a perfect composition would appear. It was this act of struggling through a process that fostered an endurance in me as an artist and designer.

ART HISTORY

3D Body as Form Studio Laboratory 1 3D Studio 1

Perspectives in World Art & Design 1 Perspectives in World Art & Design 2

Elective Painting

FINE ART

My professor was a practicing artist in New York, and he provided me with an introcutin to the local art scene. It is because of his suggestions for how to get into the art scene in New York that I began visiting gallery openings around the City, something I still enjoy every Thursday.

About me

Laboratory 2

Web Media 1

2006

Self-Portrait Poster

I’d later use these skills in my Independent Study, and even later in Grad school.

GPIA

Health, Inequality & Development

The other students gave me a “just make it happen” perspective with my projects.

Typography and Visual Design

In IDC, the Integrated Design Program, I found my home and my major.

The curricilum encouraged creativity and research, something I valued in both of my degrees. It is because of this school at Parsons that I discovered Service Design and then Interaction Design. I loved my projects in Service Design and felt that my Psychology background was finally being applied for ethical reasons, and not just in my advertising courses. The teachers encouraged my psychological approach to research but also taught me the basics of ethonographic research methodology.

Corporate Identity & Packaging

Typography and Visual Design

INTEGRATED DESIGN

Advertising & Marketing Information Design These courses in Communication Design gave me the foundation for making posters, ads, and all other two-dimensional, graphical pieces that communicate effectively. I learned the basics of color, composition, negative space and type.

COMMUNICATION DESIGN

Invention Service Concepts Global Issues in Design Media & Representation

DIGITAL DESIGN

Design & Sustainability Design(ing) Culture Service Concepts

In the Graduade Program in Internation Affairs I met the most brave, conscious, and well-traveled students I had ever encountered. These students inspired me to be equally confident in traveling the World.

Portfolio Strategies

I learned I sincerely enjoy advertising in terms of solving problems visually and with copywriting, however I’m not sure I could make it a career forever.

2D Integrated Studio 1

Drawing Studio 2

In this class I learned the basics of Flash and Action Scripting.

Senior Seminar

Painting 2 I didn’t want to leave Parsons without a series of oil paintings, and working with painters such as David Mann helped me improve a lot.

2D Integrated Studio 2

One particular project forced me to get very comfortable with New York City very quickly. We were given chalk, an adjective, and a particular neighborhood in New York. We were to take the chalk and make street art, not graffiti as the chalk would wash off, but something that engaged the pedestrians around with their physical environment. I was assigned Chinatown. This is arguably the most smelly, crowded neighborhood in Manhattan, with fish markets, small turtles, snails and other live creatures for sale right on the sidewalk. In addition, thousands of tourists grace the streets every day, and stopping to look around, let alow sitting down to draw, is a challenge.

Regadless, I got down on my hands and keens and drew on the dirty Chinatown pavement for hours as people walked by, pointed and took photos.

DESIGN & MANAGEMENT

Drawing & Painting

Drawing Studio 1

FOUNDATION

Design and management students gave me a fresh perspective on my thesis and encouraged me to think of a 360 approach to marketing the product towards all types of users.

Similarly, a recruiter helped me polish a graduate admissions essay and create a unique resume.

I found that painting calms me down in times of stress, and now I resume it whenever I feel the need to be creative in a more physical way than design on the computer. I took painting courses durig my thesis year for this exact reason.

Senior Seminar These courses in the Integrated Design Curricilum allowed me the chance to meet faculty with backgrounds in Philosophy, Anthropology, Ethnographic Research, Service Design, and New Media Design, which gave me a diverse perspective on what design could be. These faculty would be helpful in advising me towards which fields of design would most benefit from my particularly diverse and acedemic skill set.

2007

I learned of problems that are “too wicked” to be solved by simple design. Directly after this course I volunteered abroad in Cambodia and witnessed such struggling systems first-hand while trying to offer what little help I could.

I originally thought I wanted to be a product designer, but after taking some courses I decided my strengths could be better applied in other disciplines. I did not like having to choose materials and measure. I did, however, enjoy learning Solid Works and how things are made.

Solid Works How Things Work

PRODUCT DESIGN

Design, Research & Development Technical Rendering 1 Models 1

2008

FirstSteps Urban Cycling

The Psychology Fundamentals courses I took gave me a basic understanding of Psychology, and monumental studies and findings that I would continue to draw on years after these courses. Psychoanalysis was alsways an interest of mine, but it was more of a hobby than a career in my mind. I enjoy reading Freud and Jung but in the same way I enjoy painting, as a recreational break form the more intense practices of design and research.

Conducting experiments and other sorts of research in my Research Practicum courses, alongside Masters and PhD students, proved to be the most stimulating environment for me.

Conversations on cognitive neuroscience, theories of treatment for autism and experiments involving eye-tracking elevated my understanding of human behavior. While I knew I didn’t want to be a therapist, I debated becoming a Human Factors Psychologist, after a course in Human Computer Interaction. I decided I couldn’t do only psychological research and abandon the creative process, though, and thus I am still a designer today. I owe everything I know about research to my Methods of Inquiry course, for it provided me with a foundation of approaching all psychological and design research in the future.

2009

Psychology of Ethnic Conflict Statistics with SPSS Dream Interpretation

Interface Agents Research

PSYCHOLOGY

Fundamentals of Psychology

These courses provided me with an appreciation for form, and often I consider a tactile approach when investigating design solutions because of my time spent in Product Design. Packaging concepts in Communication Design were improved by what I learned of form and material manipulation. I learned a good deal about user testing and interviewing from Design, Research & Development and gained a perspective of the design process. This was by far the most difficult course, however it taught me to work with all types of groups.

2010

A project on corporate funding for private spaces caused me to have an interest in designing for public use, in public environments. I realized that those who design for public spaces serve a community of people, working essentially for a greater good.

URBAN STUDIES

I spent hours obersving people and doing ethonographic research in New York City for this course. It lead me to appreciate observational research of a City.

Fundamentals of Social Psychology Theories of Personality Psychoanalyzing Greek & Roman Mythology Culture, Ethnicity and Mental Health

In “Origins of Contemporary Visual Culture” I learned of classic film and artists which defined the progression of art and design. I feel enriched for knowing so much about the history of my field, and the way it shaped the World.

Origins of Contemporary Visual Culture New Berlin & Place of Memory Cambodia Study Abroad

Research Practicum 1 Research Practicum 2: Senior Work Proposals Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology

DrawAFriend Game

2011

Public Space & the City

Visual Perception & Cognition Research Practicum 3 Human Computer Interaction

Berlin’s Moderisms

HISTORY

The FDR Years

In Cambodia my perspective on the US involvement in Viet Nam was turned upsidown.

Not only did I learn of a history that I never would have otherwise, but it changed my view of truth and exposure to history.

In Berlin I gained an appreciation for memorializing history and how impactful deisgn can be as a place of learning, mourning, and memorializing. I learned that I’d love to live in Europe, and in Cambodia that I love to travel to around Asia.

Romantic • Re-vintage • Clothing

Independent Senior Project

Projects in-progress:

Voting Project

Chloe Chic

The rate at which I wrote and completed pepers in this course caused me to start and efficiency finish papers expediently in the future.

Writing the Essay 1 Writing the Essay 2

New Arrivals

•

Apparel

•

Accessories

•

Re-Vintage

WRITING

Learning to write at a Liberal Arts school, I found, prepared me to be a better writer than those who only learned to write at Design School.

Clothing Dresses Tops Bottoms Accessories Jewelry Scarves Home office Re-Vintage Giftcard Sales

>

Methods of Inquiry For two and a half years I studied with one particular Psychology Professor, Dr. Marcel Kinsbourne, who allowed to to meld my two fields of study; psychology and design. As a result I spent my time in the Psychology department designing experiment rooms, assisting the design of media presentations for other students’ experiments. I also used Adobe Flash to animate a transition of words and audio for an experiment on the Redundancy Principle with near significant findings. This professor also advised me and a Parsons professor as I ran a dual-school experiment on Human-Computer Interaction. I tested the significance an interface agent has on users who are frustrated and attempting to persist with an impossible task. Doing all of these experiments enabled me to look at a variety of types of data and analyze them in means of eye-tracking, statistical analysis, and qualitatively.

Back

< Page

Boutique Website Design In-Progress

2.

Boutique Website Design In-Progress 2.

/ / Romantique • Re-vintage• Clothing Romantique • Re-vintage• Clothing

Chloe Shin Chloe Shin

646 322 0346 • chloe@chloechic.com • ChloeChic.com 646 322 0346 • chloe@chloechic.com • ChloeChic.com

1.

/ Romantique • Re-vintage• Clothing

Chloe Shin 646 322 0346 chloe@chloechic.com ChloeChic.com

3.

3.

2. / / /

Romantique • Re-vintage• Clothing Romantique • Re-vintage• Clothing Romantique • Re-vintage• Clothing

Chloe Shin

ChloeChic.com ChloeChic.com FANOFCHLOE FANOFCHLOE

646 322 0346 • chloe@chloechic.com • ChloeChic.com

Sketches

New Aesthetic Direction

The client has decided she would like to pursue two proposed directions, one of a hand-drawn and craftlike aesthetic, and one which includes clothing elements such as buttons and ribbon. Exploration into the two areas are included here, and will be decided upon soon after showing the mockwebsites to more users.

• Login • My Account • My Cart • Checkout • Romantic • Re-vintage • Clothing

New Arrivals

•

Apparel

•

Accessories

•

Re-Vintage

•

Chloe's Picks

•

Sale

•

Blog

About Chloe Chic My name is Chloe and I couldn’t be more excited to finally launch ChloeChic.com. ChloeChic.com is a place where you can find our collection of high quality, vintage-inspired dresses, as well as women’s clothing and accessories at affordable prices.

At Chloe Chic, we do our best to provide our valued customers with dresses that are romantic, colorful, sophisticated, and contemporary. We tailor our merchandise to professional women in their mid 20’s to early 30’sthat live an active and outgoing lifestyle. Our target demographic is known for wanting to standout in a crowd, and Chloe Chic delivers quality clothing that fits into that unique style.

To tell you little bit about myself, I was born and raised in South Korea and came to the United States when I was in high school. I studied graphic design at Parsons School in NewYork City and have been working in the fashion industry for the past seven years.

After getting married in the summer of 2011, I moved to Pittsburgh with my husband who is studying to earn his MBA at Carnegie Mellon University. I have been always passionate about fashion and, with the encouragement from my husband, I started Chloe Chic.

Throughout the year, I travel to New York City in order to buy new and fresh merchandise for Chloe Chic. This ensures that we are always on top of the ever-changing fashion trends, as well as constantly receiving new inventory. In addition to following trends, I pay special attention to the quality of each piece of clothing and whether it will fit the image of our brand. I guarantee you that every item you see on our site has been carefully considered and selected by myself. You can shop with confidence on ChloeChic.com.

Thank you.

Chloe Shin

• Login • My Account • My Cart • Checkout • Romantic • Re-vintage • Clothing

New Arrivals

•

Apparel

•

Accessories

•

Re-Vintage

•

Chloe's Picks

•

Sale

•

Blog

Clothing Dresses Tops Bottoms Accessories Jewelry Scarves Home office Re-Vintage Giftcard Sales

> Back

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> Next

• Login • My Account •M y Cart • Checkout • Romantic • Re-vintage • Clothing

New Arrivals

•

Apparel

•

Accessories

•

Re-Vintage

•

Chloe's Picks

•

Sale

•

Blog

Clothing Dresses Tops Bottoms Accessories Jewelry Scarves Home office Re-Vintage Giftcard Sales

> Back

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> Next