MGXD Bulletin: Special Edition

Figure 4.3.9

K3 takes a direct approach and relates users’ developing relationship with and experiences in the natural world to the growth of a plant. The more positive and meaningful encounters users have with nature, the larger and taller the AR plant becomes. Users can trace this growth in real-time to the root system visualized below where experiences and details of the experience are stored in a branched pattern. Each experience is shown in relation to the next, allowing for further reflection. Finally, the tracking of experiences in this form helps users visualize opportunities for further exploration.

K4 encapsulates this idea of the garden as a metaphor for life and when creating a garden one needs to consider the aspects that help make it grow. Here each flower represents an experience at a particular location from the surrounding community of users. This visual ization and tracking of progress helps users review their own nature experiences, compare their experiences with others, and collect and build on those experiences. To dive deeper into the events, users are able to interact directly with the AR flowers and preview the visual specimens and thoughts captured at that particular location. college.design.ncsu.edu/ thenfinally/pierce/study3-k4.gif

Visual Metaphor

A visual representation of a person, place, thing, or idea that points to particular similarities between them.

A visual metaphor uses an image rather than words to make the comparison.

Design

Master of Graphic and Experience Design

MGXD

Special Edition Bulletin

Department of Graphic Design and Industrial Design College of Design, NC State University

Cover: Design and engagement visualization from Eryn Pierce’s Final Thesis Project, “The Nature Experience: Augmenting a Path to Healthier Lifestyles.”

“At the College of Design, we aspire to a diverse design community that envhances the educational experience of all students. Gradually over the past decade, the college has matured into a community diverse in culture, race, gender, and personal interests.

The creative energy of the college truly comes to life through our differences, and we are committed to showcasing a variety of design experiences.”

College of Design Faculty Senate Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and Masters of Graphic and Experience Design

The program was fortunate to attract these talented graduate students, now accomplished alumni.

A PhD candidate. A Master Inventor. A Doctoral student and Professor, a Design Manager, A Research Manager. An Entrepreneur and Professor. A PhD and Professor. A Chief Creative Officer. A Digital Art Director. A Professor and Indigenous Peoples Advocate. A Design Studio President. These eleven alumni represent the best of the College of Design’s graduate program.

Some of these alumni are committed to changing the face of design, some to refocusing the scope of design, some to expanding the reach of design, some to rethinking design education. All are contributing significantly to industry and to education, leaders in their career pursuits.

The following interviews were conducted in Fall of 2021 by Associate Professor Jarrett Fuller, the producer and host of the design podcast Scratching the Surface.

AshleyAnderson

Ashley Anderson (MGXD ‘20) is pursuing a PhD at NC State.Her research interest is mediating existing art-based therapy interventions through design. She earned a BA in Journalism from University of North Carolina.

“I’m pretty sure I’m the only black woman in the PhD program and I would love to see more women of color, specifically black women, in programs like these.”

Your background is in journalism and mass communication. What is its relationship to graphic design?

I’ve always been interested in writing and it’s always been something that I’ve been pretty good at. When I went to undergrad at unc, I started taking journalism classes and I quickly realized that a lot of the news editing and that kind of thing wasn’t really super appealing to me. At the same time, I was always interested in magazines. When I was younger, I’d cut them up and make collages and things like that so I thought I should look into something like publication design. We didn’t have a graphic design major, it was part of a visual communication program, so I just started taking any graphic design class I could take.

I think the relationship between journalism and graphic design is actually much stronger than we sometimes give it credit.

I remember when I first started the program, I was thinking, “that was journalism... this is graphic design.” But it wasn’t like that. It’s not like this separate thing. For me, writing has become a way for me to organize thoughts and to communicate ideas. I use it in my practice in parallel with what I’m making, so it becomes this conversation.

Why’d you continue with a PhD after the MGXD program? What are you working on?

It’s the perfect intersection of design, writing and research. My work now is directly related to what I did for my MGXD thesis, which looked at art-based or imagerybased therapy for anxiety; how design can help facilitate that therapy process through something called imagery re-scripting. The idea is that people with anxiety have certain images of thoughts that pop into their head and theory suggests that you can alter that visual content to help ease anxiety. I’m interested in mediating that tendency through drawing and illustrations.

PhD programs have historically been restrictive or not accepting of people who are women and people who are black. How has this influenced your work?

I come from a background of extremely educated people, especially women. My grandmother, on my mom’s side, went to UNC. She was a professor at Johnson C. Smith University, which is an historically black college in Charlotte. My great grandmother went to North Carolina Central. She also was an educator. Then on my dad’s side, my aunt was the first to go to college and the first, obviously, to get a PhD. She passed away while I was in a master’s program. That was a really challenging time for me but also something that I draw a lot of inspiration from. When she was finishing her dissertation, we spent a lot of time together and it’s a time I think about a lot now that I’m in this program. So I have always tried to have the attitude that I deserve to be in this space. I have a lot of family history in this area, and specifically with these universities, so I have every right to be here. And so I try to carry that attitude forward in any space.

Everybody experiences impostor syndrome but I’ve never had anybody in this program make me feel like I need to do more. I’m pretty sure I’m the only black woman in the PhD program and I would love to see more women of color, specifically black women, in programs like these. I’m wondering how that can happen because it needs to start even earlier with undergrad, and masters programs, and even people just saying, “hey, have you thought about this program?” Like people did with me.

You have a BFA in graphic design and then there’s a year gap before you started in the MGXD program. Tell me about that year gap.

LauraOh, I love that year because it was the year of the worst job of my life and has given me the perspective to love what I do. My very first job out of the gate was at a design agency where it was just me and the owner and he ended up being completely inappropriate because of this male in a position of power with a younger female. So when I quit out of principle, I was left paying for my rent, paying for my bills and not having a job. I didn’t have the luxury job hunting so I literally took the first thing I was offered, which was as an in-house graphic designer at a chemical company. It was a huge hit to the ego because a lot of my friends who graduated with me were working at really cool agencies in downtown Charlotte. They were doing amazing work while I was Photoshopping a bulldog driving a race car. It was demoralizing but it paid the bills. I was dying inside. I dreaded driving to work every day. I was like, there’s got to be something better; this cannot be it. I knew there was something about design that I loved and this wasn’t it. I was very much in this mode of soul searching and trying to figure out what about design resonates with me. Where is my passion?

“Futurism is a big part of my identity. I was recently appointed a master inventor at IBM. This is someone who is creating new intellectual property and forecasting where everything is going.”

Rodriguez

Can you talk about that soul searching more? What was that like for you?

Coming into grad school, you’re automatically in awe of the people around you because you see them as the best of the best and everyone seems to have this real sense of identity: I care about physical craft of books. I’m obsessed with typography, People have these identities and I didn’t have mine so I just felt lost. I was trying all these different hats on. I was interested in everything. There was nothing that was boring. I was probably the only person who did all of the summer reading. I sat there and I highlighted and took notes, I wanted to give myself as much potential to succeed as possible. It’s funny in retrospect because I had a little blog and I’d go back to that and look for themes and patterns looking for something coming up often that I could then reflect and kind of retroactively identify as a passion. That right there, should have told me that research was what I was passionate about!

Laura Rodriguez (MGXD ‘11) is a User Experience Designer at IBM with a focus on enterprise collaboration software, Advanced Cluster Management, and internal tooling for use by IBM employees.

How did that come together for you?

I did a project in grad school around Second Life.

I was fascinated by this totally virtual world. I found out that there are people who are more comfortable in Second Life than they are in the physical world and it broke my heart that people want to be so immersed in this virtual world because that’s where they live their best life. I felt this heavy responsibility as a designer because those experiences are only as good as we design them to be. There has to be so much more thought and purpose to the design of the buddy list, for example. Can it be as amazing as possible as opposed to, at the time, looking like AOL Instant Messenger. I started getting really passionate about how we can design for the best experiences possible to meet these people’s goals. So futurism is a big part of my identity. I was recently appointed a master inventor at IBM. This is someone who is creating new intellectual property and forecasting where everything is going. That’s such a reaffirming part of my identity to be contributing to the trajectory of technology.

What are you working on now?

Part of a mission that I have is to create an army of designers that feel empowered to have more of a voice on what the future of human computer interaction looks like. Nobody is more tuned in to the problems and opportunity areas that users currently have on the cloud, than designers. And right now, I think too many designers that I work with feel dis-empowered. So something that I’m currently working on is giving a force of designers to feel like they can forge the future in ways that feel empowering.

Shadrick Addy

Shadrick Addy (MGXD ‘19) is on faculty at Ohio State University where he is earning his Doctorate. His research explores how extended reality (XR) systems might recreate historical experiences and encourage empathy.

“I don’t see myself as just a graphic designer anymore. I like this idea of the Experience Designer where there’s a more holistic view of design where I can work with sound or images or words.”

Where are you right now? What are you working on?

I’m in Columbus. I’m a visiting assistant professor at Ohio State University. I teach our courses on immersive technology, virtual and augmented reality, both to undergrad and graduate students. Then I teach a Visual Communication Design course on motion graphics. I’m working on server unclouded collaborative projects, mostly based around how we can use VR AR for meaningful social impact. I’m very much involved in a community here. Coming from Liberia, West Africa, this is the first time since I’ve been in America that I’ve found a Liberian community, so I’m involved with them to find ways in which we better come together and support each other.

Does coming from West Africa have an influence on how you thought about graphic design?

Yeah! Initially I didn’t even know there was such thing as graphic design, or even design. When I came to America, I was making music. So I would design my CD covers. I was designing to promote my music. Then I went to community college and interned in the marketing department. That’s where I learned about design. In my undergrad, I was just focus on learning the tools but I wanted to figure out how to use design to have a meaningful impact on my community. Most of the things I designed hinted towards Africa or the Black experience. Then when I came to NC State, I was proficient with the tools but I didn’t know why I was making certain design decisions. So when I was here, I started to question the role of design society and how can you design tools and principles to have impact.

At the same time, I went to Africa and I saw conditions on the ground. I had to ask myself “can designing logos help me solve these problems in my community with poverty and lack of education?” The answer no. So I became interested in social design and that’s when I focused on this question of how can you design to have impact in my community?

Why was it important for you to know not just the tools but also the reasons behind your design decisions?

I think the main thing was just this need for curiosity. I wanted to know how and why designed work. But also, I didn’t see a lot of people who looked like me while I was in school. I didn’t see a lot of books informed by African or Eastern thought. I sometimes wonder if subconsciously that was driving me too.

You got into this because you were making music and you were making covers and flyers for your music and now you’re helping nonprofits and working in the community. These are much more complex design issues than your albums covers. How has your understanding of what design is and what can do changed?

I don’t see myself as just a graphic designer anymore. I like this idea of the Experience Designer where there’s a more holistic view of design where I can work with sound or images or words. I can work within different spaces.

So just by breaking free of that barrier as a graphic designer has allowed me to expand on what design is and that’s what I can do and contribute. And the second part is design as a system where everything works together. I see everything I do as part of this larger system and in the individual components, I help make that system work.

And I apply this same thinking to pedagogy, to research, to service, to my personal life.

Sadie Red Wing

Sadie Red Wing (MGXD ‘18) is a Lakota graphic designer and advocate from the Spirit Lake Nation of Fort Totten, North Dakota. She teaches at the Ontario College of Art and Design University in the Graphic Design and Indigenous Visual Culture programs.

“As designers, we’re always envisioning what the world could be like and I want to use that to see more of my culture in the world. I want Amazon Alexa to speak Lakota!”

Where are you right now? What are you doing?

I’m sitting in Fort Pierce, South Dakota. I am employed at the American Indian College Fund for the remainder of the year where I work as a student success coach, representing a nonprofit who’s advocating for the Native American student experience at a non-tribal community from a large university or small community college. Then starting in January, I will be at OCAD in Toronto to get back into an educator role.I’m interested in the ecological aspect of that definition. Sometimes I wonder if ‘humancentered’ design is too limited and we should be thinking about ‘ecology-centered’ or something.

Is this a design role or is it pure advocacy?What’s your research look like?

My job description isn’t written for a designer, but I still do design work when I am asked to produce anything within the organization and I take on some side-projects. I still do guest lectures. I still speak on panels. I’ll get invited to conferences. So I still do design but my full time job is being a student advocate.

How does your design background influence how you do this job that is not traditionally thought of as like a design job?

In my role as a student advocate, I bring in design thinking. In the tribal college I went to, we learned about frameworks of reciprocity and sustainability. In design systems and within my own research, I bring these ideas into conversations. It may not be simply visual communication. I might use some of my design education in thinking about how to build a system or what a framework looks like.

How does your identity as an indiginous person influence how you approach design?

When I was younger — in elementary school and even going to a tribal college — there were a lot of things I didn’t have. For example, say I see someone drinking a lime flavored Red Bull and I think “man, I really want a Red Bull but I want one flavored with a fruit that is strong in my culture like a chokecherry.” We live in a world where we can’t go to Wal-Mart and get a pint of chokecherries. Or I want to go eat at a Native American fast food chain. I can pop in at Taco Bell. I can pop in at Burger King. I can pop in anywhere but I can’t go to a Native American fast food chain. So as designers, we’re always envisioning what the world could be like and I want to use that to see more of my culture in the world. I want Amazon Alexa to speak Lakota!

So when I talk about frameworks of reciprocity and sustainability, I’m thinking about design solutions from a completely different perspective. I can’t go to the store and get buffalo meat. To raise buffalo we need land and we know buffalo migration patterns help grasses grow and then that grass allows us to grow fruits. This doesn’t even include the physical activity that comes from tending to this land. So if I’m on a design team about how to make diabetes rates lower, the quick answer might be to design more gyms. Let’s get some dieticians in there. But we have the science of a diet that keeps us healthy but you guys killed our Buffalo! We need to talk about getting rid of the narrative of this being primitive. I’m not asking people to live like cavemen I’m just telling you my perspective and my history and my knowledge.

Nigel Jones

“I wanted to do something with my thesis where people were walking on eggshells. Even before that, I always did projects about things people really don’t want to talk about and stay away from because it’s too touchy to talk about.”

Nigel Jones (MGXD ‘21) i s the Social Media & Graphic Design Coordinator at HonorBridge, the largest Organ Procurement Organization (OPO) in North Carolina.

You graduated not too long ago. What have you been doing this last year?

I work for a company called HonorBridge. We’re an organ and tissue procurement organization. We were formerly known as Carolina Donor Services so I joined at a great time because we’re in the middle of a re-brand. I’m the social media and graphic design coordinator.

What does being a social media and design coordinator mean? What does your day look like?

I oversee the organization’s social media platforms— Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube—to ensure we’re spreading our mission about donating and healing lives. We tell stories about individuals who donated organs or are recipients of organs. It’s great to be in this type of position because I get to help tell different people’s stories.

Your bachelor’s degree was in Visual Communication and then you went right into the master’s program. Why’d you do that?

I wasn’t ready to jump into the “real world” just yet. I wanted to experience a different culture because I was at an HBCU for undergrad so NC State was very different. In my undergrad it was like they give you a project, a deadline and then you move on. But in the master’s program you have to do research behind that project and explain the project why you did that project and really go in depth but why are doing it this way. Tell me about it rather than just undergrad okay.

How does that MGXD experience with research and process translate into the work you’re doing now?

To jump from academia to work, I thought it was going be two totally different experiences, but it is really one in the same. So I was very glad I went to grad school and I feel like I’m just continuing my education. I’m still learning and feel like I’m back in school.

How did going to an HBCU influence your work as a designer?

I was very shy in school but I always wanted to talk about things that nobody ever wants to discuss. For example, my thesis was about improving interactions between African American teenagers and police officers through augmented reality. This is right when the incident with George Floyd happened. So I wanted to do something with my thesis where people were walking on eggshells. Even before that, I always did projects about things people really don’t want to talk about and stay away from because it’s too touchy to talk about. But I’m going to do something to get you to talk about it or just find ways to bring up the conversation because it needs to be discussed. So I thought, let me bring this to NC State. Let me talk about this stuff.

You’re now a couple months into this job, a couple months out of school? What other types of design do you want to try? What other stories do you want to tell?

I always find something that interests me! There are so many things I want to do. I want try directing, going into more film making or video effects. I want to try to do every single thing that I can. I don’t want to go back to telling my kids or my grandkids, “Oh, I wish I would have did this when I was younger.” No. I don’t want to live life like that. I want to make sure I go for every single thing I can.

BIPOC MGXD

AlyssaBuchanan

“I still have a huge passion for my thesis project, I’d like to turn it into a nonprofit. There was so much I didn’t know about software development before writing that project and I found that being in industry has given me an appreciation for it.”

Alyssa Buchanan (MGXD ‘19) is UX Research Manager at Twilio. She works collaboratively with interdisciplinary teams using design to encourage positive change in a business or community.

What were you doing before you came to NC State?

I got my Bachelors in Visual Communication Design with a minor in Marketing. I sought out the marketing minor because while I felt like I was doing good work in branding and print and websites, I wasn’t sure that what I was designing was making an impact. Back when I got my Bachelors, we weren’t talking about UI/UX. I’d never heard those terms. The only thing I knew close to research was marketing research so I minored in marketing and those were some of my favorite classes. I knew that I was not the best visual designer but I knew that I was really good at researching and telling stories and identifying audiences and I think that’s what gave me a ledge over my peers. And then I started interning at Pandora Jewelry and I was on the visual merchandising team taking my visual design skills and putting them into retail spaces and my understanding of human behavior and marketing and the psychology of buying habits. I left Pandora after three and a half years and I became a freelancer. I focused on small businesses, entrepreneurs, schools and churches, because I went from corporate and I felt like I wasn’t making a big difference. Why did you want to go back to graduate school?

I really missed working on a team. I missed working with other people and I knew that I wanted to teach. I loved mentoring and talking to young designers so I looked around for master’s programs. When I got here, I got to TA my first semester which was great. It was a challenging two years. I was commuting an hour and fifteen minutes one way, my husband was deployed to Afghanistan so we were long distance but the thing that made up for those challenges was working with students. I was also a design instructor at design camp. So when I finished, I knew I wanted to teach but I wanted to get more experience in the industry before I went back to the classroom. But then I actually fell in love with working in industry. I don’t know if I’m going to go back to teach, but I’m really enjoying being out in the world right now.

You were talking about wanting to make an impact. How you think about doing that in industry, which I think sometimes can be really tricky.

I still have a huge passion for my thesis project, I’d like to turn it into a nonprofit. There was so much I didn’t know about software development before writing that project and I found that being an industry has given me an appreciation for it. It’s building my confidence to actually make my final project something tangible out in the real world. I love the diversity of the people that I work with, not just their race and their gender and their age but also their expertise. I learn from them and I love teaching them. I’m not teaching students but I’m still teaching people about the power of design and research. I’ve actually found a lot of personal growth and having to advocate for myself, advocate for my work, stand up for myself.

You’ve designed in every type of space: retail design, marketing, user research, interfaces. You’ve worked in companies and independently. How has your understanding of what design is and what design can do changed over your career?

When I first started design, I went to a Technical High School and it was called “Desktop Publishing.” It was all about making physical magazines. It started as visual design and then it turned into web design. Then it became design as research, thinking about sales, marketing, culture, and politics. I use “UX” and “design research” interchangeably because to me, it’s all of that.

That this career would always be different and always be changing. It’s always engaging because I can’t do the same thing every day. I can’t imagine not being a designer.

Alberto Rigau

Alberto Rigau (MGDX ‘09) serves as co-chair for AIGA’s Design Educators Community. He engages design through the crafting and conceptualization of brands, exhibits, way-finding systems, publications, books, architectural collaborations, and photographic stories.

“There are five of us in my studio: one interior designer, one industrial designer, two graphic designers, and me. We need to find common ways to talk. We should be teaching students how to open up their thinking about what design can be.”

You seem very comfortable moving from an illustration to an installation from something more architectural to something content driven. You seem to have no boundaries. Where did that come from?

After I graduated from college, I was feeling depressed because the only work I could get were flyers and posters. I did a lot of crappy work. That Christmas, my father, who is an architect and was the dean of an architecture school, came to me and said, “This year, we’re giving you a special gift: you’re going to go spend time in Spain with my friend, Juli Capella. He runs a firm called Capella Architecture.” If you think I have no sense of boundaries, this guy was trained as an architect, but his first venture was founding an architecture magazine. So he was a self-trained graphic designer for many years, then went back into architecture and started designing malls and hotels. He has written like 60 books. He’s designed everything from houses to multi complex hotels to furniture. No boundaries. When I got there, he said to me, “I know you think you’re coming to stay at my studio, but that’s not what I want for you.” Then he gave me a list and said “for the next four weeks, every few days, I’m going to move you from one studio to another, and you’re going to see what all of these designers are doing.” And over those four weeks, I visited a studio that was an expert in food packaging and then a branding consultancy. I got to see the guy who designed the mascot for the Barcelona Olympics.

I was surrounded by all these people who truly had no boundaries and I knew that’s how I wanted to work. I found myself in a place where everything could truly be designed. It’s not about a cliche! It’s true. I was surrounded by people who were doing it.

I think this way of working is emblematic of the evolution of design. These silos between different design disciplines are much more porous than we let on. Do you see it that way?

I’m seeing it professionally, but I’m not seeing it academically. I always loved the swing-studios at NC State because the idea that a graphic designer should be forced to take an industrial design course is fantastic. There are five of us in my studio: one interior designer, one industrial designer, two graphic designers, and me. We need to find common ways to talk. We should be teaching students how to open up their thinking about what design can be.

This is about thinking about design as not singular objects but part of a system.

Right. We need to teach that marketing is not the only way to do design in a bigger company. I have found that if I go in through marketing, I will not be able to innovate or change as much. But if I go through facilities departments or financial departments, they have a day-to-day reality of needs and executions. Then we’re not just putting a band-aid on something but getting to the real problem.

BIPOC MGXD

Reneé Seward (MGXD ‘07) is Associate Professor in the Communication Design program, at the University of Cincinnati, DAAP College. She is Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of See Word Design.

You got a Bachelor’s in graphic design in 2002 and then in 2005, you started here at NC State. What were you doing after you graduated and then what was the desire to go back to school?

At the University of Cincinnati, we’re required to go out and co-op and my last co-op was at a studio in downtown Cincinnati and they gave me my first job. We did design work for Nickelodeon and Disney. We were doing in-store signage for Target. But we also got to do product licensing where we could develop identities for different products and get royalties back on that. I loved it. It was great as a first job but there were a lot of things that I felt was taking me off track in terms of being the designer that I wanted to be. I felt like I was applying graphics to stuff that nobody needs and it bothered me that it didn’t have a level of social impact or service to it. I don’t know, maybe I was just burnt out on clients, but there was a lot of discussion at the time in my head around images and what images mean. As a Black designer, if they asked me to make an angel for something, my first stab was black angel, you know? Then they’d be like “Wow, can we lighten this up this little bit?” So I was getting tired of those discussions as well. And I needed to get back to the heart of design and figuring out how to make a social impact.

“I’m happy that, in the space we sit now, the stories are being told. I can bring those stories back to the classroom as I’m learning them too, so they can hear a broader perspective.”

Reneé Seward

I think this conversation about images is still going on in many ways. There’s more awareness of that. But it’s still a struggle. And I think even in an education setting with questions around decolonizing the curriculum, how do we not simply teach the same dead white guys again? How do you navigate that and make space for different forms of images and representation? I often say that the thing that I felt was lacking in education is understanding the history of people who look like me, or people of color in general. I feel like that handicapped me in some ways. I’m happy that, in the space we sit now, the stories are being told, and I can bring those stories back to the classroom as I’m learning them too so they can hear a broader perspective. I’m not going to act like I’m the expert historian who knows all this. I don’t, but I want to learn it. And I want my students to be aware of the resources. When I write projects, being black, there’s a perspective that I bring in people that I share, the images that I share. It’s been good to talk, just have open conversations about different things.

Can you tell me a bit more about what your research looks like now? You mentioned you are going into high schools?

Over the next four weeks, I’m going into to some high schools to talk about design with students in art and science classes over the next four weeks. I’m excited to expose a diverse group of people sitting in physics class, for example, to the power of design and the idea that we need diverse voices in there. I’m excited to share with them that they can make a living just as good as an engineer or a business marketing person inside of design. It’s not the starving artists that maybe their parents are imagining.

But the bigger thing that I’m excited about right now is my research. I’m blessed to have a new research lab called Learning by Design, where I’m collaborating with people like speech pathologists, linguists, and educators to develop new technologies to help struggling readers read. When I started looking at how many people of low income and African Americans that are struggling read, the vast amount of African Americans that are present and their literacy rates, it was astonishing. And I’m like, okay, The basic skills of learning to read can propel you into design, engineering, all sorts of places. I want them to go where they want to go, but they have to learn to read. And if design can help do it, let’s do that. So I’m excited to look at how typography can be done for social good to help change people’s trajectories of where they end up.

Pallanez

MarysolOrtega

Marysol Ortega Pallanez (MGXD ‘13) is an interaction designer and a teaching fellow in the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon, where she earned her PhD in Transition Design. Her professional experience includes Fjord in Finland.

“We’re always in transition and those transitions are often made without intention and long term thinking. It’s about servicing efforts that exist right now, not necessarily coming up with new ideas or new interventions.”

You’re in a Ph. D. program at Carnegie Mellon working on transition design. What is transition design?

Transition design is a relatively new area of design that is acknowledging that we are living living through transitional times. It takes as its central premise the need for societal transitions at a system level that involves society, technology, and, most importantly, ecological concerns, which are oftentimes neglected in other areas of design in life in general. We’re always in transition and those transitions and are often made without intention and long term thinking. It’s about servicing efforts that exist right now, not necessarily coming up with new ideas or new interventions. It’s about observing and seeing what is happening right now and how we can connect them and deepen their efforts. So it’s not just what can we make but also what can we unmake. Does coming from West Africa have an influence on how you thought about graphic design?

I’m interested in the ecological aspect of that definition. Sometimes I wonder if ‘humancentered’ design is too limited and we should be thinking about ‘ecology-centered’ or something.

I think we have this fixation on the new, as humans. I think there are good aspects of human centered design. They are good aspects of something that is more ecological. I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive. I think there are very valuable tools that I’ve used throughout the years in my time when I was working as an interaction design that I believe are valuable so I don’t think we should throw it to the trash. But is the next thing to think ecologically? Yes, we should because we are part of it. We are natural beings that make artificial things but we’re still part of nature.

What’s your research look like?

My focus is in everyday life. I’m focused on the role of narrative and the role of embodiment in addressing this systemic changes and how that translates into everyday life. I’m focusing on my hometown, which is Hermosillo in Mexico in the middle of the Sonoran Desert. I’m exploring craft practices and hosting craft workshops. How can those spaces of making together become spaces in which we make time and space for conversation for reflective conversation? So I set up workshops, thinking of it narratively, moving through the past, present, and into the future as it relates to craft, territory, and memory. I’m interested in this move from graphic design to transition design. How does a graphic design background influence this work you are doing now? Are there things that you are learning now that you think should come back into graphic design education?

I think what I bring to the table by having a training in graphic design is this sensibility and training in aesthetics. In both my research and in transition design, because I have this training I can uplift the aesthetic sensibility. That;s something a graphic designer can do that other types of design, like service design or design thinking for example, can’t do as well. For graphic designers now: I say start looking at this systemic aspects and how they influence what you do because who you are shapes what you design.

BIPOC MGXD

Matthew Muñoz (MGXD ‘10) is CEO and Co-founder of the brand strategy company New Kind. He focuses on growth and aligning the firm’s offerings with the market-place, integrating the company’s capabilities, developing its leaders and methods, and maintaining a culture of design.

Matthew Muñoz

“The question is, what are we forming and with whose intent? That is something that you negotiate and clarify and move beyond assumptions. That’s design.”

What were you doing before you came to the MGXD program?

I was working for a PR and design agency doing what you would expect from a graphic design, visual communication perspective, working with all kinds of clients, dabbling in advertising, doing a lot of websites, before there was a lot of practices. My main client was Red Hat, the big open source tech company, they were growing, but a lot smaller at that point. During that time, my boss, David Bernie, became my client. He became their VP of Brand Communications so basically 80% of my work was for Red Hat. It was a blast. I learned a lot. I really loved the people. They were all about culture, about community building and design was really important.

I was working a lot of late nights and I started to really think about the big stuff that I was doing and was questioning if this was what I really wanted to do. And I was thinking what role can design play in improving government? In voting? In shaping public policy? Why don’t we engage in these ways outside a commercial context? What I realized through my initial startup time was that there were aspects of business and commerce that were often used for competitive reasons and I wanted to see how else they could play out.

You started a company right after you graduated. How’d that happen?

Just before I went to grad school, I met with some of the people I worked with at Red Hat about doing what we’re doing there for other companies? I was the only one from outside the company. The rest were executives at Red Hat. And at that time, I loved the idea but I felt I needed to go to grad school first and that turned out to be good timing for everybody else, who started at Red Hat and started plotting with Bernie. So we actually officially opened in February 2009. But we had been planning it since March 2008. So Bernie and I were the first ones out and we started it together and then three other partners joined us over the next two years. And now that’s been about 13 years.

Can you talk about how that grad school experience shaped how you run a business?

My thesis was called “Designing Conditions for Democracy.” I was meeting with politicians. I was meeting with heads of the UNC School of Government. I was meeting with policymakers. So for example, you can talk about immigration: it’s an economic issue for some people, for others it’s social or ethical. How do policy makers think of these things and how do we visualize it? And so it was really that model. It was about saying there are various dimensions of a topic and we have to make sure that if one person is talking about this, then there’s more to the picture. This idea that visuals can help ground a conversation, help be a prototype for thinking, help be a skeleton that we can actually all gather around, much like a journey mapping process is really important to me.

At our company, I started as Chief Design Officer. Over the years, through partner transitions, I became CEO in 2018. It’s like nested dolls where I need to broaden my scope. But it’s still bringing this idea of mapping; of visualizing and designing conditions for a company to manage different interests, incentives, power struggles, and cultural values.

It’s interesting how you’re still talking about being a CEO through the lens of design. How has your understanding of what design is and can be changed over your career?

I haven’t opened up Adobe Creative Suite in about six years but I still think I’m designing. I think about it as levels of scale. I still feel like the verb is the same: it’s forming with intent. So the question is, what are we forming and whose intent and that is something that you negotiate and clarify and move beyond assumptions. That’s design.

“Every time you think you understand one technology there’s going to be something brand new around the corner. You just have to learn how to adapt because your skill set may have to evolve but you still have basic design principles, basic design education, that won’t go away.”

Sharvin Whitted (MGXD ‘07) is the Digital Art Director at Seez, a branding, advertising, and marketing agency located in Raleigh.

Sharvin Whitted

What are you working on now?

I’m currently at an advertising, marketing, and consulting firm called SEEZ. We just rebranded before the pandemic; we were formerly The Stone Agency in Raleigh for 10+ years. I’m in the creative department and I do a little bit of everything. It could be video editing, concepting for TV spots, radio spots, digital banners, social media assets or front-end web development. I really enjoy the variety that comes with mixing it up and not just hammer and nail every day.

What kind of clients are you working with?

We have four main areas we work in: transportation and mobility. financial services, food services and sustainability, and health and life sciences. We work with small, local banks and big credit unions, information technology firms and local offices. It’s never the same thing so it makes for interesting days.

You graduated from the MGXD program in 2005. Can you just talk a little bit about how you’ve seen your work change since then, whether that’s through technology, culture, or the types of clients?

My first job after I graduated from NC State was as a digital art director for a mobile company called Oasis Mobile. We made mobile game applications. I was doing UI and game graphics for flip phones. There were no smartphones yet. Every time you think you understand one technology, whether it’s front-end design or back-end development, there’s going to be something brand new around the corner. You just have to learn how to adapt because your skillset may have to evolve but you still have basic design principles, basic design education that won’t go away.

Fast forward to today, where we’re still using the Creative Suite, but Canva has become this go-to for many people. It’s not a bad solution; we actually use it on some of the social media templates we handle for clients. That’s an example of a new technology that has design baked into it, but it still requires a certain set of skills. Not everything is plug and play.

Aside from the skills and tools, what other challenges have you had in your now-15 year career?

In this space — marketing and advertising — the work can get a bit repetitive sometimes when you’re designing banners and social graphics. When I moved to North Carolina, I got involved with a social partner dance called Chicago Style Stepping through some friends I met. What I’ve didn’t be able to do was look at this community and design everything for them. I’ve actually used that as a creative outlet to counterbalance what I do during the day I could say so I could do content and digital graphics during the day and fun videos, flyers, and social media assets at night. To me, it’s always been about a balance and that’s how I’ve managed to navigate it. Does the work that you do for fun ever find its way back into the work you do during the day? How do these influence each other?

Sometimes it does. It’s interesting because a lot of times it may not be for client work. We’ll often do internal projects and I’ll pull what I’m doing over here in and find ways to be creative inside these tight briefs and guidelines.

Figure 4.6:

Alysa Buchanan (MGXD ‘13) presented preliminary visual studies to 18 soldiers at Ft. Stewart, Georgia. The soldiers in the group varied in age, rank, ethnicity, and experience. She did not disclose that her project meant to address mental health care, until after large, medium, and small group activities. The proposed designs sparked a conversation about mental health and the opportunities that technology can offer to address their concerns while being deployed.

Final Thesis Projects

Addressing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

In recent years, MGXD students have frequently sought out problem spaces that aim to lower barriers to equal access and representation.

MGXD students have always situated their inquiries within contemporary problem spaces. Of late, these include the complex issues of racial inequality, climate change, mental health, accessibility, and community building, to name a few. The following pages highlight fourteen examples of the kinds of concerns students confront through the lens of design, accomplished from 2017 to 2022.

This student initiated final project is undertaken in the last two semesters of the program, and is in part a culmination of graduate study that synthesizes previous coursework and investigations. Students are responsible for defining the area of investigation, for the research that informs their investigation, for organizing the study and its methods, and for documenting outcomes. The projects represented in the following pages are but glimpses into deep content investigation and design exploration. To view full documentation of each student’s thesis project — to see the methods used, the processes of inquiry, and the design principles discovered — visit www.design.ncsu. edu/thenfinally.

Stenographer

A soldier and his wife decide to use Stenographer during their phone calls. The soldier is then invited to link the terms that Stenographer identifies with the descriptions. Tone analysis and voice recognition provide Stenographer data about how he might be feeling and prompts him to reflect.

Supporting Soldier Mental Health

How can the design of mobile applications and wearable technology function as a system to support the mental health care needs of U.S. Army soldiers while on deployment to combat zones?

Alysa Buchanan MGXD 2018

Of the 1.8 million U.S. soldiers deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, an estimated 10-18% are likely to have returned home with Post Traumatic Stress Related Disorder (PTSD). Veterans account for 14-16% of suicides in the U.S., yet constitute 8% of the population. Professionals advise that PTSD treatment should begin as soon as symptoms are observed, which can occur immediately after the event. Delays in treatment can worsen the individual’s symptoms. A decrease in marital satisfaction and an increase in depression, anxiety, anger, and addiction following deployments have been observed. Yet when soldiers are deployed, often for six to twelve months at a time, access to mental health care options are limited and underutilized. This research explores how a system of designed interventions may address the unique mental health care needs of soldiers on deployment. The results of this research show that there is a desire, need, and potential for a variety of new mental health care options for soldiers during deployment.

Cyborg Centered Design

How can User-Sensitive Inclusive Design principles inform the design of a customizable user experience for Cochlear Implant users?

Alexandra Grossi MGXD 2017

In the niche market of assistive technology, design decisions are not fueled by the need to attract and retain users.

CYBORG-CENTERED DESIGN | GROSSI

The Cochlear Implant (CI) is a biotechnological feat that provides deaf and hard-of-hearing recipients digital hearing. CIs act as the user's connection to the hearing world, making the CI user a deeply invested stakeholder. Unlike mainstream devices such as laptops that provide consumers with a wide array of product choices, CI recipients are locked-in users of one company’s devices for life. This project’s design explorations range from basic elements of usability to possibilities for customizable, connected, contextual interfaces. Using David Rose’s concept of “Enchanted Objects” as a framework, this investigation also looks at how the Internet of Things (IoT) can connect and empower Cochlear Implant users.

Couture Hearing

POWER TO THE USER

Currently, the remote assistant offers four slots for Sound Programs that the user creates at the audiologist’s office. Once these programs are uploaded, users can only make changes if they make another appointment with the audiologist. This is an expensive, as well as a time consuming, endeavor. Allowing users to create their own profiles grants them autonomy and gives them a greater sense of control over their hearing.

TAGGED FOR AUTOMATION

This design concept allows users to tag their profiles with location, scheduled events, time of day, weather conditions and proximity to specific people. This gives the interface the ability to learn the user’s preferences and behaviors.

The Cochlear interface is connected to the Internet, and cloud-based storage allows users to create and save many settings for specific sound environments that are then available to others. Users tag their profiles with location, scheduled events, time of day, weather conditions and proximity to specific people. The interface learns the user’s preferences and behaviors.

Working with Imagery: Mediating Image Rescripting

How can a digital therapy tool challenge negative automatic thoughts for undergraduate students experiencing anxiety in order to achieve more balanced thinking in daily planning and goal setting?

Ashley Anderson MGXD 2020

An estimated 32% of adults in the United States experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Though a large segment of the population is affected by anxiety, many lack access to treatment and coping resources. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a type of psychotherapy aimed at helping individuals with anxiety challenge unhelpful patterns of thought and behavior. However, traditional treatments for anxiety can be costly and time-consuming. Beyond these logistical barriers lies an enduring stigma of mental illness that discourages individuals from seeking treatment. Although efforts to expand therapy resources into a digital space have made them more accessible, many apps fail to take advantage of the affordances of mobile digital devices. Such devices make it easy to create and manipulate media and suggest opportunities beyond converting existing interventions to static device screens. This investigation explores how a digital therapy tool might be designed to challenge negative automatic thoughts related to planning and goal setting. Drawing from imagery-based interventions used in cognitive behavioral therapy, this investigation combines imagery change techniques with multi-modal digital storytelling to develop visual strategies for eliciting, re-framing, and transforming mental imagery.

Altered

Paced prompts inside a multi-modal image builder guide the user. Floating toolbars allow users to select and manipulate pre-designed elements.

Designing Responsive GUIs

How can the design of a responsive graphical user interface (GUI) for an online data repository adapt to different cognitive states of primary caregivers seeking information and knowledge through search processes to learn about a dependent’s medical condition?

Rachael Paine MGXD 2018

FIGURE 4 19 In this study, I explored the use of both the bifocal presentation technique and graying out content. Pictorial depth cues (interposition, shadow, relative size) are employed to signify “Specialists” as being the information the user is currently interacting with.

A person faced with caring for a loved one with a serious health diagnosis has an immediate thirst for knowledge, even while their cognitive ability to find—let alone comprehend—useful information may be hindered due to their traumatized, high-stress mental state. The design of most online health information search platforms do not consider the cognitive state of this type of user, even though new technologies, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, have the potential to offer personalized support for this particular information-seeking circumstance. The design of standard search tools and features encountered on ordinary health information websites typically take a one-sizefits-all approach. The objective of this study is to determine how intelligent human-computer interfaces can present information in meaningful and clearly comprehensive ways by responding to the health information-seeker’s cognitive state—in particular, for someone who is under duress from a recent medical diagnosis.

FIGURE 4 20: Iteration two of fisheye technique further exploits the distortion of secondary content. The increased distortion lowers the likelihood that these focus spaces will distract the user from the “Specialists” content.A fish-eye technique exploits the distortion of secondary content. The increased distortion lowers the likelihood that these focus spaces will distract the user from the “Specialists” content.

Pictorial depth cues (interposition, shadow, relative size) are employed to signify “Specialists” as being the information that the user is currently interacting with.

FIGURE 4 19: In this study, I explored the use of both the bifocal presentation technique and graying out content. (interposition, shadow, relative size) are employed to signify “Specialists” as being the information the user is currently

TOOLS FOR NAVIGATING

Vignette maze through which collaborative reflection takes place, viewed from above. Objects generated in the environment respond to conversation as participants share experiences related to the objects.

Enhancing Cognitive Empathy

How can the design of an interactive virtual reality experience on a university campus incorporate perspective-taking to help first-year students evoke empathy for diverse experiences?

Madeline Kelly MGXD 2021

Cognitive empathy, the recognition of another’s emotions, facilitates altruistic behavior and inter-personal connection. However, few initiatives exist to develop empathy skills for persons beyond early childhood, and existing interventions for the young adult population often rely on self-guided and self-motivated skills practice. Empathic skills interventions neglecting the young adult population become even more pronounced on the college campus, where young adults from different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds aggregate to socialize, learn, and co-habitate, and require empathic skills to sustain pro-social and altruistic behavior. A collaborative, immersive experience aimed at enhancing cognitive empathy skills in first-year college undergraduates may foster altruism and connection in the college campus setting. This study uses a recursive virtual reality experience and perspective-taking exercises to allow for controlled and collaborative empathic skills practice.

Bridging The Gaps

How can the design of an augmented reality de-escalation application for uniformed police officers used inside police-community programs encourage a change of learned behavior to avoid escalation for future interactions with African-American teenagers?

4.2.8. - 4.2.10. are visual scenarios show how the tool would be set the police-community program with scenarios are placed throughout studies two, and three.

The tension between African-American teenagers and uniformed police officers remains an issue. Although there have been efforts to change police-community relations through police-community programs and training, many training tactics fail to take advantage of de-escalation training. While police training may utilize design technologies, such as virtual reality, no training utilizes place-based augmented reality. This study explores how an augmented reality de-escalation application for the uniformed police officer, used inside police-community programs, can encourage police officers to consider alternative ways to go about future interactions in the community. Police officers utilizing this application would learn ways to reduce the use-of-force, to have empathy, and the use of appropriate language. This application can help with future interactions between the uniformed police officer and African-American teenager.

Figure 4.2.8.

Visual scenarios that show how the augmented reality tool would be set up in the policecommunity program with the uniformed police officer. These scenarios were utilized throughout the project studies.

2020

Aidan Ellison

2020

Miciah Lee

Nigel Jones MGXD 2021

The Nature Experience

How can an AR mobile-based information delivery system combined with social engagement strategies support park-situated nature-therapy experiences that foster healthier lifestyles for urban residing adolescents?

Eryn Pierce MGXD 2021

Experiences in nature coupled with positive encounters with nature have significant psychological health benefits. However, for many urban citizens, especially adolescents, there is a disconnect between the natural world and one’s place within it. This project examines how the design of immersive learning technologies like augmented reality (AR), combined with social engagement-based motivation tactics, can inform the achievement of healthier lifestyles outdoors. Findings from this study suggest that designing AR supported and adaptive learning experiences, which include moments for technology disconnection and opportunities for personal and shared encounters within and outside of the nature experience, contribute to the formation of healthy habits and can improve the effectiveness of restorative nature-based prescriptions.

Distance from target

This illustration visualizes the accumulation of experiences over time. The system prompts users with new insights to help remind them of what they need to work on.

The nonlinear approach to data access within a natural environment fosters serendipitous encounters or unexpected discoveries that users can then capture and share.

*Green

Data Sense:

Facilitating Citizen Sense Making

How can the design of a mixed reality experience facilitate transparency of Internet of Things (IOT) sensors and data through citizen engagement with its infrastructure?

Katie Frohbose MGXD 2020

As pervasive, invisible, and ubiquitous computing occupies corners of public and private space in smart cities, it is becoming increasingly important for citizens to be informed and aware of the affordances and agency of data and sensing artifacts. Building awareness into the design of the Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure can be difficult, due to its inherent invisibility. As such, designers need to consider ways in which new technologies can help bridge the digital–physical divide the IoT transgresses. This investigation uses the Acts of Noticing as the framework to bring a pedestrian into awareness of invisible IoT infrastructure. It explores how various technologies and touch points in digital and physical spaces can provoke pedestrian engagement with IoT sensors and data. It then investigates how embodied and contextual interactions in augmented reality can encourage sense-making of IoT sensors and data in new forms.

These figures illustrate level one of information that brings awareness to the sensors location and type through highlighting and textual overlays.

page) The threepage) The three gures

Conceptualize This: Making Picture Books Accessible

How can picture books be made accessible for preschool children with visual impairments to facilitate literacy comprehension and parent-child interactive story reading?

Jessye Holmgren-Sidell MGXD 2018

Picture books can facilitate preschool children’s literacy comprehension and ability to retain information. Through interactive reading with their arents, children begin to internalize the illustrations they see in stories and apply them to real-life experiences. Although picture books offer an array of potential benefits to young readers, they are not a fully inclusive medium for those with visual impairments. Currently, children and their parents have no extensive system that they can apply to existing picture books to make them both accessible and interactive. Using a combination of frameworks and design methods — including interviews with educators, literacy interventionists, and parents; journey mapping; prototyping; and user testing — this investigation demonstrates how picture books can be made accessible for preschool children with visual impairments to facilitate literacy comprehension and parent-child interactive story reading.

To help the child situate characters, the parent tells her about the settings in the book, explaining that the main character lives in a dry barn made of wood and straw. The child picks two material swatches to symbolize these locations and puts them in the play area.

When the parent reads that a character plans to trick another character by hiding an object in a nest, the child uses her character pieces to conceptualize the potential outcome rather than closely examining picture clues.

Promoting Independence for Socially Isolated Seniors

How can the design of an in-home assistive interface incorporate familiar social engagement strategies to mitigate feelings of isolation and improve confidence in a senior’s ability to successfully age-in-place?

Casey Stanek Walsh MGXD 2022

Aging-in-place is the ability to live in one’s own home and community safely, independently, and comfortably, regardless of age, income, or ability level. Gerontechnologists suggest that smart technology is a viable tool for seniors who want to age-inplace, as it can give seniors more confidence in their ability to live alone and at a much lower cost than other alternatives. As society becomes ever more reliant on new technology, however, the older population—less likely to know how to manage the technology themselves—is losing access to information and is being excluded from the design of technological advances. This research investigates how the design of a system of assistive interfaces can support independence and address the negative implications of natural aging for aging-in-place individuals experiencing mild cognitive decline and social isolation. It explores scenarios where familiar social engagement strategies, such as prompting shared experiences and observing routine and abnormal behaviors, are integrated into the design of in-home assistive technology.

Through social television, the interface greets the user, and prompts him to introduce himself to other users. He is then guided to record his first group post. He learns of a vegetable growing group, and decides to join in. The user’s view of a productivity dashboard visualizes his and his teammates’ productivity, as well as team resources such as a guest list, a to-do list, and a team calendar.

Visual schema of a growing conversation, where members commit to engage and then contribute to different branches of discussion

Designing Collaborative Conversations

How can the design of an online community platform incorporate opportunities for collaborative conversation between recent graduates who are interested in socially responsible design strategies to address goals and coordinate actions?

Bree McMahon MGXD 2018

Several proponents of socially conscious design, or “design for good,” publish case studies and resources that embolden young designers to initiate projects in topics they care about. Additionally, online repositories and educational programming offer information and principles for practicing socially responsible design strategies. However, the typical designfor-good ‘showcase’ model lacks effective tools that invite and engage optimistic, young designers seeking involvement in socially responsible projects. This project investigates the potential for conversation to build online communities that share values and goals. The project proposes the design of an active social space wherein interested designers learn and converse, with the goal of becoming motivated to act.

History Re-Experienced

How can the design of mixed reality systems be implemented in historic house museums to increase the experiential value of a visit?

Shadrick Addy MGXD 2018

As immersive technologies have become ubiquitous today, traditional museums are finding success augmenting existing exhibits to increase visitors’ satisfaction. However, due to the immutable nature of house museums, and its tendency to place visitors in direct contact with historical artifacts, museum managers are seeking original approaches to cultural preservation. Implementing mixed reality in house museums is one such approach. The goal of the study is to develop and test a conceptual framework that guides how designers can use the affordances of mixed reality systems to create experiences that align with the range of historical narratives found in house museums. Such experiences can contribute to improving visitor’s satisfaction, self-interpretation, and understanding of the homeowner’s life and the community within which they lived. Building on user-centered design methods, the research included developing and testing an augmented reality (AR) mobile application centered on the Pope House Museum in Raleigh, NC. The outcome of this research suggests that house museum visitors should have agency in deciding the lens through which they experience the variety of historical narratives present in the home.

1 A visitor focuses her phone on the piano and a description appears on screen.

2 She accepts an invitation to view a virtual avatar playing a song of the period.

3 Hovering her camera over the dining table, she sees a meal prepared by the family.

4 The system prompts her to see what the parlor historically looked like with wallpaper.

A digital archive that utilizes time and space to communicate family stories as it relates to the self allows for adaptable and flexible experiences.

A State of (Betweenness)

How can a dynamic and multi-dimensional digital archive interface promote representational belonging amongst distant, transnational family members using multi-modal inputs to visualize and experience a narrative?

Randa Hadi MGXD 2020

Transnational families are characterized by their geographical dispersion. These families become fragmented and scattered but often continue to keep close relationships across borders. Transnational families lack a concrete connection to their families and home. This study proposes a dynamic, multidimensional digital family archive that provides a space for transnational families to share, annotate, experience, explore, connect, and promote representation through family histories. Rather than attempting to draw out the truth, this work exploits family narratives to create a sense of connection. The research combines family narrative characteristics and multi-modal digital storytelling to form an interface that provides a space for individuals to feel connected through stories — giving transnationals a space to weave together seemingly disparate past events into a story about where they have been, where they are, and where they are going.

Embodied Technology and Grief Rituals

How can an interactive system of embodied artifacts help individuals suffering from complicated grief develop personalized grief rituals to establish resolution and come to terms with the loss?

Isabel Bo-Linn MGXD 2021

Social and economic shifts in American society have increased the number of unanticipated deaths, resulting in an influx of individuals experiencing complicated grief — grieving outside the conventional standards of bereavement. Despite extensive research confirming that grief is a highly individualized and phenomenological experience, traditional bereavement treatments continue to center around a standard, normative form of grieving. Additionally, current digital grief technologies focus on surface-level interactions and disregard the physical and intangible experiences associated with the complex grief process. Complicated grief is often treated as a trauma-related disorder, and together with the social stigmas and monetary constraints surrounding mental health treatment, it is unlikely that a complicated griever will seek professional support. This investigation speculates the potentialities for a system of designed, embodied objects, drawing from established grief therapy techniques, to help individuals develop new grief rituals while navigating the complex grieving process.

The smart system displays an interface indicating it is a special day (the deceased’s birthday). It connects with the user’s locket, which becomes warm to the touch. Upon opening, the user admires an image of her mother.

The system also displays a reminder to the user regarding the special day.