Environments Design and Design Research for
CONVICTION AND PATIENCEVISION-STATEMENT– I always think about how design thinking can inform people to be more conscious of the natural world. We readily dismiss the pattern, insights, and phenomena happening around us.We can be more aware of small details that make this world beautiful in order to start conversations, debates, and discussions to improve the human condition.
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Growth Visualization Project
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UPMC MyCare Service
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Design Concept Map
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Look Good
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Closet
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Helvetica
ABOUT
This project is a study and manifestation of a concept intented to encourage people to build a habit for savings.PROBLEM SPACE/PHENOMENA
Like 67% of American college students who are unable to graduate within four years, prudent spending is an essential life skill. With graduation delayed and financial independence out of sight, it can be an overwhelming experience without proper preparation to grow into the habit of saving for yourself in the future. Especially if someone lives a poorly managed financial life, an unregulated environment like college is not very helpful. One of the problems that I identified through initial research is that many students accumulate debt during college, and this debt usually becomes a financial burden for several years. Without a concept of savings, it becomes difficult to pay off the debt you owe and maintain a stable credit in the future (which is common knowledge for adults but may be new to young adults).WHAT I WANTED TO DO
My goal was to reward users who habitually save and manage a healthy financial lifestyle. A concept I worked with is "farming" and "growth." Investing resource into something in order to create larger value is something people do all the time. Savings account people open at the bank is an example. Stocks and real estate assets are another example. The biggest flaw for monetary currency is that it is difficult to track and visualize your own stock. As a result, people overlook the importance of minute savings. People easily dismiss corners that could have been cut tight. But most importantly, it is important to establish a feedback loop that encourages the user to consistently save money.FIRST PROTOTYPE
My first attempt was in the form of a smart flower pot. I did a quick prototype to build a system in which a person saves money everytime the plant is watered. I used RFID cards and readers as input devices and made custom water sprayers using Arduino parts to create a conceptual design encouraging financial awareness.
SECOND PROTOTYPE
I commissioned my second prototype to a CMU alumni artist Cindy Hsu(@og.skinman). It was an attempt to achieve a better grasp of what kind of visual would appeal to the user. I noticed that a "collective" (i.e. stock) appeals more than the individual. A flower garden has a different affect compared to the individual flower, both of which are visually pleasing in different ways.
THIRD PROTOTYPE
Using a tutorial code from D3.js, I tried to render the same experience in a digital medium. I was pleased but not satisfied with the outcome because I was not adept enough with the library to build complex renderings bottom-up. Nonetheless, it still gets across the point that something about "collection" is closely tied to growth (perhaps the metaphor of a "stock" rollsover from other contexts).
ABOUT
This diagram documents the evidence and final outcome of a studio project in collaboration with UPMC.PHENOMENA
In order to generate a more inclusive medical experience for blind and low vision patients who will visit the new outpatient facility in Allegheny County, Pittsburhg, PA, our design group focused on how we can fluidly incorporate a patient education service. A keyword our group highlited is "clarity" of information. The goal is to uplift individuals with low health literacy to ensure an encompassing medical consultation service.ABOUT
(Above image is borrowed from CMU School of Design's curriculum) This project is a documentation of a personal practice to expand approaches for design and endeavoring to shape a framework for new ways of considering the world around us.
As our world accelerates into the era of hybrid environments(systemic spaces in which the digital and
physical coexist), we see a greater need to immerse ourselves in the interactions with new technologies.
Technology has evolved from a tool that aids existing activities into a social entity-
a force that influences our environment and ourselves
- that delivers experiences unique to its medium. Designing the ambience of the hybrid environment will
allow us to predict how such social forces will overlay in our existing environment.
AMBIENCE
The peripheral data that initializes context and meaningful substance to the world. Design that doesn’t consider ambient elements will risk creating a solution that does not fit. It allows pervasive communication by establishing a common currency in a social, cultural, and economic context. Shared values that orient complexity and classify the abstract. Ambience and peripheral thought process ifluences how we relate to other entties. We do not live and work in silos.
TRANSPOSE WHAT YOUR GOING TO BUILD
While most designers design for the contextualized scenario, they should also think about designing from the outside in. Common digital applications have been built “for” the smartphone. But we do not stop to think to build the smartphone itself, or the larger ecosystem of internet of things. When continuing this ladder, we come to a point where the design is not really about an artifact but more about a vision that allows the design to take on unconventional forms. For instance, a designer is trying to build an web application for a collaborative workspace. Initially, the designer asks questions regarding the artifact - “how should the UI look like?” The designer then asks about the underlying systems and how this application will be integrated. Scaling another step, the designer questions what it means to collaborate. Finally, when identifying the ambient level design elements, the designer needs to look at the factors of the outside world that make up the inside world, that is, identifying all the phenomena related to the definition of collaboration or maybe even telepresence. Here is an example:
ABOUT
This is a virtual project for creating a male grooming platform.PHENOMENA
Grooming is not just about buying the best product. Nor is it just about opening a freshly delivered bundle of blades for your beard. There's more to grooming than making a platform more usable to male customers. Establishing a grooming lifestyle is a meticuluous process that sometimes brews from going to physical shops and testig products out. Generalizing that most men expect the opposite experience of what Sephora or Bluemercury offers may be a major dismissal of a design opportunity that can grasp the needs of males who are sensitive about their skin but express those concerns in different modes. This project is about transposing a classical ritual for many boys, dudes, guys, and men around the world into the form of a digital environment.THE ROLE OF PLAY
There has been a growing presence of beauty drugstores in urban centers not only back home in South Korea (OliveYoung, LOHB, Watsons, etc...) but also in the states (Sephora, Bluemercury, Ulta, etc...). These physical environments resemble much of children's playground. Testable products, various brands that allow customization, visually appealing store layout, and the non-instrusive sales people make such spaces a fun area to explore cosmetic products. My goal is to isolate the elements of "play" when exploring grooming products and apply the design elements into the form of a digital platform.
Simutaneously, it is also about making the experience of grooming a more personal and lasting
experience. Grooming is not really a choice for some people, while others do it just for the extra step.
Either way, much of the field observation demonstrated that there is a unequal representation of male
products in
such stores and that it is really difficult for men to orient themselves and behave naturally in such
environments. Applying the concept of a playground is an endeavor to break the stereotypes that enforce
classical gender roles and incite users to freely shop products that best represent the user's
lifestyle.
