Story View is an augmented reality city viewer project inspired by the High Line in New York City.

Borrowing a nostalgic and easily recognizable form, Story View updates the idea of a traditional coin operated binocular viewer to provide visitors access to short spoken-word stories and historical facts about the High Line and the surrounding city as they look through the viewfinder. As a visitor pans and tilts the viewer, they are able to listen to snippets of audio (either programmed by the High Line or left by other visitors) about the places and things the viewer is pointed at. By aiming the viewer at a location and holding down the record button, the visitor is also able to leave a story tied to that place for others to discover.

CREDITS: Group project with Jeff Kirsch and Evinn Quinn

ROLE: website design and html/css coding VIEW: launch live site

Home Page

Preliminary Design Explorations:

FEATURED: “Designing a New Way to Interact With Your City” by Alissa Walker on GOOD.IS

Social Considerations
The individual profiles of each dog run in NYC will allow users to post photos of the location, and rate the park on cleanliness, facilities, and any other factors they deem important. Other dog owners can use this feedback to decide if a run is right for them or not. Some dogs need a bigger area to run (large breeds) and other dogs might need a smaller area designated for small breeds because they are easily intimidated by big dogs. Some owners like a shaded area and benches, others may look for open, sunny spots. Reviews and photos will be very helpful in determining whether a park is right for their dogs.

Using the API from the social website Meetup.com (http://www.meetup.com/meetup_api/), See Spot Run! will use the “dog” category topic, as well as the New York City search specification to connect dog owners with other dog owners. Meetup.com groups such as The NYC Dog Park Meetup, “Room To Run” Dog Club, The NYC Small Dog Playgroup (just to name a few) could be followed with this app.

Tangible Considerations
The camera will be an important part of the app. The ability to take photos of the dog run and post them to the site is be a great way for owners to get a sense of the physical space of the park, the types of dogs and humans that attend, and the surrounding landscape.

Gestures, like pull and pinch for map zooming, finger flicks to glance through photos and other locations will be tightly incorporated into the app just like they work in native applications, to allow for a simple interface that users already know from their other apps.

Ubiquitous Considerations
The users would be able to decide if the App is able to use in their current location to help determine dog runs in their area, or they could opt out and search the app by neighborhood, zip code, or keyword instead. Linking to Google Maps API (http://code.google.com/apis/maps/) provides the well-known Google Map interface right inside of See Spot Run!

It is very important that this begins as a New York City based application, where wireless internet availability is abundant, many New Yorkers have “smart” phones, and the streets of the city act as a backyard to its residents. In a city environment, close proximity allows meetups to be an important part of social life. This behavior makes See Spot Run! a good fit for New Yorkers, but there is evidence in the comments on similar products that suburban dog owners may also appreciate the ability to find another place to be outdoors with their pets to alleviate boredom from repetition.

A quicker pace of eating is associated with higher body mass. Eating slower allows time for your body to product a hormone that’s responsible to signal your brain that you are full. Eating is supposed to be a mindful event. This device offers a way for fast eaters to be mindful of their speed, allowing the brain time to process when the stomach is becoming full.

How it Works:

After putting food in your mouth, put your fork on the Mindfull rest and let go. Do not touch the fork until your mouth is empty. If Mindfull lights up, you are eating too fast! Repeat through the entire meal.

Ideation:

We brainstormed with questions—What if the sensors were built into a placemat or rest, detecting the weight of the fork when it is placed down? Could the sensors be built into the rim of a plate, allowing the user to rest his/her fork on the edge of the vessel while eating? Should the device be build right into the utensil itself? An accelerometer or motion detector could detect movement, and light, sound or vibration would provide output.

Ideation sketches for incorporating a sensor to detect eating speed

Prototyping:

This project implements electronic prototyping with Arduino, an open-source electronics prototyping platform. We decided that a fork rest would be the most effective way to test our concept with fast eaters. In our first prototype, our input was a lever switch that detected whether or not a utensil was placed onto the stand. Outputs (feedback) included a) a light turning on when the lever was not pressed and b) the light blinking after ten seconds of the switch being unpressed. This second output served as a signal to users to put their fork down.

In the second prototype, we experimented with a bi-colored LED that changed from green to orange in a ten-second interval while the lever was unpressed. This replaced the blinking output from round one. We also started experimenting with the form of the fork rest, considering the style of chopstick rests in Asian food restaurants. After uploading the new program to the board and switching out the LED, most users found the feedback to be a little too subtle.

In later prototypes, we were looking to minimize the size of the device in order to perform user testing outside of the studio, e.g. in a restaurant. Our goal was to be able to place the electronics into a small hidden box, with the ultimate goal of incorporating all of the pieces into the fork rest container itself. Using a smaller breadboard, we were able to compact the device immensely. Standard hookup wire was also replaced with thinner ribbon cable, which allowed the fork rest to flex in all directions with respect to the Arduino board.

Other additions included a straw, which was placed into the stand and around the LED. This helped to create a more distributed, diffuse glow from the LED throughout the form. Getting to this point allowed us to do a more user testing in social environments—the wires were hidden, and the device could be tested for usability.

Compacting the electronics helped with testing and adding a straw helped diffuse the output light throughout the case.

In our final presentation prototype, we listened closely to the advice of our testers and implemented a few changes, including:

• Adding a knob which allows the user to control the blinking intensity of the LED
• Adjustment of the code to make the blinking more of a soft pulse when set to slow speed.
• Determining the average time taken between bites to be thirteen seconds, code was adjusted to reflect this.
• The cover of the device was made in an opaque black plastic, while the bottom remains translucent in order to view the output light.

Testing Video and Conclusions

As our user testing shows, there are more rounds of testing we would like to do to make Mindfull Better! Of course, getting the components as small as possible will be a strong factor in future usability, which we believe can be accomplished with better parts in manufacturing process.

CREDITS: Group project with Stephanie Aaron, Gene Lu and Beatriz Vizcaino

ROLE: identity design, website design, HTML/CSS code
CREDITS: Website development in ExpressionEngine by Cooper Graphic Design VIEW: launch live site

A series of RFID tags on the play equipment tracks a child’s activity, and milestones are displayed in a fun, competitive and positive environment. In this project we focus on the design of the physical relationship between the child, the tag, the reader and the resulting outputs. In the UbiKid interaction, a child wears a watch or a wristband with an RFID reader that keeps track of her score and time. Paths throughout a playground in the form of scavenger-hunt-like checkpoints are suggested on this device, and milestone badges are collected based on play motion. A digital touchscreen feeds results back to the player with every action. By embracing digital interactivity typically reserved for indoor video gaming, classic playground experiences become more advanced to keep children motivated and engaged with the physical activity they need every day.

CREDITS: Team project with Gene Lu and Richie Lau

In our design, we suggest clear functional improvements for riders. Based on a survey of active commuters, updates include live service announcements on the home page, a prominent trip planner, and a cleaner overall layout that streamlines access to important information. We have modified the site architecture to separate different services and corporate data of the MTA system into subdomains for more focused access, in an effort to enhance the user experience. We have also created an app in which commuters can access service updates on their mobile devices.

ROLE: information architecture, wireframes, visual design, html/css code CREDITS: Team project with Derek Chan
VIEW: launch live site (prototype)

Kidfresh Website

ROLE: package design, website design, store graphics / Landers Miller Design CREDITS: Website development by Gorges VIEW: launch live site

ROLE: website design, HTML/CSS code, e-newsletter design CREDITS: Website development by Dan Hodos VIEW: launch live site