junyuehua@gmail.com

An audio-based travel guide platform to discover inside tips from locals.

PocketGuide is a travel guide platform that provides location-based audio tour experiences created by local people. PocketGuide allows people to record tours on premises, as they walk, tracked by GPS.

Audio guides are stored in the marketplace for travelers to browse through. Anyone can become a travel guide easily and start to make money by selling guides. Travelers can preview, purchase, and download guides, and discover a city with stories and inside tips through local voices with PocketGuide.

http://streetsmart-ixdthesis.tumblr.com/

The future of automotive UX, helping users feel safe in autonomous vehicles.

Most innovation by car makers in autonomous vehicles focuses exclusively on the technology that can make a vehicle drive by itself. But just as important are the interactions inside (and outside) of these vehicles to help passengers feel safe, confident, comfortable, and “in control” when using them.

Vision is an operating system for cars in the age of autonomous vehicles that makes human drivers feel safe on the road with other autonomous vehicles. Unlike standard driving interfaces, it keeps the driver alert with “V2V” communication, visualizing the intentions of other vehicles. This helps human drivers feel better informed and safer about what other cars are doing.

unsung.nyc
davidalibrahim.com
davidalibrahim@gmail.com

Explore Manhattan as it was in 1609 through immersive soundscapes and mobile VR.

Before Manhattan, there was Mannahatta. Calling Thunder explores the unsung history of New York through spacial audio and mobile VR. Interactive soundscapes compare today's urban cacophony to the vibrant ecosystems Henry Hudson would have encountered in 1609. The narrative considers Manhattan's past to address its future, unearthing wonder in the green pockets of our city.

The approach considers two central questions: (1) How can immersive media support more engaging and memorable natural history experiences? (2) How can immersive content be adapted for traditional media platforms to reach a wider audience?

davemahmarian.com
dave.mahmarian@gmail.com
@dmahmarian

A free translation platform for nonverbal autistic individuals and their families.

With 1 in 68 people on the autism spectrum, there is an immense population dependant on Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) methods through various devices and apps. Assist is a free, web-based platform that involves the whole family by creating a collaborative communication environment. The system translates messages from the AAC format to text and icons in real-time, creating a more inclusive communication experience between nonverbal autistic individuals and their family members.

anchor.guide
elushika.com

Your local information network for when disaster strikes.

When disaster strikes, the first thing that residents do is try to contact their loved ones or call for help. What happens when connectivity networks are unable to cope with the unexpected surge, or worse, are themselves damaged by the disaster?

Anchor is a wireless service that links up neighborhoods during an emergency to keep residents informed and connected to city agencies when the grid is down. This backup infrastructure is solar-powered and installed on existing lamp posts, building resilience in cities increasingly at risk from extreme events.

jamesvanie.com
vanie.james@gmail.com
@james.vanie

Fostering psychological safety and inclusivity in design organizations.

Complexities in the workplace stem from different personalities, needs, and business goals. The conflicts that emerge from these areas impact all levels of a design organization: the employees, their co-workers, mid- and upper-level management. These conflicts create barriers to effective collaboration, which impact productivity, operating costs, and employee well-being.

Kumii is a system and product that helps employees consolidate and resolve interpersonal conflicts and increase empathy in the workplace.

supremely-fine.com
thehumanagency@gmail.com

Enhancing empathy and understanding of depression.

For people who’ve never struggled with it, depression is hard to understand. It isn’t sadness, as many believe; it is a failure to interact with the world and derive meaning from these experiences. It is an all-encompassing hopelessness whose physical manifestations are hard to express.

Modeled after experiential principles in video games, ZOA is a psycho-educational game that aims to raise awareness of depression, informing relatives and friends of what their loved ones go through when struggling with this illness. It creates empathy by mirroring the physical manifestations of depression.

m-furniture.co
keithtseng.com
hello@keithtseng.com

Furniture system and service for a minimal compact lifestyle.

A minimal lifestyle is about an awareness of necessity. How much space do we really need to live? How do we use that space efficiently? M LINE is a furniture system for those of us without the privilege of large spaces or disposable income.

Users build a unique relationship with their furniture by customizing their system in an app. The individual pieces stand alone and also interact in motion to use space efficiently. Built to last, the furniture wears naturally over time. M LINE includes a service to trade components with a community to give it a second life and collectively reduce waste.

streetsmartar.design
kohzy.com

A safer, more social augmented reality for public space.

Augmented reality (AR) is at an exciting moment today. Emerging applications paint a magical experience of a new world overlaid onto what we see. In reality, however, interacting with AR can be strange, awkward, even dangerous, especially around others in public space.

StreetSmart.AR is an approach to designing AR that takes public interactions into consideration. It urges designers to consider how user behaviors affect others around them, and offers principles and examples to show how to put this into practice. By embedding patterns for safety and shareability, designers can begin crafting public AR experiences that everyone can enjoy.

uxdmin.com
uxdmin@gmail.com

A memory archive for all your meaningful moments.

Reflect is a journaling system that helps people slow down and curate meaningful life experiences. It is a combination of a smart journal and a touch-enabled projector. It connects to your phone and collects data such as photos, calendar events, and location. Reflect combines and organizes relative data and creates an entry as a single memory for reflection so you won’t be overwhelmed by information or spend time organizing.

With Reflect, you will never lose your precious memories. They are always with you.

paolarangel.com
gpaolarangel@gmail.com

Building mastery of reading skills in early learners.

By the ages of 7-9, most children have moved from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” Struggling readers begin to show significant gaps in their ability to learn at this point in their development. One of the most common causes of underachievement in reading is a difficulty in understanding the relationship between letters and sounds.

Major Tom is a compelling game that promotes reading skills in children who are struggling to read. The game applies researched educational strategies to help kids better grasp letter-sound relationships through color, phonetics, and word patterns.

deshpande.ritwik@gmail.com
Twitter + Instagram: @worsechorus

Interactive toys that teach how synthesizers turn electricity into sounds.

When I was a kid, I couldn't stop dancing to Tina Turner's "What's Love Got to Do With It?" At puberty, nothing got me like Nine Inch Nails song “Wish.” Now, I tear up every time LCD Soundsystem “Someone Great” comes on. These three songs have more in common than fuzzy nostalgia. They all rely on machines that shaped the sound of modern music: synthesizers.

For more than three decades, synths have dominated popular music. Do you know how they work? I didn't, and I was a music journalist. I dug deep into what synths are and how they work, and distilled my findings into an experience called Signal Flow. Using a series of interactive toys, Signal Flow teaches you how synths turn electricity into sounds, and sounds into songs.

thecrush.club
ruthtupe.com

Cultivating authentic connections.

Online dating has created a paradox in the dating world. With the ease of a swipe, you suddenly have access to more people you could have ever dreamed of. But it has also inadvertently created problems like decision paralysis, unclear etiquette, and more work, making the experience disheartening, overwhelming, and frustrating. People spend more time searching and swiping rather than interacting and connecting with people.

The Crush Club is a dating experience that heightens the potential for authentic connections. Using the power of data science online and creating conversational spaces offline, it creates the right environment for people to experience authentic moments, helping them find the connection they are craving for.

sabasingh.com
@sabasingh

Sharing your life's pivotal moments with your descendants.

What if our descendants could discover our memories in the actual places they happened? This Is Where allows us to leave behind stories of the most pivotal moments of our lives in specific locations, so that our descendants may experience them in the future. We can create each memory by finding a relevant location on Google Maps, and recording our voice in that location. Our descendants will hear our stories, in our voices, in an immersive virtual reality environment.

seungyounlim.com
syslim29@gmail.com

Enhance understanding of artworks in art museums through game play.

Museums currently provide only a few contexts for visitors to experience art, and many visitors still feel challenged to experience art in depth because of a lack of variety in context presentation.

Play Art is a series of Spot-The-Difference games to enhance understanding of art by delivering nuggets of information about the artist, subject, scene, and other fun facts. This experience urges visitors to look at art more closely and pay attention to details that could’ve been neglected. The Play Art experience acts as an entry point to casually learn about art and make the next museum visit more enjoyable and educational.

shanestrassberg.com
shanestrassberg@gmail.com
@ShaneStrassberg

Real stories from real women. Encouraging action towards gender equality.

Decibel is a traveling exhibition of immersive audio scenarios that tell real stories from women highlighting implicit gender bias, sexism, the wage gap, and other issues from a "fly-on-the-wall" perspective. After this experience, it provides tools for concrete actions for men to become better allies for women and gender equality.

Decibel compels participants to think critically and objectively about scenarios they may never have had to experience personally, and return to their reality with a new-found perspective and willingness to support progression and equality for all women.

thesonglee.net
songlee.design@gmail.com

Positive and uplifting online support group experience for women with PCOS.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrine disorder affecting about 7 million women in the United States. Support groups can become a powerful tool for affected women coping with the physical and emotional impacts of PCOS. However, support groups are not for everyone due to their overly serious and formal tone, causing some women to feel more uncomfortable about their disorder.

Cysters, an online support group for women with PCOS, offers a positive and uplifting experience. It’s a platform where women can connect, share their stages of grief or healing, and receive mental support. Cysters provides a digital haven for PCOS sufferers to empower each other to break free of the stigma associated with the condition.

ujpark1@gmail.com
@uijunpark1

A delivery service for toddlers' food ingredients.

Caregivers want to provide a healthy diet for their child, and they know that home-cooked food is the best way to do that. But it's always challenging to decide what to make, buy the ingredients, and figure out how to prepare the food. Even after figuring this out, the child may refuse to eat the dish.

Cooking Stories is a recipe and delivery service for toddlers' food ingredients. By getting the child involved in the preparation and turning the process into play, Cooking Stories creates dynamics for the toddler and caregiver in the kitchen, and eventually helps the child become familiar with cooking and healthy food.