FACES OF DESIGN
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Teammates: Anqi Wan, Sharon Yu, Tiffany Jiang, and Raphaël Weikart
Role & Contributions: survey design, data analysis and visualization, experience design
Carnegie Mellon University | Spring 2017
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Challenge
Inspired by AIGA's Design Census, our goal was to gather and visualize census data about design professionals in Pittsburgh, PA who are alumni of Carnegie Mellon's School of Design.
Outcome
My team created an interactive piece to allow visitors to explore and make connections between the stories of 34 design professionals, particularly about their undergraduate or graduate experiences in relation to their career path.
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My team wrote a survey asking School of Design alumni about their school and summer experiences, as well as other factors that influenced the career they've chosen. We selected 6 questions from our survey that we felt best showed the journey from student to professional designer:​
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What is your current job title and where do you work?
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Which classes or skills learned at CMU have been particularly valuable to your current work?
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What’s the best piece of advice you received from a Design faculty member while at CMU?
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What was your most formative summer experience during school? (job, internship, research, travel)
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How has your experience in college influenced your career choice?
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What were deciding factors in choosing your current (or most recent) job?
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THE SURVEY​
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Initial Concept
The responses we received were anecdotal, compelling and thoughtful. In order to keep the integrity of the content, we wanted our design to allow for deeper understanding of the individuals while displaying their interconnectedness as CMU alumni. We brainstormed different ways to highlight the connections and surprising similarities between all the diverse stories we received.
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VISUALIZING DATA​
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Going 3D
The team explored 2D, screen-based interfaces like these for a while, but then we got the idea to use a 3D interface to increase interactivity. We felt that cubes would make an interesting physical form, because they can be reminiscent of building blocks and their connotation of play and exploration. Additionally, they have discrete faces that would allow us to clearly hold distinct types of information. We decided to put one question on each face of the cube.
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In this interface, mapped out below, each cube represents one designer who answered our survey. The "active" cube acts like a remote for the interface, revealing information with each of its faces. The side that is face down is "read" by the system, and its corresponding answer is displayed on the larger surface. Then, highlights would draw attention to cubes with similar stories to the active one, and show the snippets of those stories that make them related.
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Visual Brainstorming
We worked to create a visual skin for our cubes that would communicate the meaning of the faces. Exploring a range of abstract and literal representations, we looked for ways to visually represent the questions we posed. We found that simple shapes suggesting letters paired with categorical words made them the most accessible for people. We later used motion to help clarify the intended interaction.
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Below are some of my individual explorations, with influence from my group mates.
Final cube design:
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Although explorative and abstract, I see this project as possibly a proof of concept for an interactive experience that could enhance data-driven stories, for example a networking tool on a site like LinkedIn. In the process, I also honed some technical skills including:
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Exploring and layering data to find meaning
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Thinking about and designing for the experience of discovery
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Balancing readability and clarity of information in a large and physical interactive display
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Using motion to enhance a message and otherwise-static display, without being too distracting
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Color-correcting for projected screen content
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LEARNING & IMPLICATIONS
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Proof of Concept
As a proof of concept, the team set up a mock installation with the cubes. Using wizard of Oz techniques, we projected the digital interface and responsive interactions to communicate the feeling of exploring our census data.
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Intro Video
We imagined the piece existing in a space where visitors (of the School of Design, perhaps) can walk up and interact freely. To explain the project and how to interact with it, we decided to include an introductory video that would be triggered by sensors when someone walked up.
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The team worked on the video script together, and I animated several parts of it.
