Metacognitive Thinking in Designed Environments
August 30th:
As the prevalence of digital media in our physical environments increases daily, designers must step up to the plate and rethink how these hybrid experiences can harmonize with the human experience. Digital environments have reached a point where they are nearly as immersive as existence in the physical world. However, this immersion often leaves the user disconnected from the natural world around them, as they have fallen through their screens’ windows and into the digital rabbit hole. It is the responsibility of the designer to find non-intrusive ways to bring this digital environment into the physical world so that the human experience may be a less disjointed and more present one.
September 4th:
Wireframing and storyboarding are both powerful tools in visualizing developing thoughts behind how a mobile app or a website will work and feel for its user. Wireframing pushes designers to consider how digital environments will operate, whereas storyboarding contextualizes it in relation to the physical environment and actors it exists alongside. In short, these visualizing strategies communicate both micro and macro level views of designed interactions. However, wireframing is not limited to just digital environments, it can also be used to map human navigation of physical objects. Wireframing could be employed to visualize how people interact with a magazine, an art tutorial, and even a card game. Similarly, storyboarding could illustrate these same situations, but with a focus on where they exist, how people physically engage with them, and what needs the engagements fulfill.
September 5th:
I am motivated by the idea of working towards making the days of others, even if its through momentary interaction. I’ve noticed that my “worst days” are those I spend cooped up inside or away from others. I think interacting with peers gives me a greater sense of being interconnected with the world, as does spending time in nature.
I am definitely distracted by the lure inherent to instant gratification. This can come in the form of eating junk food or spending too much time on my phone, searching for the subliminal dopamine rush hidden in my newsfeed.
To stay engaged, the needs that cause me to buckle into my distractions cannot be entirely boxed out. If anything, I think there is motivational value to providing some gratification along the way before I’ve reached my end goal. With that being said, a larger goal or higher purpose to work towards greatly gives me a larger sense of value to the details I’m working on.
This past project relates to the greater field of environments in that it is directly looking to seamlessly bring digital and physical spaces together. Rather than treating the screen as its own, secluded place of existence, it is more used as a tool for bridging us back into the physical world, while simultaneously being the stage for more information and interaction.
September 26th:

Keith Haring is an American artist who was born in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1958. He briefly attended school as an art student at Kutztown University before transferring to the School of Visual Arts in New York. While in the city, Haring began gaining notoriety through the chalk drawings he did on boards painted black in preparation for the next advertisement. After being recognized by the public eye, Haring’s work began to break into the gallery scene. However, when it came to the public’s access to his work, he stuck to his roots. While creating pieces for art collectors and close friends alike, Haring launched the “Pop Shop”: a small store in New York City where he sold his work as prints and on clothing at affordable prices. Haring’s work explored the themes of love, life, death, sexuality, and the surreal and he continued to produce pieces until his death in 1990. Haring died of AIDS-related complications at the age of 31.
In the initial stages of creating a small gallery space that displays and celebrates the life and work of Keith Haring, I took to Pinterest, design blogs, and Haring’s journal entries in search of a starting point. Prior to taking this dive, I felt most familiar with his works as standalone icons without really knowing the story behind them. The exploration into his work felt like a personal journey, as Keith Haring grew up relatively close to my own home town and we shared similar interests in our youth. I am interested in using this exhibit as an opportunity to immerse visitors in an experience which gives a taste of his origin story.
Keith Haring’s early public works in the New York subway system are vital to understanding what drove his impulsive need to create. Currently, I am thinking about an entrance to the exhibit which makes the visitor feel like they have just stepped off of a subway car and encountered a freshly chalked Haring drawing in the wild. The exhibit would gradually shift chronologically into his later work and briefly connect to the larger themes in his body of work.
Implementing technology into the exhibit to encourage playful interaction will allow for guests to personally connect to Haring’s work. One of the ideas I am currently entertaining is some sort of body mapping system, represented by the top right image in my mood board, which could camoflouge the guest into a wall reminiscent of Haring’s drawings on entire interiors, seen below.

Additionally, I interactions could include Haring-esque figures that are generated onto a wall and dance in a manner that mimics the movements of onlooking guests.

September 27th
I have noticed recently that airport terminals are working towards merging digital and physical environments. While in the Philadelphia airport, I noticed that the gates have been transformed in an effort to make the waiting on your flight less painful. In this effort, a bar and restaurant were implemented, and iPads were placed nearby almost every seat. These iPads offered free games, slots, and even an ability to have food brought over by a waiter.
On paper, the idea doesn’t sound bad, but in practice it feels tacky. All of the iPads rest on stands in front of the seats, and make it difficult for people to talk to those sitting across from them, as they block a clear line of eye contact. The user interface doesn’t do any favors either, as the home screen resembled a pop-up ad with its neon greens and firetruck reds.
The effort to create a more luxurious experience at an airport with a reputation of being miserable is a valuable one. However, the experience has been redesigned in a way which is so intrusive that it overrides the functionality of the space.
October 9th
The disciplines of architecture and environments design are related in a venn diagram model, where there are many differences, yet quite a few similarities as well. Both architecture and environments design explore the design of physical spaces, hopefully those which people feel compelled to engage in.
Environments designers and architects share similar skillsets in the need for a comprehensive understanding of how people work, especially when interacting with physical spaces. These skills are used to inform their iterations, which may be similarly visualized in diagrams, drawings, renderings, and physical models.
Architects must be certified and licensed to begin working towards leading projects, whereas there currently are few programs in place for people to become trained as environment designers.
Where architects might focus their efforts in creating a beautiful space to experience life inside, environment designers focus more on the creation of life experiences. For example, architects designed the Philadelphia Museum of Art, but environments designers work to create cohesive exhibitions that make sense within its halls.
In addition to this, environment designers look beyond physical environments and towards the integration of digital environments that are more seamlessly embedded into the user’s experiences.
October 16th
At the end of this second project, I feel motivated to share what I find mesmerizing with others without explicitly explaining what I am amazed by. This situation came up when designing this pop-up exhibition of Keith Haring at the Miller ICA, since Haring is one of my favorite contemporary artists. Finding ways to provide people with an informative experience in a setting that is novel, yet approachable, was motivated easily by my predisposed interest in the subject material.
I feel distracted by the sound of things that are incredibly important to only me. It is easy to forget that every detail that makes me excited about something isn’t necessarily exciting to someone else. In this past project, I was interested in including a large chunk more of interactions and information. Having read the published edition of Keith Haring’s journals last summer, I wanted to include his entries in the exhibit somehow. Ultimately, I had to accept that it was a situation of information overload for my audience, and it is unfair to expect them to read all of Haring’s densly scrawled handwriting for context which is frequently trivial.
I remain engaged by the little successes. In this project I would bounce ideas off of my peers, and ask them if they would be inclined to engage in an interaction if presented with the opportunity. When my ideas were shot down, it was disheartening, sure. However, all it takes is one of my ideas to peak someone’s interest, and I suddenly have a hint as to which direction I should start running in. Once this chase has truly begun, disengagement is not an option.