Persuade Us! The Final Exhibition
Assignment 2 | Final Project | Spring 22
Overview
Design is persuasive. It leads us from one perspective to another, and from one view of reality into a novel possible world. Reflecting on this is essential given the crucial role that design and designers have in transforming human behaviour, societal norms, and even shifting paradigms. It thus has the power to leverage this potentiality and do good.
This exhibition of speculative design showcases immersive artifacts which adopt a variety of persuasive strategies and interactive approaches to excite and even confuse us through carefully crafted immersive experiences.
Collectively, we have explored multiple strategies to reframe thoughts, provoke and surprise audiences, combat taboos, spark reflection and imagination, raise awareness, inspire, surprise, enhance understanding, enable conversation or debate and essentially expand our thinking beyond what we already knew. Our work embodies a diverse series of topics that are stretched into the future, aiming to subvert and re-contextualize current conceptions, engaging and challenging our present values on topics that we care about and will affect our collective lives.
We hope the curation of works presented here may open questions and considerations through the arguments that they make about the world and about design — have we persuaded you?
The projects
Youie Cho, Wenqing Yin, Sammie Kim, Charmaine Qiu
“Compare-N-Go”
College students often resort to grabbing unhealthy snacks with strong tastes as they squeeze a few minutes out of their hectic schedule to fill their stomachs.
Compare-N-Go is a pop-up campaign targeted at college students who are uninformed about the risk of harmful ingredients that are common in processed snacks. Through the Wizard-of-Oz vending machine that juxtaposes healthy and processed foods with a direct comparison of the nutrition facts, we invite participants to think once more before immediately purchasing unhealthy snacks out of convenience. Questioning the stereotypes on processed snacks as convenience food, we will subvert the thoughtless processed food consumption culture through the vending machine to redirect people’s self-defined priorities. We aim to inform people about the uncomfortable facts about the hidden dangers in processed snacks, and they will also explicitly see how others react to these facts. The surprising and disrupting awakening would convince them to choose healthier, more transparent alternatives.
Michael Kim, Gary Tang, Richard Zhou, Jubbies Steinweh-Adler
“Spinning Out”
With the advent of rental scooters as an increasingly popular method of transportation, common spaces are struggling to accommodate the influx of abandoned scooters at a user’s destination.
Our group asks the viewer to consider the possible “extremes” of behavior that results in scooters being left everywhere. What would our public spaces look like if EVERYONE used SPIN scooters without care for where they parked?
The project is centered on visual aids to convey the negative consequences on common spaces and the externalities of being careless of where they park rental scooters. Through the use of hyperbolic 3D imagery and bold, contrasted typography, we persuade viewers to consider what is put on hold when common spaces become an impromptu parking lot.
Jenny Liu, Proud Taranat, Jackie Wang, Sarah Xi
“Pads, Tampons, Cups and More”
Period taboos put women and girls at risk of physical and mental health problems. Although there is a plethora of information about menstrual cycles available to us on the internet and in print, this information can be difficult to access for young girls getting their periods for the first time. Oftentimes, this information can also be misleading and does not capture a diverse array of experiences.
This is a campaign that includes the creation of a series of touchpoints that persuades young girls going through puberty to feel more empowered to have conversations, seek help, and learn more about their menstrual cycles. This includes the design of informative booklets, period sample products with guidance, a period documentation tool, and a public dispenser that distributes the products mentioned above. Through engaging with the artifacts, we aim to elicit questions about how your experience with menstruation would have transformed if you had one of these in your teens.
Tate Johnson, Zimmy Kang, Ian Lippincott, Daniel Zhu
“uum.”
When was the last time you vacuumed? Most people stuff their vacuums in a closet or under a piece of furniture, never noticing the tool unless the ground becomes unbearably filthy. Even then, vacuuming is seen as a laborious task. We seek to shift the perception of vacuuming by creating a sculptural form that is meant to be displayed in central living spaces, more akin to a piece of furniture than a cleaning tool. Through methods like shape-change and lighting, the vacuum develops a life of its own, establishing it as an active cleaning device instead of just a neglected appliance.
Bon Bhakdibhumi, Dorothy Li, Maggie Ma, Elysha Tsai
“Welcome to Walkatopia”
America is made for cars 🚗. Not people 🤠. The walkability of cities is a social issue of inequity and inaccessibility, and unsafe sidewalks do not incentivize the average able-bodied person to walk. Creating a pedestrian-friendly environment brings an undeniably positive impact socially, environmentally, physically, and financially to residents and their communities.
Through our digital experience, we will bring our audience on a journey through an unwalkable city to highlight the frustrations in a more personal way while contextualizing the personal experience in greater social and societal consequences. We will also design a campaign advertising for a completely walkable city, Walkatopia, to disrupt people’s mental models and aid them to imagine a reality where walking is safe and preferable.
Quinten Staples, Max Shim
“Assemble”
Over one billion mobile phones are produced worldwide each year. Consumer electronics have evolved to be purchased and disposed of more frequently. Waste of electronic products is increasing every year and has been identified as one of fastest growing waste streams. These electronic products rely on scarce metals. The rate of consumption and waste of electronic products is not sustainable given that the resources needed for key components in these devices are finite and being exhausted rapidly.
Our aim is to create an empathetic connection between customers and the people invoved in the production of the product. Through our solution we hope to create a stronger understanding among consumers of where the materials and resources used in the products they are purchasing come from. We imagine a customer experience that puts an emphasis on the realities of mining around the world and the implications of our patterns of consumption on the environment. Our goal is to prompt reflection on how we currently think about electronic waste and propose a vision for another reality in which producers and consumers share responsibility for e-waste management.
Caitlyn Baensch, Hayoon Choi, Neely Lee, Rachel Legg
“Refresh”
Sleep is essential to achieving well-being, success, and a good mood! So why do millions of students lack consistent sleep and self-care routines? Students tend to prioritize academics and social life over self-care. We saw an opportunity to educate students on the importance of sleep and its impacts on body and mind to then encourage change in their daily rituals related to sleep and self-care.
Refresh is a speculative wellness brand that designs and curates health kits every semester to help inspire students to build healthy sleep habits. Our hope is that Refresh would act as a catalyst to a healthier, well-rested student population. Imagine a world where sleep empowers students to reach their fullest potential.
Alison Hu, Joseph Kim, Francis Park, Iris Yip
“THE LITTLE HOME”
With more families engaging in nontraditional working patterns, such as atypical hours or working abroad, parents in the near future may find themselves unable to spend consistent hours bonding with their young children during their formative years. Mirroring the ease of mind that technological aids like baby monitors and smart home devices offer, The Little Home is a playing card and IoT experience that allows child and parent to play a story building game that fosters asynchronous yet engaging interactions. Using simple, physical prompt cards, children are able to send non-intrusive nudges to parents through partnered devices that allow them to craft and send a story in the form of an audio recording. These simple, lighthearted interactions help facilitate creative conversations and bedtime stories in refreshingly unique ways.
Though the nature of face-to-face relationships cannot be replicated, The Little Home aims to provide an entirely new avenue for parents to create long-lasting memories beyond the constraints of time and place. To help children experience the impact of love and care through something as simple as a bedtime story is a key step that parents can take to help a distanced relationship feel as rewarding as possible.
Elena Crites, Shruti Prasanth, Ming Xin
“Honey Honey”
We are proposing a new approach to the classic concept of a board game: the bees are dying and we need to put a stop to it. In a grim future in which all the bees have died, citizens reflect on the collapse of their world through a bee-themed board game. Our game puts the user in the shoes of the lowly honeybee, facing challenges along the way, such as habitat loss, lack of flowers, or honey manufacturing, allowing for the player to empathize and understand the plight of the small insect. The catch is, the game is unwinnable. The people of the future must learn to understand how they destroyed such a vital aspect to our ecosystem. 🐝🐝🐝
Chris Han, Holly Liu, Eric Zhao, Grace Li
“Trash to Treasure”
Trash is seen as a waste product that benefits nobody and marginalizes the people who have to process and deal with it on a daily basis. In order for us to reduce our consumption and be conscious about our trash, we need to think of it as more than just waste in a landfill.
We are proposing a community-wide ritual of “scrap-sculpting” that emphasizes the impact we have on each other as individuals. Rather than sending trash away and no longer thinking about it, people go through an exchange process curating a memento of their own waste to give to a loved one, and receiving one in turn as a way of living with another person’s remnants.
Our artifact is a gifted “display case” of sorts that helps to facilitate this interaction. Received scrap sculptures are housed in these cases, resulting in a household fixture that can prompt reflection and reminiscence. What do these remnants of the people we loved say about them? And in turn, what remnants would we want to leave behind? We hope that the act of gift-exchange and collection, built up across families and generations, can help us begin to see something that is traditionally undesirable as something sentimental.
Se A Kim, Chelsea Liu, Catherine Wang, Nicole Yu
“Ephemeral”
Due to the large amounts of information from the digital era, it is getting harder to be comfortable in one’s skin and to slow down to appreciate the current moment. Our experience consists of a set of cards that are either placed around the physical environment or can be taken with people to use during their downtime: standing in line, waiting for the bus, or just some downtime between classes. Our experience is an analog approach to a common problem, and we hope that people in the future can use it to be more aware of their changing surroundings and approach their surroundings with wonderment.
Franklin Guttman
“New Transport”
The existing infrastructure surrounding public transportation within cities has been established for decades, with many of the original problems — delays, inefficient and selective routes, overcrowding, and an overall stale experience — still plaguing systems today. This has resulted in many commuters selecting single driver cars as a mode of transport rather than public transportation, resulting in high pollution footprints and clogged traffic systems. However, it’s also left an opportunity to reimagine a stale public transportation infrastructure for a different passenger base and evolving city systems.
I am proposing a series of possible novel alternative public transportation options that in addition to attempting to address some of the existing issues, also bring a different direction of imagination and excitement within the designed experience. This ideally would both entice commuters to choose public transport options over single driver cars and improve daily life for city residents with a more convenient and beautiful daily commuting experience.
Persuasion | Spring 2022
Instructors: Donna Maione, Fas Lebbie, Silvana Juri, Ann Li (TA)
Carnegie Mellon University School of Design
