A Clean & Vibrant City
Designing Public Spaces to Revitalize Urban Life and Infrastructures
According to a 2008 article from Observer, “New York City’s 8 million residents and millions of businesses, construction projects and visitors generate as much as 36,200 tons of garbage every day.” Much of this trash accumulates as litter on city sidewalks and overflows from trash cans. There are
many reasons why people litter: business, laziness, finding no trash can in
their vicinity, etc. But then there’s the bystander effect, or “litter
begetting litter”. If most New Yorkers appear to be littering, the behavior
(though we know it’s wrong) becomes accepted, becomes the norm. We knew our
solution had to address this psychological tendency (change behavior), rather
than only focus on our chosen urban infrastructure (change cans).
INDUSTRY
Behavioral Design Architecture / Urban Planning |
SKILLS
Research & Development Prototyping Teamwork Field Study Project Management |
Everything into the Moleskine
Memoirs of a Designer & Ethnographer
Scott Francisco was one of my first professors at Parsons, and his Introduction to Strategic Design & Management still remains my favorite class. His nontraditional approach to assignments - challenging students to hand-sketch their work - was refreshing and effectively trained us in the fundamentals of design and ethnographic thinking. These four warm-up projects, or "observational vignettes", were among many of his exercises which took us outside of the classroom, where the real learning actually begins.
INDUSTRY
Arts / Culture Consumer Goods / Lifestyle Fashion / Retail Architecture / Urban Planning |
SKILLS
Sketching Field Study |
CONTEXT
Parsons the New School for Design Introduction to Strategic Design & Management - Assignments - Fall 2012 |
The Global Food Waste Epidemic
Addressing the Problem at the Household Level
According to World Food Day, "In the USA, 30-40% of the food supply is wasted, equaling more than 20 pounds of food per person per month." With a significant portion being generated at the consumer level, how can designing for behavioral change be harnessed to address this systemic issue? Based on findings from a variety of ethnographic research methods, our final solution was a user-friendly mobile App. Each feature chosen to include somehow addresses one or more of a grocery shopper's key needs / concerns when handling food - whether in the store, in the kitchen, or on-the-go.
INDUSTRY
Behavioral Design Consumer Goods / Lifestyle |
SKILLS
Campaign Development Research & Development Teamwork Field Study App Design |
CONTEXT
Parsons the New School for Design Research & Development Advanced Methods - Final Project - Spring 2014 |
Exploring Effective Teamwork in the Real World
W Hotels, Time Square
What better way to learn how to balance the roles of leader and teammate than in the real world? The goal of this project was to, through ethnographic research, see class concepts in action,and apply new knowledge gleaned in our own future collaborative endeavors. We chose a hotel as our site of exploration because it is a complex organization that relies heavily on effective people management, as well as a strong sense of camaraderie. Focuses include the behavioral and cultural tendencies of staff and guests, as well as the design decisions of the physical hotel which appear to strategically facilitate them.
INDUSTRY
Management Hospitality Architecture / Urban Planning |
SKILLS
Business Analysis Teamwork Field Study Project Management |
CONTEXT
Parsons the New School for Design Managing Creative Projects & Teams - Final Project - Fall 2013 |
Secret Shopper
A secret shopper report on loss prevention was conducted in the women’s apparel department of the Nordstrom store located at Freehold Raceway Mall of Freehold, New Jersey. The store was discreetly assessed, from the front to the back, such that underlying security risks could be identified. Factors considered include censors at points of entry, tags on merchandise, and monitoring of changing rooms. Upon presenting findings to the store manager and requesting an interview to discuss internal fraud checks, the inquiry was kindly denied due to the sensitive nature of such questions.
INDUSTRY
Fashion / Retail Security / Protection Services |
SKILLS
Field Study |
Workplace, Playspace
Designing for Innovation
A small tech firm is relocating to a better location. With a limited budget, a short time frame, and a whole list of desired goals for its new office, how would I help it achieve all of them? To address this hypothetical challenge required me to think as designer, strategist, and of course anthropologist.
INDUSTRY
Organizational Design Behavioral Design Architecture / Urban Planning |
SKILLS
Strategy Execution Research & Development Field Study Adobe Creative Suite |
Research & Development
Early Assignments
Not one, but two courses in Parson's Strategic Design & Management curriculum are dedicated to Research & Development (an introductory one followed by an advanced level). Here's an early project from each.
Research & Development - Assignment - Fall 2013
A coin toss to make a decision - witnessing this event triggered me to rethink coins themselves How have their uses changed over time? How do mobile banking and devices, credit cards, e-commerce, etc. factor in? What makes any object a good "decision-maker"?
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Research & Development Advanced Methods - Assignment - Spring 2014
A friend struggling with a mental disorder - having known this s for years made me wonder why it's so difficult to diagnose and treat diseases we can't see. How can technology be utilized, not erase, traditional methods? How can patients, doctors, therapists, families, etc. all be included in the process?
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