Design 21: Social Design Network

Cache

Developing Financially conscious minds

In partnership with Sweat Equity Enterprises

Problem Adolescents are becoming key figures in our economy but current marketing and branding schemes are steering the future in the wrong direction. The media and peer pressure is causing our young adults to become indulgent consumers. As of 2007 U.S teenagers are spending roughly 80 billion dollars of their own money and by the year 2011 teens will be spending upwards of 208 billion dollars. These young adults have reached a point where vanity is everything and money is the means of achieving it. This skewed perception is causing our emerging adults to become financially irresponsible.

Solution Cache is a program that employs technological tools that would help teens understand their spending and saving habits. Tools such as Stash Box a 3 dimensional Savings Account which would show the user their pathway towards their financial goal, and Cache card a Budgeting Debit Card that would display their spending patterns on the card.

Benefits Adolescents would realize and understand their buying and saving patterns. By doing so they would comprehend and master the essential “tool set” (budgeting finances) before transitioning into adulthood.

Next steps I Hope to collaborate with investors, manufactures and Electrical engineers that could help me bring Cache to the market.

HandOn Urban personal hygiene glove

This project has been developed with the helpful advice of Public Health Association of New York City.

Problem In New York City, there are more situations of hand-to-hand contact due to dense population, but it is hard to find cleaning facilities outside of buildings. Since hand-to-hand contact causes the spread of infectious illnesses such as the flu and diarrhea, there need to be a way to protect oneself from such invisible harms.

Design solution The personal hygiene glove protects the palm of the hand and fingers when a user holds public facilities such as the subway railings, doorknobs. It is designed to be carried with you and is constructed from anti-microbial fabrics. Hand on would help reduce infectious illnesses spread through contact with public surfaces, this world impact urban people who are particularly vulnerable to health problems resulting from the lack of hand hygiene.

Next step I would like to develop a line of these gloves with different forms, so more people could benefit from its use.

fOOd

Food waste composting project for elementary schools in NYC

NFP This project is done in collaboration with LESEC, whose mission is to increase community awarenes and youth development through environmental education programs

Problem Food waste is the largest component of waste by weight in NYC and the highest of all American cities, which causes pollution, bad smells, unpleasant scenery, and increases landfill, insects, rats and makes bad living environment. Most New Yorkers are not familiar with ""composting" food waste, an activity which can reduce all these problems.

Design solution fOOd is an educational activity for youths about how to recycle food waste by transforming it into compost, using a "composter". Students will grow a plant of their choice, using the compost they produced and observing plant growth.

Benefits It will educate students to understand why and how to recycle food waste. And also, reducing the amount of waste will help schools to save money on waste hauling fee and there won't be any money spent to buy fertilizer for lawns and plants. It will solve all the problems listed above and we will live in cleaner living environment.

Next step fOOd can extend to middle school and high school. So, as these elementary students graduate and go to middle and high school, they will continue to participate and make habit of recyling food waste. Then, they won't be hesitated to participate at home. If the education of recycling...

Shhh…Play with Silence is a puzzle set to improve communication among hearing and deaf or hard-of-hearing children.

I have been advised from CoCo (Center for Opportunities, Choices & Outcomes) which is an after school program for children who needs special care. Eileen Whelan is a P.P.S Coordinator in St Francis de Sales School for the Deaf gave me information about deaf children and their lives.

Most deaf children experience a barrier when they try to play with hearing children since they do not have an easy way to communicate. In order to break this barrier, they must be sharing, considering, and harmonizing each other.

My thesis project is a communicative and educational puzzle set that targets 2 to 5 year olds. Through play “Shhh…play with Silence”, both deaf and hearing children can develop and understand better the alternative ways of seeing, hearing, and moving.

Through the puzzle set “Shhh…Play with Silence”, hearing children will allow deaf or hard-of-hearing children to better understand their communication method. Children could interest about further step of learning sign language. Through the game, hearing children can understand better about deaf culture and deaf children can involve in hearing world easier.

Project Title: BOND, Changing the affects of Autism through visual and communal interaction

NFP and Partners: This project was created in collaboration with Mighty Miracles ministry at Christ Tabernacle and The Rebecca School.

Project Description: BOND is an interactive toy for children with Autism designed to increase their social interaction and awareness of others through the use of technology and light. This learning tool will sense when two or more children are in close proximity (as far as two feet away) and the LEDs embedded in the pillow will glow encouraging the children to interact with one another. It also visually indicates how clear they speck to one another through a sound activated changing graphic and turns into a multi-player game when placed flat on a surface. As a result the children will learn valuable social and awareness skills that they can then build into a bright future.

I would like to propose applying this service to the new Christ Tabernacle community building in Queens, N.Y, where parents, teachers and therapists who are using Bond to help their children can be found. I would also like to work with technology companies in an attempt to introduce this system to the Medical Care Industry.

VERSATILE beyond 20/20 A utility cart designed for people with limited vision.

This project is done in collaboration and consultation with Cesar Gomez, a professional in the field of visual impairments. Research and User Testing were done with National Association for Visually Handicapped (NAVH),

VERSATILE is a response to the social issues concerned with disability (specifically visual impairment). The design of furniture often reflects a lack of empathy and awareness of differing abilities in everyday functions, an¬d does not allow for comfortable use by the visually impaired.

VERSATILE is designed to aid and assist those with limited vision in the workspace by highlighting elements of organization and navigation within the product. This modular furniture system is customizable to the user's needs so that it can functionally assist with mundane activities.

The next steps of this project would be to design a line of furniture and environments that address the issues particular to the visually impaired community.

headwest

Planning for Sustainable Urban Revival

With guidance from Buffalo ReUse and Build it Green! NYC.

Problem: Cities in the American Rust Belt (Buffalo, NY as a case study) have lost their vitality as a result of urban flight, suburban sprawl and the changing industrial climate of the United States. This has lead to the vacancy of homes and factories, and the deterioration of surrounding rural communities.

Solution: headwest is a system that transforms architectural waste to create new sustainable building materials. Using abundant salvaged materials (brick, lumber and glass), a family of three architectural tiles has been designed to represent the triumphs of the past and a hope for the future

Benefits: All materials are salvaged, manufactured and sold regionally using local labor, local resources, factories and infrastructure. The overarching intent of the project is to create sustainable, site-specific, vital industry to aid in a revival of economy and spirit.

Next Steps: headwest is a system with the potential for infinite development. Grants, government involvement as well as prototype expansion will bring the project closer to fruition.

For more information, please visit my profile blog...

The US/Mexico border is the most frequently crossed border in the world. There are currently 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States and over 60% are from Mexico. Close to half of the undocumented Mexican population entered the country illegally either by trekking through the Arizona desert, wading across the Rio Grande or hiding in a cargo vehicle. Once in the US Undocumented Mexicans encounter low wages and poor/unsafe working conditions. The undocumented often find themselves struggling to survive in a country that needs them but has public disdain for them at the same time. The American media targets the “illegal alien” as the source of immigration problems and implies that the US alone needs to come up with a solution to combat this “invasion.” However, the problems are bilateral as they involve two separate nations. The building of an impenetrable wall is what many Americans view as the only solution. A wall is only impenetrable if the guards are prepared to shoot anyone who attempts to penetrate it. A wall also further divides The United States from its neighbors.

Partition is a gallery installation of a dinner place setting that addresses the physical and mental borders that exists between the US and Mexico. The piece will consist of a table, two chairs, dinnerware and wallpaper. Partition uses the visual language and techniques of Product Design to spark conversation about a subject that so many Americans choose to ignore. Partition us...

ISSUE: There is a high rate of suicide among Asian American teens. Family pressure and conflict is one of the main causes among this group.

NFP ADVISOR: Kim To from Coalition for Asian American Children and Family. The CACF greatly supported my development by providing valuable and efficient data, along with honest feedbacks from each review.

DESIGN SOLUTION: ShareStation is a workstation desk that generates intergenerational interaction for better communication and understanding between parents and children. The form of the table puts parent and child together in a shared working space and minimizes the physical gap between the two. Storage components in between the two users are also meant to be shared, featuring transparency from both side and could be rotated 360 degree.

INTENDED BENEFITS: This desk creates a sharing space for the Asian family to improve their relationship through interaction. A strong family bond will help Asian American teens to work through their frustrations.

NEXT STEP: After I finish up my final piece (prototype), my next step would be to find a business partnership, which the person/people would financially support me to realize my design and to sell the product to possible retailers.

Most children in the home express a natural and normal curiosity about objects that can cause burn injuries such as ovens, electricity and hot water. Every year, many children are treated and die in hospital emergency rooms.

NFP : People's Burn Foundation

The mission of the People's Burn Foundation is to provide advocacy services to burn survivors and loved ones, and to educate our youth and communities with effective burn prevention programs.

Safe Voice is an everyday bracelet for children that uses the parent's voice and a light emitting technology to warn the child about burn injuries when they get close to dangerous objects.

Safe Voice will play the role of parents when the child is in danger, I hope to decrease the number of burn injury accidents.

Next step

Save Voice will not only protect child in the home. It should be able to futher protect children outside of the home while serving as a fashion item.