NYU Sustainability Project
UX Design & Research
As a member of a collaborative team, I contributed to a sustainability-focused UX research project centered around the 370 Jay Street building, which serves as the primary residence for Tandon School of Engineering's students. My role as both the UX Researcher and 3D Artist involved creating a research plan, conducting thorough primary and secondary research, and producing a physical prototype that utilized digital art, sensors, and an Arduino installation. Through two cycles of iteration and user testing, our team successfully completed the project and has been selected to showcase our prototype at the NYU 2040 Now Sustainability Initiative during 4/17/2023 to 4/21/2023.
Link to full documentation HERE.
Project Type: Group project
Project Duration: 6 weeks
Tools Applied: Arduino Uno, P5 Javascript, Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Figma & Canva
I. Ideating, Concept Mapping & Domain Research
II. Problem Statement
III. Research Methods & Data Synthesizing
IV. Design Mood Board
V. Prototyping
Rendering of Initial Prototype: digital wall at the first floor lobby decorated with green plants and NYU Tandon School's logo (we conducted the first round of user testing in this step to refine our prototype)
Rendering of Second Prototype: data visualization projected on the first floor lobby
Renderings and Video of Final Prototype: digital plants projected on staircase that will be triggered by ultrasonic sensors installed on Arduino Uno. Our design intention was to encourage the stakeholders of the 370 Jay Building to take the staircase instead of elevator to increase the space's sustainability.
VI. User Feedback
VII. Project Takeaway
It was a challenging and enlightening experience conducting this UX research about the 370 Jay lobby and I was really excited to see how our prototype evolves from physical plants and decorations to the digital ones. From our interview with Andrew Repoli, the Director of the NYU Global Facilities & Construction Management department, we have also learned that his department is also working with Luke, our Co-Director at IDM to re-design the grip wall next to the staircase on the first floor with an interactive building directory installation. I think our prototype is really echoing this idea about how to re-use the existing materials in the building and put them into better functionality.
Overall, I have a better understanding of the concept of sustainability now and I think our final prototype really identifies the potential interventions we could have done with people’s behaviors to promote sustainability. If we would have more time, I think we could have also examined the possibility of integrating more collaborative features to our final prototype to help form a more engaged community.
