As part of a Fellowship with the Civic Data Design Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, I assisted NiJeL with the update of the NSF funded City Digits project, combining administrative and business data with qualitative student-led research in an interactive learning tool. This collaborative project among the Civic Data Design Lab, the Center for Urban Pedagogy, and CUNY’s Brooklyn College develops, pilots, and tests innovative resources and tools that support high school students’ learning of mathematics.
The Cash City tool is a visualization of the spatial patterns of AFIs, or alternative financial institutions (i.e. pawn shops, cash checking, wire transfers), in New York City. It is a site for discussion about how AFIs affect local communities. Cash City is the second module of the City Digits project, an effort to develop place-based curricular modules that investigate and analyze specific themes related to the local, urban context to support high school students’ learning of mathematics. The curricular modules are enhanced by the integration of geo-spatial technologies, which enable students to explore their local urban landscape, collect field data, and organize and visualize patterns.
While not the primary UX designer, I assisted with the major design questions that arose while the site was in development. I also assisted with user research and testing both with teachers and students.
As a recent Schara Resident through the University of Michigan Stamps School of Art + Design, I was able to engage with Detroit students and teachers to integrate art and design into existing curriculum. Through the generosity of the Michele Schara Artist & Designer in Residence Program, part of the Stamps’ Detroit Connections Program, I was able to propose and complete a project with an art teacher at the Detroit Community High School in the Brightmoor neighborhood.
The robotics course I collaborated with was an arts course requiring students to “build art that moves and lights up.” This structure allowed for tangible application of core STEM concepts while injecting the arts to enable and engage different types of learners. The STEAM (STEM + Arts) approach we used in designing and developing an illustrated reference on foundational physics concepts was grounded in materials and applied experience, in order to help students better grasp the connection these concepts have on the built-world.
The illustrated zine was based on the chapter: Power Transmission: Getting Power to Your Wheels in Build Your Own Combat Robot by Pete Miles & Tom Carrol
Thanks also to Jeff Herbstman who edited the zine for accuracy.
Throughout Detroit, there is a clear need among families for better information about how the education system works. This is particularly crucial among families with young children who are about to enter our city’s complex and highly segmented education system. Additionally, the research is clear that kids who go to pre-school are much more successful than kids who do not.
With all this in mind, Excellent Schools Detroit asked for assistance to build awareness about the three major options for affordable pre-school for low-income families in Detroit: Head Start, the Great Start Readiness Program and a statewide Child Care Subsidy. I worked with Libby Cole and Kikko Paradela through The Work Department, a Detroit-based design firm. Using a human-centered approach, we gathered input from parents and education experts to inspire the content and design. We then tested prototypes with both English and Spanish speaking parents to inform the final product.
My Roles: Policy & Program Research Lead, User Research & Testing, Design Team
As one of the founding members of Co.Open, a media making cooperative that provides experience and training to Detroit creatives, I provided project management support and mentoring on several projects in our initial year. As mentors we helped emerging designers build paid professional experience while ensuring quality work to our clients. In addition to keeping projects on track and interfacing with clients, I also provided design feedback and critique. I primarily worked with designer and developer Sean Coté. Co.Open is currently being incubated by Allied Media Projects.
Included below are some of Sean’s design pieces on which I provided mentorship and feedback.
While at Data Driven Detroit (D3), I designed the print version of the K12 Scorecard for Excellent Schools Detroit. The ESD Scorecard allows parents to assess school quality and compare Detroit kindergarten, elementary, middle and high schools across a consistent set of indicators. I helped summarize essential information from the online version into an accessible print version. Complex information included school data and the methodology uses to calculate grades. Extensive participatory user research was done with a variety of Detroit parents to determine the most convenient format, literacy level, and preferred information to be included prior to initial design. Iterative and human centered design will be employed in another round of user testing in 2014.
My Role: Participatory User Research, Data Cleaning & Management, Design & Layout.
Data Driven Detroit (D3) has been working hard to communicate to stakeholders and potential partners throughout the region why data is essential for making informed decisions. Data can be an abstract concept. In order to make data more accessible, I designed these infograpics to help tell the D3 story. They are meant to be used as part of a presentation.
My Role: Designer and Editor
As a consultant for UNICEF Botswana I developed, designed and illustrated training materials for government health workers. The materials summarized technical anthropometric nutrition measurements including: Oedema, MUAC, Length/Height & Weight. Participatory design approaches were employed to develop a design specifically engaging to the target audience. I worked out of the Nutrition Unit in the Botswana Ministry of Health and coordinated the project with MoH and UNICEF.
My Role: Participatory Research, Coordinated multiple stakeholders, Design & Layout
Health Extension Workers are the foundation of Ethiopia’s new health decentralization program which aims to increase health coverage in the rural areas. These workers are based in areas where they are originally from; they are young and enthusiastic women and men trained in preventative care.
In summer of 2007, I lead a team of researchers in creating a visual literacy survey and needs assessment for Ethiopia’s community-based health workers in the Oromia region. We wanted to know what the role of health education and health education materials played in their daily activities. Determining what materials, images and visual aids would be most accessible to these workers and their specific context was also a significant part of our research.
The results of this research were applied directly to define the design environment for creating an illustrated childbirth resource manual. An evidence-based approach was used to determine the subject matter of this resource in addition to its size, level, language, design and layout of visual aids. Currently this 100 page manual is being translated and will hopefully be printed and distributed before the end of the year.
In addition, this research was accepted for presentation at Unite for Sight’s Global Health Conference at Yale University in April 2009.
As project leader and interface designer for a $10,000 Grant Opportunities [Collaborative Spaces] (GROCS) grant, our team of five researchers designed an online application to assist health workers in health education material creation. This website “global studio: health network” is intended for health workers in low-resource environments; it provides educational scaffolding for the development of locale-specific public health materials for and by health workers who may not have a background in material creation or design. It also would allow health workers to network with each other as they create a library of online resources. As part of the process we explored ways in which mobile phones can be incorporated into the site to further democratize the power of information technology.
My Role: Writing Grant, Building Team, Team Leader, Concept Development, Research, Design & Layout
Included are the wireframes I developed.
This project was created during my time as a consultant for the Bahir Dar branch of German Agro Action, a food security NGO working in Ethiopia. This 3m x 4m billboard details soil conservation tactics, including check dams, low-impact grazing and irrigation as well as soil securing vegetation and basic nutritional information. The intended audience is the rural farming population who reside in isolated areas of the Amhara region.
My Role: Participatory Research with Target Audience, Illustration, Overseeing Translation, Design & Layout.
Research assistant, designer. Discrete Choice in Health Utilization. Ann Arbor. 2007.
Designed and illustrated Dr. Margaret Kruk’s discrete choice survey, used to interview rural women in Tanzania about their decisions to seek professionally attended childbirth. Survey also implemented in Ethiopia.
Intern, writer, designer & illustrator. Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, BoFED. 2003-2004.
Illustrated and wrote participatory monitoring and evaluation manual for Bureau of Finance and Economic Development (BoFED) of Amhara Region. Distributed to 5,000 government officials. Also disseminated via AGGAR magazine as Community Comics!
Volunteer. Awassa, Ethiopia & University of Michigan. VCT. 2005-06.
Developed and designed 24-page narrative comic to educate low-literate audience about benefits of HIV testing. Worked closely with Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT), a governmental HIV/AIDS organization.
Interviewer, illustrator. My Voice, My Choice. State of Ohio. 2005.
Interviewed mentally handicapped about satisfaction with care provider throughout the state of Ohio. Commissioned to illustrate likert survey used to make questionnaire more accessible and results more accurate for low-literate and speech impeded individuals. Survey funded by Ohio’s Developmental Disabilities Council.
