Design

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://digital.lib.washington.edu/handle/1773/34955

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Imaging Future Reciprocal Human–AI Encounters Through Interactive Exhibition: Designing Wander Poet AI
(2025-10-02) Liao, Xiaohan; Pierce, James; Muren, Dominic
This thesis presents Wander Poet AI, a playful anddiegetic prototype introducing unique interactions such as ritualistic awakening, refusing utilitarian tasks, requiring creative collaboration, and actively managing memories through manual curation by participants, limiting memory storage capacity to encourage thoughtful interactions in an interactive exhibition. The Wander Poet AI embraces ludic, speculative, and intentionally counterfunctional interactions, inviting participants to explore more profound and meaningful relationships with an AIembedded entity. The main research question of the thesis is: How can experimental AI art installations function as diegetic prototypes for alternative sociotechnical imaginaries that counter dominant AI narratives? Ultimately, this work aims to diversify and challenge dominant narratives about Artificial Intelligence, encouraging people to think more critically and creatively about meaningful interactions between humans and AI.
Prospective Memories: Futures of Monument Design
(2025-08-01) Bambach, Lisa; Matthews, Kristine
As societies negotiate meaningfulness, their collective values are encapsulated by tangible artifacts produced through the activity of designing. Prospective Memories: Futures of Monument Design explores the role of design in shaping collective memory along with the resulting discourse generated by the monuments that inhabit our public spaces. These forms serve as physical embodiments of perceived significance and are designed with the intention to influence the value systems of future generations. Conventional design paradigms for monuments have emphasized permanence and unchangeability, leading to an inherited public memorial landscape that struggles to accommodate evolving community identities. This thesis proposes the re-evaluation of conventional monument design frameworks by using diegetic prototypes to explore prospective scenarios that transform monuments from static objects into active participants in cultural and political dialogues. Ultimately, this research aims to offer a point of reflection through which designers can critique the status quo, priming a future monument landscape that is better able to reflect and adapt to contemporary societal shifts.
Advancing Verbal Communication Skills Through Transcript-Based Feedback : Designing an AI-Assisted Language Learning Application, “Stepping Stones, ” to Support ESL Students in Academic and Professional Contexts
(2025-08-01) Bae, Iris; Roesler, Axel
This thesis investigates communication challenges faced by English as a Second Language (ESL) learners from high-context language backgrounds, such as Korean, Japanese, and Chinese, in online academic and professional settings. Cultural norms around indirectness, shared context, and cautious self-expression often influence how learners communicate in English, leading to subtle but persistent barriers to clarity, participation, and confidence. Adopting a research-through-design approach, the study combines interviews, diary studies, and online meeting transcript analysis to surface recurring pain points in learner speech. These insights informed the development of Stepping Stones, an AI-powered learning application that provides context-aware feedback based on learners’ actual spoken interactions. While many conventional language learning tools often emphasize grammar instruction and scripted practice, this system draws on learners’ real conversational data to provide personalized feedback and lesson flows. By analyzing naturally occurring speech rather than pre-written responses, it addresses individual communication patterns shaped by cultural context and supports growth in expressive clarity, pragmatic fluency, and habit awareness. This thesis presents a design-driven exploration of how culturally rooted communication barriers might be addressed through personalized feedback grounded in real learner speech, aiming to raise new possibilities for how interaction design can respond to the needs of high-context ESL learners.
Reimagining Search: Exploring the Past, Present, and Designing the Future
(2025-08-01) Zhou, Quan; Roesler, Axel
Current search paradigms, while efficient for simple lookup tasks, fail to support the complex, contextual, and exploratory information-seeking behaviors that characterize human cognition. This thesis investigates how search interfaces might be redesigned to better align with natural human information-seeking patterns through spatial, social, and exploratory interaction paradigms.The research establishes three conceptual metaphors—library, marketplace, and Klondike—as a theoretical framework for understanding different dimensions of human search behavior. The library metaphor emphasizes spatial organization and adjacency relationships that enable serendipitous discovery. The marketplace metaphor highlights comparison processes and social dimensions of information evaluation. The Klondike metaphor addresses exploration of unknown territories where users cannot predict what they might find. Through iterative design exploration, these metaphors were integrated into NEXPLORE, an augmented reality search application that demonstrates spatial navigation through contextually-relevant information environments. NEXPLORE transforms search from keyword-based retrieval into environmental interaction, where users can look at objects and naturally inquire about them through voice, gesture, and spatial navigation. The system demonstrates this integration through a restaurant search experience that seamlessly transitions between marketplace-style comparison, library-style exploration, and frontier-style environmental awareness. The design employs a design-as-research methodology, treating prototyping as a form of inquiry that reveals insights about spatial search that could only emerge through experiencing alternative interaction paradigms. Key innovations include environmental context awareness that anticipates user needs, persistent spatial information organization that supports learning over time, and multimodal interaction that accommodates diverse cognitive styles. This research contributes both theoretical frameworks for understanding human information-seeking behavior and practical demonstrations of how search interfaces can leverage spatial intelligence, contextual awareness, and natural interaction to create more intuitive and effective information experiences. The work points toward a future where finding information feels less like interrogating a database and more like exploring a rich, responsive environment.
LoopLab: A Tool to Mitigate Resale Friction and Promote Circular Fashion
(2024-10-16) Xiong, Chuanzhe; Hall, Chad; Cheng, Karen
Excessive clothing consumption significantly contributes to waste and environmental degradation, exacerbating climate change. The Circular Economy (CE), particularly through Circular Fashion (CF), offers a solution by promoting the reuse and recycling of unwanted clothing. However, cumbersome and unrewarding resale processes limit the supply of used clothes, hindering widespread adoption. This thesis presents LoopLab, a white-label resale platform that enables fashion brands to establish their own resale services, increasing the supply of pre-worn garments. LoopLab simplifies the listing process by integrating with a brand’s existing e-commerce database, allowing customers to easily resell previous purchases via Digital IDs that access original product information. By reducing resale friction for consumers and increasing pre-worn inventory for brands, LoopLab aims to make circular practices more accessible and encourage a mindset shift towards longer-term garment use. Research shows that extending the usage period of clothing by nine months can reduce waste and carbon emissions by 20-30%, indicating LoopLab’s potential to lessen the fashion industry’s environmental impact.
Designing For Intuitive Safety in Backcountry Snowsports: A Multi-Disciplinary Exploration of Snow Science, Heuristic Strategies and Field Research to Design a Better Backcountry Skiing Pack
(2024-10-16) BRAUER, KRISTIAAN; Germany, Jason
Winter recreationists, especially backcountry skiers and splitboarders, need to rescue and provide care for companions if they are caught in an avalanche, a universal skill taught in avalanche education. However, minimal research has been done on users ability to recall and execute this training, unprompted, and no research has examined if the design of equipment (backpack, shovel, probe for example) can improve user’s recall and performance. To examine this problem, a survey was used to assemble demographic profiles of backcountry recreationists. Complete, in-situ simulations of single-rescuer companion rescues were performed using a sample population selected using the created demographic profiles. Finally, two modifications to users backpacks, utilizing known nudge strategies, were tested in abbreviated simulations of single-rescuer companion rescues. This research reveals that a large majority of backcountry skiers and splitboarders have received adequate rescue training and are able to perform a rescue from memory. However, digging strategy and subsequent medical care were found to be weak spots in the rescue process, diminishing survival chances for buried victims. Rescuers appear to be in a “flow state” as described by CsÃkszentmihÃ¡lyi, and are not influenced by tested nudge strategies. However, research revealed some effective design strategies which were distilled and implemented in the design of a backpack for skiers and splitboarders.
Flourishing: Exploring the Future of Menopause through Design
(2024-09-09) Kaneko, Maya; Matthews, Kristine
Flourishing explores how design can be utilized as a point of inquiry into the topic of menopause. Using design methods, qualitative research and a research through design approach this project uncovers the desires and challenges that come with the menopause transition. Summarized in a newsprint zine, titled “Tell Me About It,” stories and visions of the future are physicalized and given space. The zine is distributed throughout a gallery setting and is intended to reach audiences that may not otherwise encounter the topic in depth. The author reflects on her own journey talking about, writing about and designing for menopause in hopes that it informs future menopause design.
Ambiance: Designing for Emotional Connection in Remote Relationships
(2024-09-09) Koo, Min Jung; Liu, Meichun
In today’s rapidly evolving world, family dynamics, home environments, and communication methods areundergoing profound transformations. The rise of remote families and the trend towards personalized, smaller, and less crowded home spaces reflect a shift towards individuality and autonomy. This research employs a mixed-method approach to capture a range of data on emotional responses and family relationships. An in-context diary study was conducted to validate participants’ responses to the idea of an ambient soundgenerating bottle. The findings suggest that using a variety of personalized sounds, along with visual indications, can evoke various emotions and foster a sense of togetherness. Reflecting these findings, the Ambiance Bottle was developed through model-making techniques such as 3D printing, woodworking, glassblowing, and Arduino coding. This artifact aims to bridge the emotional gap in remote family relationships by creating a slow-paced, emotionally driven interaction within personalized home spaces. The final interaction with the bottle features personalized ambient sounds (live sharing, ambient recording, and memory playback) and visual cues (lighting) that enhance the emotional experience.
Between Lines: Critically Speculating Futures with Location-Based Recommendation Systems
(2024-09-09) Olson, Wyatt; Pierce, James
Location-based recommendation systems are becoming increasingly ubiquitous in the march toward fully tailored user experiences. Applications like Google Maps, Strava, Uber, Hinge, and many others utilize location data as key material for providing contextual recommendations. Rising concerns about usage and misuse of location data have arisen in recent years. I situate this thesis within design’s future-oriented nature, critically speculating possible futures with location-based recommenders. I propose a refinement of current approaches and speculative design for engaging domain experts in co-speculation through the use of tailored, high-fidelity, critical design fiction videos. In this case study, I lay preliminary insights, including a widespread sense of fatalism, self-described lack of agency, and underlying individualist ideologies driving development and deployment of these systems. I also reflect on the process of creating four critical design fiction videos, their use in 11 guided co-speculation sessions, and implications for their use in gathering rich qualitative data, creating space for reflection, prompting stories and personal connection, and unpacking experts' views on complex, wicked problems.
Life's Tapestry Rewriting the Narrative of Dementia, One Conversation at a Time
(2024-09-09) Mathew, Ann; Gould, Annabelle AG
Currently there are over 50 million people living with dementia and thisnumber is said to triple by 2050. Dementia was conventionally regarded as an irreversible progression leading to the eventual loss of essential human attributes and the sense of self. The accompanied social isolation and loneliness further decreases quality of life, it was also linked with quick declines of memory and language fluency. Frequent and meaningful social interactions can cause significant improvements. The use of Reminiscence Therapy is proven to bring a sense of accomplishment and provide joy through storytelling and can significantly support feelings of identity and confidence. Life's Tapestry is a conversational prompt card game that focuses on using Reminiscence Therapy to help individuals with early stage dementia improve their quality of social interactions
Softplane:Information Visualization on mixed-reality platforms
(2023-08-14) Jiang, Hongyuan; Pierce, James
This thesis examines the relevance and impact of Mixed Reality in near-future scenarios and investigates how Mixed Reality can be presented across different platforms. Using the Research through Design method, I created prototypes to probe various design aspects and gain insights into scenario environments and users involved. I developed an interactive prototype and speculative videos to refine the information currently presented, propose situated content visualization, and enrich the visualization format. The outcome suggests that Mixed Reality has great potential for enhancing user experience and providing new opportunities for complex information visualization.
CritBoard: Reimagining Online WhiteBoard Tools for Diverse Personalities
(2023-08-14) Wei, Chen; Liu, Meichun
The purpose of this design thesis was to identify the challenges that design students face duringin-person critiques, particularly related to providing constructive feedback to others. The study explored how different personality traits affect the ability to give feedback and how online whiteboard tools can help students and instructors overcome these challenges. The research methods included desktop research, literature review, surveys, and interviews. The findings revealed that there are five major pain points that prevent students from giving feedback, often due to subjective concerns related to their personality traits. While online whiteboard tools can help to some extent, they do not fully solve all the challenges. As a result, this thesis project includes an online whiteboard tool specifically tailored for design students with different personalities to facilitate critiques. This tool has the potential to reduce concerns and assist instructors in facilitating critiques and monitoring student participation. This design thesis also could provide valuable insights for design education practitioners to conduct more effective critiques based on pain points caused by students’ personality traits that are identified in the research.
Reimagining Social Innovation Platforms
(2023-08-14) Wells, Melanie Lynn; Germany, Jason; Cheng, Karen
This thesis explores the potential of digital platforms to enhance the practice of Design for Social Innovation (DSI), envisioning platforms as space with potential to inspire, support, and connect projects of positive social change, and the people that work on them, regardless of size and scale. Expert interviews, desk research, and case analysis revealed that while there are platforms that support DSI, they still have barriers to community initiation of, and involvement in, projects whose interventions will directly impact their communities. In response, this thesis proposes a conceptual design of a platform that weaves together social innovation projects across communities and initiatives — reimagining mutual, peer-based support for community led efforts. The platform prioritizes support for grassroots projects, helping community members create the positive change they’d like to see in their communities. The outcome is a prototype that communicates the value of platforms as a space for inclusive collaboration and knowledge-sharing across initiatives and communities, exposing new opportunities for the growth of Design for Social Innovation as a practice.
Reimagine Domestic Voice Assistants: Speculating About Future Scenarios
(2023-08-14) Weizenegger, Claire; Pierce, James JP
Today’s world is more technologically mediated than ever before. The progress in consumer smart technologies is wonderful and world-changing, but it is also racist, sexist, and discriminating. This thesis critically examines the prevailing issue of sexism in domestic Voice Assistants. The design inquiry investigates the anthropomorphism of technology leading to (false) emotional ties, the gendered representation of Voice Assistants as the 24/7 available persona, and the bigger question of how technology shapes human experience. The repercussions of these design choices contribute to reinforcing harmful gender biases and perpetuating inequality. Following the research through design principles, I have used design proposals, sketches, scenarios, and prototypes to reconsider and critically reflect upon current norms of design and interaction with voice agents at home. Through the creation of two artifacts and speculative videos, the outcome proposes a future where voice agents transition from mere assistants to social actors with agency. It challenges current norms and roles assigned to domestic voice agents toward a more equitable and morally conscious technological landscape.
Maniera Etrusca: Gardens, Vernacular Landscape, and Regional Identity in Sixteenth Century Tuscia
(2023-01-21) Coty, Katherine Michelle; Lingo, Stuart
Tuscia, a volcanic region of central Italy between Florence and Rome, is home to a veritable cohort of interrelated designed landscapes, which until now had never received their own regional study. Three of these sites are well known to scholars of art history and landscape architecture—Villa Lante in Bagnaia, Villa Farnese in Caprarola, and the Sacro Bosco in Bomarzo—and figure prominently in studies of central Italian villeggiatura during the late Renaissance. However, our understanding of these sites has ultimately remained divorced from their surrounding cultural and topographical landscape. This dissertation is a recontextualization of these designed landscapes through a specifically regional lens, and I frame these sites as products of a lively and ongoing dialogue between their patrons concerning gardens, villa culture, and the distinctive nature of Tuscian landscape. As the patrons’ conversations about art, nature, and local identity evolved, so too did their gardens, and across the chapters of my dissertation I demonstrate how these sites appear to have responded to each other throughout the mid- to late sixteenth century. These chapters approach the patrons’ designed landscapes from a material and experiential perspective, shifting the dialogue away from what is represented within the gardens and onto the matter of how landscape was organized and how its constituent elements were utilized. This dissertation intervenes against iconographic, programmatic readings of the sites that focus on discourses of pastoralism, epic literature, and Roman antiquarianism, and proposes a new perspective which privileges the gardens’ relationships with the surrounding territory over emblematic meaning. Through this lens, the present study ultimately reveals what I have termed the maniera etrusca, a uniquely regional school of art which emerged in sixteenth century Tuscia, celebrating local vernacular culture and Etruscan heritage.
Not Entirely Dead
(2022-09-23) Yang, Eason; Gould, Annabelle
The hard work of defeating cancer is often seen as an unfavorable career gap. But fighting cancer is one of the toughest jobs an individual will ever have and it deserves a place on the resume. The competencies cancer survivors cultivate through adversity are Super-Abilities, not disabilities or liabilities, as current workplace biases might suggest. Grit, determination, resilience, ownership, dedication, empathy: these are the important skills companies are looking for in prospective hires. Named for “No Evidence of Disease” (a medical term) and “Not Entirely Dead” (an inside joke for cancer patients), NED is a social enterprise championing the 600,000+ young adult cancer survivors (ages 19–39) in the U.S. who are ready to work again.
Shifting Places: Envisioning Rock Climbing and Dynamic Movement in Mixed Reality
(2022-07-14) Rhee, Rebecca; Roesler, Axel
Climbing is a complex and extreme sport. It is a battle of will, endurance, and strength to perform greats by defying gravity. The success of completing a climb encompasses struggles and many falls. Climbers will train constantly in order to climb to the top. A method of training for rock climbing often occurs through visualization of mental models. Climbers use mental models to define the hardest sections and places to strategically rest. This type of training is crucial to rapidly strategize solutions for competitions or for off-site practice. Mental models are an effective way to infer spatial relationships between recognizable landmarks such as holds. However, mental models lack complete accuracy. Mixed reality has the potential to support visualization training by bridging the gap between the mental model and the actual route. The combination of a physical mechanical wall and a digital overlay of a climbing route offers to bring mental models to a tangible space. This thesis envisions how rock climbing could utilize mixed reality to provide an experience that mimics the reality of climbing. Its intent is to support visualization training for climbers.
Our Grails: Conversations on Our Most Prized Sneakers
(2022-07-14) Body, Julian Ivory; Matthews, Kristine
This thesis is a cultural, sociological study that examines identity through the pursuit and ownership of grails, sneakers considered to be most prized by an individual. Framed through conversations with 24 sneaker collectors, it identifies these cherished artifacts as the coalescence of individuality, life experience, and personal aspirations. Applying design as a complimentary storytelling medium, its aim is to capture what it means to know one’s self through a sneaker.
The invisible weight of cognitive labor
(2022-07-14) Waldrop, Stephanie; Desjardins, Audrey
Cognitive labor is the mental work it takes to run a home. This type of labor, separate from physical tasks, is a form of domestic labor that often goes unnoticed, it is often invisible. This invisible mechanism that shapes our home life has historically been excluded from research on topics related to dimensions of household work. Because of this, it is difficult to generate a full, nuanced account of the domestic work that occurs in our everyday lives.This thesis uses design as a means to better visualize and make tangible this invisible facet of home labor.
My Color: Finding Your Optimal Color Style through ML
(2022-07-14) Kim, Sooji; Ahn, Sang-gyeun
During the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Machine Learning (ML) has become one of the most critical technologies in various industries around the world. However, designers tend to view ML as challenging to understand in the design field because they are not familiar with using ML in their actual work. In this paper, I focus on exploring a method that can design a better user experience (UX) in shopping using ML. I present the app My Color, which can analyze people’s interior color style and offer recommended colors based on their style preferences. Through this project, I suggest what specifically ML applied design projects can be, and I discuss methodology about how designers can use it positively without being overwhelmed.

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