Author: Stuti Mehta

Sp24 Rice Recreation Center, Spring 2024

Immerse: Team Rec Center

Stuti Mehta

Hi DFA! Over the past few weeks, we have continued to familiarize ourselves with this project and gathered further insights into our problem space. On that end, we created and sent out a questionnaire to Rice students, and we have collected over 40 responses so far! We also had the amazing opportunity to speak to a few panelists on this topic, which has allowed us to develop a user persona that will guide us through future steps in our design process.   Jason is a 19-year-old Rice freshman who has used a wheelchair since a young age. Jason loved working … Continue reading Immerse: Team Rec Center

Sp24 Rice Recreation Center, Spring 2024

Identify: Team Rec Center

Stuti Mehta

Hey DFA! This week our team worked on researching our problem space and held an interview with our community partners at the Rec. There, we narrowed down potential problem spaces that we would tackle like high traffic areas. As for our research, we found that there is no formal method of communication between the users and our clients. To address this, we’ve moved to develop a survey to gather user inputs for the general Rice population.  It’s important to go through the identify step in order to outline the user information that’s readily available and what holes might exist when … Continue reading Identify: Team Rec Center

Sp24 Air Alliance, Spring 2024

Test: Team Air Alliance

Stuti Mehta

In the testing phase of our project, our goal was to get feedback on our CAB framework and find out what users, potential CAB members, and AAH would like to see most out of it. To do this, we created a rough draft of our CAB framework and a google form that people could respond to as a way to give us their feedback. This form contained a link to our framework draft so anyone responding to it could look over the draft while they were answering questions. We first asked general questions about aesthetics and what the overall framework … Continue reading Test: Team Air Alliance

Sp24 Air Alliance, Spring 2024

Build: Team Air Alliance

Stuti Mehta

Build is the stage in the design process where the ideas, research, and dedication start coming together into tangible products. Here, we built out a few prototype skeletons to then test and receive feedback on.  During Build, our team focused on creating the community advisory board framework we had been gathering insights for so far in the process. This included first creating an outline of all the subsections we wanted our outline to follow as well as the high-level information we wanted our framework to include. After this, we drafted a document that included all the information in an outline … Continue reading Build: Team Air Alliance

Sp24 Air Alliance, Spring 2024

Ideate: Team Air Alliance

Stuti Mehta

Our Ideate phase consisted of a more in-depth analysis of our preemptive solutions. We started brainstorming these solutions with a Jamboard, on which we grouped a number of different ideas into categories like community engagement and CAB outlines. These themes translated into two different solution branches– the framework and a smaller scale solution both of which fit our HCW statement. Both processes can be testable with sets of guidelines we’ve found related to CABs. One of these framework outlines comes from the Urban Institute and contains a checklist to run through as we build the CAB framework for AAH. Additionally, … Continue reading Ideate: Team Air Alliance

Sp24 Air Alliance, Spring 2024

Reframe: Team Air Alliance

Stuti Mehta

This week we went through the steps of reframing our problem space and looking at our project from different angles. We began by reviewing our major insights from online and site research done during immerse. We consolidated these insights and found that our main targets in creating a CAB framework were accessibility, empowerment, and synchronicity. After reviewing our insights, we looked at existing CABs and began research on how, where, and with whom they operated. In thinking about potential barriers to the project we came up with more “how can we” statements to pair with our key insights and eventually … Continue reading Reframe: Team Air Alliance

Sp24 Air Alliance, Spring 2024

Identify: Team Air Alliance

Stuti Mehta

During the identify stage, our team worked on scoping our project: we jotted down our initial assumptions on the community’s needs, project accessibility, and the overall practicality of potential designs. In this initial process, we found that low-income communities are most impacted by air pollution due to lack of regulation, and these communities likely may be unaware of the impacts of these environmental hazards. We then sought out ways to identify design avenues. This came in the form of preliminary research to determine potential community organizations that could help us design a community advisory board framework. We brainstormed with several … Continue reading Identify: Team Air Alliance

Sp24 ADDA, Spring 2024

Build: Team ADDA

Stuti Mehta

This week, we aimed to develop a lo-fi prototype that would address the question, “How can we reorganize and update current communication methods with adults with ADHD, parents of children with ADHD, and ADDA members in Houston/the South to better connect them with relevant ADDA resources?” To answer our question, we conducted user interviews to gather feedback on the relevance and effectiveness of ADDA’s current newsletter communications. Our interviews focused on understanding what resources and information are most relevant to users, what types of support they are interested in, and how they currently find ADDA resources. Additionally, we explored their … Continue reading Build: Team ADDA

Sp24 ADDA, Spring 2024

Ideate: Team ADDA

Stuti Mehta

This week, we started formulating more concrete and implementable solutions for ADDA. We wanted to emphasize making it as easy as possible for members/users to find the relevant information they are seeking, especially through avenues they are already familiar with. We narrowed it down to a website redesign, and a newsletter redesign. We decided against more “traditional” methods of sharing information, such as social media, since Pam highlighted that the main way people stay updated is through the newsletter, and websites are generally more flexible than Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.  Continue reading Ideate: Team ADDA

Sp24 ADDA, Spring 2024

Reframe: Team ADDA

Stuti Mehta

This week, we delved into understanding the challenges that ADDA faces. Through user interviews and research, we discovered ADDA’s core problems from reaching users: limited resources and ineffective communication. To address these issues, we framed a how can we statement with a clear vision and goal to solve a user-focused problem. Our goal was to reorganize ADDA’s communication methods to ultimately foster greater user outreach, engagement, and participation. If these goals are not met, ADDA may continue struggling to retain and attract members. This could lead to decreased engagement in workshops and support groups, as well as a lack of … Continue reading Reframe: Team ADDA

Sp24 ADDA, Spring 2024

Immerse: Team ADDA

Stuti Mehta

Jill is a mother with a 8 year old daughter who was recently diagnosed with ADHD. Jill does not have ADHD so does not know much about it. She wants to learn more about it, so she searches for resources in her local area and comes across ADDA. However, it’s difficult for her to locate the relevant resources she needs to learn more about ADHD in children.  This user persona ties into our main insight about users struggling to find relevant resources and how they won’t use resources that aren’t relevant to their lives. It also highlights the insight that … Continue reading Immerse: Team ADDA

Sp24 ADDA, Spring 2024

Identify: Team ADDA

Stuti Mehta

This week, the ADDA team worked on defining the project scope and the prior knowledge surrounding ADHD. We identified the magnitude of the problem, including how it impacts our users’ daily lives and how our solution would be able to apply to other similar communities, like other mental health illnesses. Then we focused our attention on the current knowledge, researching on statistics, assumptions, questions, personal experiences, connections, and any easy solutions. We unearthed a lot of assumptions surrounding ADHD symptoms, like how it is only exhibited through hyperactivity, and thus only present in boys, and how it isn’t a “real” … Continue reading Identify: Team ADDA

Fa23 RMA, Fall 2023

Reframe: Team Rice Mutual Aid

Stuti Mehta

This week, we have been refining our approach to the problem space by focusing on key insights, potential solutions, and setting specific goals. The major insights gathered are related to existing solutions, such as the AOP (Access and Opportunity Portal) and the Magister Furnd. We’ve identified barriers that we may face, which include the challenge of closed funds and the limited involvement of existing members in Rice Mutual Aid. We’ve brainstormed several How Can We statements to contribute to one ‘final’ HCW: How can we streamline RMA’s communication and outreach strategies at/in current students and alumni to enhance student awareness … Continue reading Reframe: Team Rice Mutual Aid

Fa23 RMA, Fall 2023

Immerse: Team Rice Mutual Aid

Stuti Mehta

Our research was collected from our interview with the Co director of Rice Mutual aid and external research on RMA. Our users are Rice University students who face emergency crises (e.g., medical or personal) on a case-by-case basis who rely on Rice Mutual Aid during these times. Example of user scenario:  A Rice University student faces a sudden medical emergency. Needing immediate assistance but wishing to remain anonymous, they turned to Rice Mutual Aid (RMA). With a quick, anonymous request, they receive fast help without needing to go through a detailed explanation of their situation, thanks to RMA’s discreet support … Continue reading Immerse: Team Rice Mutual Aid

Fa23 RMA, Fall 2023

Identify: Team Rice Mutual Aid

Stuti Mehta

This week, our team delved deep into the pressing issue: understanding how we can establish a robust Mutual Aid system to better support the emergency assistance needs of Rice students. Central to our exploration was the question of feasibility; namely, would we have the right stakeholders and influence to address this challenge effectively? A surprising revelation was that there’s currently no funding available, nudging us to consider innovative fundraising strategies. Our own experiences, notably some eye-opening insights from my past, underscored the need for this initiative. Going through this ‘Identify’ step has been transformative; it not only clarified the contours … Continue reading Identify: Team Rice Mutual Aid

Fa23 Baker Ripley, Fall 2023

Test: Team Baker Ripley

Stuti Mehta

After building out our recommendations for Baker Ripley, we sought to test these ideas by sending a form out to the site specialists (people who run each Baker Ripley senior center) and get their point of view on these changes as well as discuss the ideas with Angie and Sykra. While we did not get any responses yet from the survey, Angie and Sykra were both very receptive to our suggestions and based on their feedback we decided to re-design our prototype focusing more on creating “one-pagers” that could be used for site supervisor training. Continue reading Test: Team Baker Ripley

Fa23 Baker Ripley, Fall 2023

Build: Team Baker Ripley

Stuti Mehta

For build our team began to synthesize our insights from interviews, survey data, and visiting Baker Ripley locations. From doing so we came up with several different weak points within Baker Ripley that we wanted to address through our design. With these in mind we began low fidelity prototyping, what this means is brainstorming some initial ideas regarding how we can help Baker Ripley and identifying where we could make the biggest impact from the different problems we found. Once we decided communication was the most important problem, we could find we went to work figuring out how to set … Continue reading Build: Team Baker Ripley

Fa23 Baker Ripley, Fall 2023

Ideate: Team Baker Ripley

Stuti Mehta

When contemplating the problem we aimed to solve, we successfully refined our focus through discussions with our community partner and visits to Baker Ripley sites. Based on the information acquired, we determined that our primary goal would be to reduce the communication gap among Baker Ripley staff members, enhancing the internal system and, therefore, generating a positive impact for senior users. Throughout the solution development phase, we consistently guided ourselves with our “How can we” statement, ensuring that our proposed solutions were practical and directly addressed the identified problem. Our approach to generating solutions primarily involved individual brainstorming to prevent … Continue reading Ideate: Team Baker Ripley

Fa23 Baker Ripley, Fall 2023

Mid-Semester Review: Team Baker Ripley

Stuti Mehta

During the Mid-semester Review, our team presented our progress to the entire studio. We aimed to make the presentation engaging, considering that the audience could likely relate to having grandparents or knowing seniors. In crafting our presentation, we narrowed down our key insights and highlighted the upcoming steps before delving into brainstorming solutions for our problem. The feedback we received prompted us to make a decision and concentrate on a specific problem before initiating the ideation process. Continue reading Mid-Semester Review: Team Baker Ripley

Fa23 Baker Ripley, Fall 2023

Reframe: Team Baker Ripley

Stuti Mehta

In reframe, our team was able to cluster our broad and specific key insights generated from our conversations with seniors, Baker Ripley staff, our community partner, Angie White, and visits to the facilities. After going over our notes from these interviews, we determined that socialization and senior intrinsic motivation were two key reasons seniors want to attend health and wellness events. Our third key insight was transportation, which is one of the main barriers to attending a Baker Ripley event. These clustered insights formed the basis of our narrower how can we questions.  Our goal is that as we continue … Continue reading Reframe: Team Baker Ripley