Gabriela Castro

A physical and digital space where students develop a sense of belonging by sharing their stories while also helping colleges understand their needs.

Challenged to use Beyond 12’s digital coaching platform to mobilize community college students to redesign their institutions so they are more accessible, affordable, inclusive and relevant. However, we learned from our research that students didn't feel a sense of belonging, or community in their college.

During our interviews with students and professors from a community college it became clear that students would not drive change, if there's no culture of belonging.

We created a physical and digital space where students can develop a sense of belonging by sharing their stories while also helping colleges understand their needs and provide a more inclusive, accessible, affordable and relevant experience for students.

This was a two-week sprint where we were challenged to design a mobile app that empowers a specific audience to help improve part of the chain of food collection and distribution.

We discovered the need to bring to light older adults who faced food insecurity and loneliness during the pandemic.

Our research showed that: Older adults struggled to leave their homes to do groceries, and many of those older adults may not have enough money to pay for their groceries. The increasing unemployment rate due to the pandemic made it difficult for many families to put dinner on the table. Grocery stores waste food because of its appearance or approaching expiration date.

We developed an app that incentivizes volunteers to help their neighbors in need by contributing monetarily towards their groceries and delivering them safely to help improve parts of the supply chain.

A conversational AI audio-navigation that provides independent way-finding for visually impaired guests at Century City Mall.

Century City Mall is a beautiful, modern and very large mall. Sighted people get lost due to its size and complex layout, but they are able to use the interactive directories to navigate to their desired stores or services. However, the directories are not accessible to vision-impaired guests, making it impossible for them to navigate the mall due to the lack of accessible way-finding.

During our interviews we discovered that visually impaired people not only lack accessible way-finding, but they also lack independence. Some interviewees also mentioned that completing a task independently boosts their confidence level.

Wes: an AI assistant integrated into the existing Westfield app. Wes combines the built-in GPS capability found in virtually every smartphone today with a map of the mall to accurately pinpoint a guest's location. Using that information, Wes provides conversational audio directions and environmental descriptions. Wes also takes the guest’s walking speed into consideration, so visitors don’t feel rushed, can easily find their destination and be informed of their surroundings, thus creating a much more accessible and enjoyable mall experience.