Gizelle Hurtado

We were challenged to solve a mobility or safety issue in a highly populated city center around Los Angeles. My group and I decided to tackle the non-inviting and threatening environment at the Expo La Brea station. We decided on focusing on the safety of women at the station and came up with our concept of using interactive light projections to not only add more light to the sparsely lit area but to also give the station a more artistic feel so that it can be more inviting and safe.

We decided on focusing on the safety of women and those most vulnerable after witnessing at the station the dark and threatening environment, very few security guards, and the lack of ways of accessing help if needed.

Based on our observations and interviews conducted at Expo/La Brea station we made an insight that women feel the safest and least threatened at the station when they are unbothered. We observed that women usually put their headphones in, sit near security guards or gravitate towards the well-lit areas. We also observed that unfortunately the station is only well lit towards the center and there are only two security guards at the station that stand together leaving one side of the platform completely uncovered.

Our solution is IPCITY. IPCITY uses projection technology to alter the existing environment at the Expo/La Brea Metro platform, transforming it into an interactive, formal, art space. We came up with this solution after observing people at the station playing music and bringing that artist feel to the space making it a more pleasant environment. We also researched that there is a decrease in crime in artistic spaces.

In the course of two weeks, my team created an app using Adobe XD as part of the Adobe Design for Change Creative Jam sprint. We were challenged to, “Design a mobile phone app that empowers a specific audience to help improve part of the chain of food collection and distribution. The app must provide a mode of measurement or service to a single or multiple systems. The audience may be a party involved in some way in the supply chain or a messenger of public service (much like a watchdog monitoring and promoting awareness) around the severity of the insecurity issue of your choosing.”

My team decided to focus on food insecurity for seniors in rural areas because based on our research, we saw that there was a need to connect seniors who live far away and cannot physically go to the food banks by themselves.

When doing research on our target audience we came to the understanding that older adults in rural areas are the most vulnerable groups in regards to food insecurity. Great resources we referred to came from organizations like Food for People and Feeding America. For our concept, we got inspired by Meals on Wheels and thought what if we can have a service that can deliver produce to the elderly on a weekly basis in rural areas.

Our app connects seniors to food banks like Food for People in Humboldt County, California. On the app, they can browse recipes, order produce, and have it delivered directly to them by volunteers/drivers that are nearby or passing their location. We created this app to serve as a beacon for elderly folk so that they can receive fresh and nutritious food more frequently rather than on a weekly or monthly basis.

We were tasked by Activision to redesign their Call of Duty companion app in order to attract current and new players and to create a sense of community through the app. My team created a rating system called Preferred Players where players are able to rate each other as Preferred and Not Preferred. Players then have the ability to access a locked feature called Preferred SQUADS where they can interact with other like-minded players and form groups.

From our observation and research on the Call of Duty female audience, we came to the conclusion that for female gamers the gaming community is not a very welcoming environment for them especially in the Call of Duty community that is known for its toxic players. So we thought, how might we be able to use the companion app to create a more inclusive environment for female gamers and to help them find a community they feel safe with.

My teammate and I conducted some secondary research. We both focused on looking up and reading articles on the experience of female gamers and on what causes aggression and toxic behavior in players. According to our research, we came to the conclusion that the main reasons players engaged in toxic behavior when gaming is when a player is already an aggressive person in general or when the player is aggressive due to the competitive nature of the gaming community. We also interviewed women that have been playing video games since they were young and identify as female gamers. From these interviews, we found that most of them prefer to play with their friends instead of strangers so that they can avoid the constant harassment that comes with being a female gamer, especially when playing on mic in a multiplayer game. These women have also expressed that they have been harassed and degraded so often while playing video games that they have just accepted it as part of their gaming experience.

We created a rating system called Preferred Players where players are able to rate each other as Preferred and Not Preferred. Those with a high Preferred rating are able to access a locked Preferred SQUADS feature where they are able to form groups to play with. Those groups would contain like-minded, good-natured players.