Queenie Szu-Yu Huang’s Selected Works
YOUTOPIA is an interactive city model that challenges viewers in considering what values they would prioritize in an ideal society, based on the core concepts of NYU research Children's Social Representations of Utopian Societies.
Timeline
February to May 2023
February to May 2023
Class
Playful Communication of Serious Research with Brett Peterson
Playful Communication of Serious Research with Brett Peterson
My Tasks
Ideation
Content Research
User Testing
Researcher Interview
3D Design, Prototype and Fabrication
Ideation
Content Research
User Testing
Researcher Interview
3D Design, Prototype and Fabrication
Team
Bruce Arthur Jr.
Jaxon Wang
Karina Chow
Lily Yu
Bruce Arthur Jr.
Jaxon Wang
Karina Chow
Lily Yu
Research -> Playful Museum Experience
The aim of the class was to turn a research at NYU’s other departments into a museum-like exhibit. Motivated by my personal theoretical interests, our team reached out to Dr. Jost and his collaborators for their research on Children’s Social Representations of Utopian Societies.
The study asks fifth grade students to identify two major issues with our current society and design a utopia that attempts to tackle those issues. The researchers then analyzed the results based on their engagement with values from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Our takeaway after some in-depth analysis and interview was the focus on how utopias are essentially a vision that reflects our goals as a collective in societies. It is a representation of informed choices from our diverse backgrounds.
Takeaway:
What are the two major issues we as a collective should focus most on in an ideal society?
Conceptual Package
Taking the above major question posed to the fifth grade children in the research, we focused our ideation on experiences that would challenge viewers with similar considerations. We presented three different possibilities for realizing this to designers from American Museum of Natural History and refined our projects based on their feedback.
Refining Details
Much of the early stages were about digesting a complicated research and reconsider it as an interactive experiences.
User Testing
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Throughout the process, we did several user tests to improve the user flow and explore the best
Prototyping
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We went through iterations of paper, cardboard, and wood prototypes to test out functionality, technical details and design choices.
An Utopian city that reflects viewers’ values
Clear Instructions
The experience starts with a clear graphical overview of the research and instructions guiding to pick two tokens representing the values they prioritize for our society the most.
Acknowledging Viewer Input
through sensors that detect tokens and trigger changes in the projection
