Spaces Between
Transforming waiting at the crosswalk into a breathing meditation
Recognition
Honorable Mention @ MDes
Featured in SF Design Week 2025
Timeline
August - December 2024
Project
Master of Design Thesis
My Role
Research
Conceptualization
Fabrication
Background
Who are we not designing wellness resources for?
Learning how to meditate is something you can do by signing up for a class, or downloading an app, or going on a silent retreat! But, who really gets to access these resources?
Approach
Can we bring mindfulness to public spaces?
In an attempt to democratize meditative practice, I sought to bring it to public spaces. I leveraged a combination of qualitative research and field testing to identify small-scale interventions.
Outcome
I created a prototype of a “meditative” crosswalk light and tested it on Le Roy and Hearst Avenue in Berkeley, CA. 100+ people engaged with the exercise, offering a blueprint for how small-scale interventions can lead to long-term behavior change.
An experiential prototype and a framework.
I investigated transitory spaces as a location for a potential intervention
Ethnographic Inquiries
Document people's behaviors and attitudes towards ‘waiting’
Visited 3 bus stop locations and observed activities a commuter will engage with while waiting
Interviewed 6 people about their experience waiting at the bus stop
What I Did
Key Takeaway
People are thinking of the future while waiting and disengage with their current environment
Diary Studies
Capture feelings associated with occupying and moving through transitory spaces
Recruited 4 participants for a week-long diary study
Designed a diary template to document entries, writing a short message and capturing a photo
What I Did
Key Takeaway
People crave a sense of privacy in public space (i.e. putting on their headphones, looking for empty seats on bus, )
How might we help people get out of their heads and into their bodies?
Research Probes
I conducted mini experiments in public places to get people to stop and inquire. I leveraged “unusual” media, such as a patch of moss, ocean and bird sounds, to defamiliarize public spaces in order to capture and engage people’s attention.
Breathing Intervention
The research probes helped me narrow down the scope of ideas. I focused on interventions that were playful and intuitive, eventually landing on the idea of a breathing animation at the pedestrian crosswalk light.
Prototyping & Testing
I sketched, designed, and tested visual-audio experiences with my peers to narrow down an intuitive breathing visualization.
FRAMEWORK
Small-Scale Wellness Interventions in Urban Spaces
While designing and testing public interventions, I also conducted a literature review to understand prior art and other disciplines that fell within my project.
This led me to develop a framework for how to enact long-term change to a city’s public health with small-scale actions.
What would the world look like if in all our moments of waiting, we took a moment to care for ourselves?
