Design for America ~ Project Bridging Familial Connections
This interactive mural visualizes the relationships between older and younger generations through shared family artifacts. Drawing on user research from surveys and interviews, it highlights memories from the past, current feelings, and reflections for the future. Visitors explore and engage with visualizations and artifact stories, and are invited to write a postcard reflecting on their own family objects, prompting consideration of how these heirlooms carry meaning across time.
Using the survey results, we identified shared sentiments around cherished family objects, which we then paired with interactive artifact stories gathered during interviews. This approach allowed us to create a narrative that encouraged viewers to reflect on the meaning of their own family artifacts. To visualize present-day feelings and perspectives, we took keywords from interviews and surveys, organized them into a bubble chart/word cloud, and displayed them as part of the mural. This visualization invited viewers to consider how the significance of their family objects has evolved over time. Finally, our design considered the future - the mural included an interactive component where visitors could write a postcard reflecting on their own family artifact, leaving them with a lingering question about the meaning of these objects.
Reflecting on this experience, I see how much it shaped my understanding of design as a practice rooted in empathy and storytelling. While it was at the beginning of my college career, it was particularly meaningful to me because it encouraged me to pursue social good through design instead of following my original path of being a lawyer. It also inspired me to continue documenting my own design journey and to pursue future projects that combine research and design in ways that have real human impact.
< Some later ideations of how to structure the mural
Team Timeless
Early on, I found myself wanting to explore the field of design a bit more. I found out about an organization called “Design for America” and applied to join a team that wanted to design something focused on improving communication between older and younger generations within immigrant families. This was a project that immediately resonated with me. I had previously worked with my immigrant grandmother to document her experience immigrating to the United States, an experience that taught me the value of listening deeply and translating personal narratives into visualizations. Design for America allowed me to expand on these skills, now in a collaborative, research-driven context.
Our team name was “Team Timeless”, to represent memories being preserved over time. Early in the project, we conducted interviews and surveys to understand the barriers immigrant families face when trying to communicate across generations. Through our initial Google Form survey, we found that 63% of participants felt uncomfortable expressing emotional concerns with family members, and only 5.3% reported having two-sided conversations. From our interviews, we identified key challenges such as cultural gaps and physical distance that shaped the direction of our design.
Some early ideations of ways to represent our research ^
