There are so many marginalized or socially ostracized groups out in the world we live in, that need safe places where they can come together and even share their stories to those outside of the group.

When taking on this speculative participatory design, I needed to challenge myself and step outside of myself and what I know. Yet I still wanted to work with a group that is near and dear to my heart. So, I decided to focus on single mothers. We have these great members of our communities that work hard and are raising the next generation, yet most of us have no idea what they go through or could even imagine the struggles that they face on a daily basis.

CONCEPT: I essentially came up with a large installation or digital wall that people could interact with the abstract shapes floating/dancing along on the wall. There would also be a section explaining the project and how to interact with it. People would be able to tap on each shape or bubble that would expand with statistics, facts, and personal stories about moms or those impacted by single moms in their community.  There would also be smaller screens alongside the larger screen that would contain the digital survey of statements that community members would choose from that would feed into the stats on the wall. Each statement would be matched to a color and shape from the wall. Each shape or bubble would also represent each community member that selected the correlating statement.

RESEARCH & HUMAN TESTING: Before I got to my final design, there were several phases of sketching, analog prototyping, digital prototyping, and human testing.  I received lots of great feedback, that lead to adding a description of the project on the wall. While before it was too ambiguous, some of my testers said they would never know that they could interact with the wall.