Experience a Day in the Life of a CMU Student.

Experience a Day in the Life of a CMU Student.

Engaged and improved the experience of thousands of annual guests who visit Carnegie Mellon University, contributing to a 60% boost in perceived cultural understanding, and rich visitor reflections on student work, creativity, and campus traditions.

Project Length: 15 weeks (Summer 2024)

Team

Felix Cooper, Hannah Lesser, Daphne Peters(Advisor), Haeyoung Kim(Advisor)

Role

Spatial Design, Content Strategy, Interaction Design, Fabrication, Physical Prototyping, UI

Tools

Rhino, Raspberry Pi, Aftereffects, Illustrator, Photoshop

Project Data

Contribution & Impact

Contribution & Impact

  1. Researched content strategies and iterated upon layouts and spatial narratives

  2. Rendered 3D visualizations for conceptual and pre-installation client presentations

  3. Curated and collected 15+ pieces of student work for a display highlighting maker space

  4. Ideated and fabricated an interactive kiosk for "The Fence": a unique student tradition

Installation Theme

A Day in the Life at CMU

A Day in the Life at CMU

Our touch points focus on showing various aspects of what it's actually like to be a CMU student. Each include an interactive element that promotes active learning and engagement.

JOIN US!

Cheese Club…?

Cheese Club…?

Visitors discover life outside academics by spinning triangles to see the variety and number of student clubs and organizations.

Student Activites Wall

The Best Coffee!

The Best Coffee!

The activity wall invites engagement during wait times through tearaway pads with mini games, fun facts, and student life tidbits!

Random Fence Generator

Student Voices

Student Voices

A fence on campus that students paint with friends and their organizations. Each paint swipe pulls a random image, showing what was painted on The Fence that day.

Maker Space & Work Display

Student Creativity

Student Creativity

Showcase of student work and how maker facilities support them. Ensured projects were well documented, descriptive, and accessible to visitors through a QR code↗

Wayfinding & Signage

Is This the Right Place?

Is This the Right Place?

An opportunity we defined was clearer signage for check-in, the welcome center itself, and for basic necessities like restrooms!

A nice big welcome! In addition to consolidating the check-in desk, we added a large signal letting guest know they're in the right place.

Guests had trouble locating the restroom, located around the corner out of immediate view—here we add a sign to aid in way-finding.

Spatial Opportunities

Belonging at Carnegie Mellon University

Belonging at Carnegie Mellon University

Through research and workshops, the team identified several opportunities and insights about how to create a more welcoming first impression of CMU.

Two mirrored desks often confused visitors, and a large space in the back of the welcome center was heavily underutilized and often walled off, as seen in the image to the left side of the desks.

Random Fence Generator

Learning Through Active Participation

Learning Through Active Participation

I was involved from ideation to installation. Visitors interact by "painting" the mini fence to explore an archive of what/who painted The Fence on a random day.

Interact to see what was happening that day on campus, in the world, or in someone's daily student life!

CMU Student Culture

A screensaver to introduce the kiosk and communicate the variety of messages and reasons for painting The Fence.

Teeny Tiny Fence

A model of The Fence sits on the kiosk in front of a real paint brush, to interact, and simulate painting and brush strokes.

"Paint" to Interact

Each swipe triggers a random day from the past—with a blurb about the painters and the meaning of the message.

Iteration & Client Presentation

Pre-Install Visualization

Pre-Install Visualization

We proposed several themes and strategies for content organization, with clear interactive elements and options for stakeholders to resonate with and choose from.

From viewer's left to right: Student Activities Pads, Fence History Generator, & Student Works Display

From viewer's left to right: Student Activities Pads, Fence History Generator, & Student Works Display

Render showing newly arranged seating, and the addition of a CMU merchandise display

Render showing newly arranged seating, and the addition of a CMU merchandise display

Process Snapshot

Working Within the Footprint

Working Within the Footprint

A constraint was not being able to change existing infrastructure. By rearranging existing furniture and removing confusing elements, we improved the visitor flow significantly.

Reflection

Deadlines & Collaboration

Deadlines & Collaboration

I appreciated the opportunity to tell the story of my temporary home of four years and apply learnings from studio projects in an impactful way. 

I enjoyed working against deadlines, which helped me prioritize and be decisive. I was consistently put on several tasks simultaneously(coordinating student work collection, physically computing, and rendering visualizations), and I liked the challenge.

I found my skillset most useful in the early planning phases—organizing large amounts of information/research into content areas and themes, spatially mapping them into the physical space. I was able to communicate effectively between my teammates because I was involved in both physical fabrication and visual design aspects.

Copyright ©2025 Helen Zhang Portfolio

Copyright ©2025 Helen Zhang Portfolio