eCare

Equinox prides itself on being a fitness innovator. More than just a gym, it’s the lifestyle brand for people who are laser-focused, type-A and in pursuit of perfection. With this in mind, we set out to provide members with an immersive cycling experience that tapped into their “always be better” mentality, and inspired the kind of competition and community that give boutique cycling studios their edge.

Individuals with cerebral palsy live in a world that is not designed for them. Even simple tasks, like holding a computer mouse, can be a challenge. It’s the objects we design that create these barriers for them. Adæpt wants to help by designing a computer accessible tool that enables people with cerebral palsy to access the digital world without limitations.

Children love to solve mysteries and to play detective by tracking down hidden objects. PIIQ is an interactive DIY scavenger hunt kit that encourages children (6-8 years) to work together. It contains detective tools for role play, set of themes to build up on and design their own scavenger hunt and blank clue cards to add curiosity. Each child plays a different role in one team and they need to use their respective tools for unlocking the boxes to get to the next clue. By working together, children not only learn how to solve problems and communicate but also work on rebuilding their confidence around social skills and restoring their sense of community through meaningful and collaborative moments.

A picture is worth 1000 words. Great visuals can enhance, dramatize and even bend the narrative. From historical photos to modern-day digital images made of millions of pixels, images have always been instrumental in shaping our visual understanding of the world around us. As much as they have been instrumental in shaping reality, easy access to image manipulation has also resulted in widespread misinformation. When we can fake anything, honest representation of reality in images has become a complex problem to crack.

TactorBots is a haptic toolkit to empower designers to explore emotional robotic touch. It contains eight plug-and-play wearable tactor modules that render a series of social gestures driven by servo motors. Our specialized web GUI allows easy control, modification, and storage of tactile patterns to support fast prototyping. Taking emotional haptics as a “design canvas” with broad opportunities, TactorBots is the first “playground” for designers to try out various tactile sensations, feel around the nuanced connection between touches and emotions, and come up with creative imaginations.

Toot is an interactive toy designed for children aged between three and six years old. Toot wants, through tangible play, to create a new type of musical experience, where children can explore concepts like sequence and composition.

Signet is a concept that brings personal shipping into the digital age, by giving everyday users the ability to send a package or letter to a person, not a place.

Our inspiration for the Little People™ Apptivity™ Barnyard came from watching young children play with apps and toys. They didn’t view the world as “digital” vs. “physical” but rather moved fluidly between both modalities and even used them together. We therefore set out to reinvent our classic farm playset to reflect how children naturally want to play. The Little People Apptivity Barnyard represents a new level of interactivity, where the app and toy are fully integrated and augment each other. The app provides a rich, living world while the conductive playset and figures provide a new, tangible way to explore this world. Everything works with everything else, just as children expect!

People are increasingly interested in sustainable lifestyles and urban community gardening to grow their own food, but the challenges in maintaining these spaces include the limited time and skills for beginning gardeners, and the lack of organization to coordinate community gardening efforts. There are many advances in computer vision and AI technologies that can be used in agriculture. We see an opportunity for AI technologies to solve problems facing framers such as climate change, yield-reducing pests and weed infestations, and to speculate on autonomous systems that can help urban farmers manage and care for their gardens. In collaboration between communication design and industrial design students, GardenSpace and Eden were proposed as conceptual solutions to this problem.

ReadyForZero is a free, online financial program that helps people get out of debt. It automatically pulls in all their financial data, helps them make a plan, and tracks their progress as they change their financial behavior for the better. The tool focuses on using research-based, data-driven, and user-tested design to empower people. It takes an aging industry of debt relief and applies new technology to make both people and banks happier.