In DSGN 1, “Design of Everyday Things” at UCSD, one of the assignments was to identify examples of good design in everyday interactions. The StepNPull door opener as an example of good design — it allows one to open doors with their shoe instead of their hand, has a simple…

Newcomers already have a version of design-thinking from previous projects. These projects can be pivoted to design case studies. — I’m a TA for a product design course at my college and gave a lecture on Creating Case Studies from Non-Design Projects. This is an article-ized version of it! This article contains 1) the design thinking framework compared to any project 2) how to turn non-design projects into case studies…

One of the habits I picked up in 2020 was to block days with dedicated sessions of work time — no pressure if things take more or less time, simply adjust throughout the day. But the mere act of writing it down gave me a schedule I could follow. When…

Workshop design, virtual platform difficulties, and lessons learned at ScaleSD — Made with 🔬 by Kendall Nakai, Dr. Stephen MacNeil, and Mariam Mustafa Virtual workshops offer the potential to teach new skills at scale, like design. …

The technical and personal aspects about what I learned this summer. My heart and mind opened up a lot :-) — This summer I was an Explore intern at Microsoft. The Explore intern role is where a first or second year in college is placed in a “pod” of 2 other Explore interns and together they learn the role of software engineer while rotating through being program manager. In this piece…

Reconnect and realign with nature, others, and yourself. An app tackling home isolation to help transition exercise habits due to COVID-19. Learning about mobile information systems through research then applying them by creating a product. — Made with 🏃by Ilmaa, Kasey, Kendall, Kenny, and Natalie COVID-19 impacted people in many ways, from mental health to their daily way of life. We specifically wanted to tackle home isolation and the way people’s exercise routines were affected. …

Redesigning the way 1000+ members interact with the ACM UC San Diego Membership Portal — ACM was the first student organization at UC San Diego to create an in-house membership portal. It is now used by 1000+ members within ACM’s first year since founding. I was part of an ACM Design team project to redesign and create new features on the ACM Membership Portal for…

They say do what you love and I love boba so I designed a boba app — Boba or bubble milk tea is a tea drink with numerous toppings availible, from tapioca balls to egg pudding. For me, it is an obsession, if I could go to a boba shop and pick it up as much as a coffee lover goes to their local coffee shop does…

Learning about the civics of San Diego from the perspective of micro-mobility safety in urban environments — Back in February, my friend and teammate, Amy and I were researching micro-mobility for our special interests design class in civic design.We learned a lot in this process of going on field observation trips, sending out online surveys, conducting interviews, and going through empathy exercises. We were trying to understand…