SpeakOut
Protest Speech Web App
Role
I led this from concept development through user research, design, coding, and testing as my graduate thesis at NYU’s ITP program.
Tools
User research, PeerJS, socket.io, Javascript, HTML, and CSS.
Context
Used for speeches at a live rally with 50 people in Queens.
Timeline
6 months
Resources
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Watch a video of SpeakOut being used at a rally in Queens.
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View a product demo of the web app.
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Watch my thesis presentation.
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Read my slide deck.
Photo of a rally in Queens using SpeakOut. The smartphone on the mic stand is capturing audio using SpeakOut.)
I fully coded this working web app.
Brief
SpeakOut is a web app that amplifies protest speeches using smartphones.
One person speaks into their phone. Other people amplify that live audio over a wider space with their own phones.
You can watch a video of SpeakOut being used at a rally in Queens and view a product demo of the web app.
I came up with the idea for SpeakOut while at a protest. This protest was led by Transportation Alternatives (TA), an advocacy group for safer streets in New York City.
I went on to collaborate with TA while creating SpeakOut. I interviewed staff and volunteers, demoed SpeakOut at community meetings to gather feedback, and ultimately launched SpeakOut at a rally in Queens. People in the crowd amplified the speech-givers audio using their own smartphones with SpeakOut loaded in the browser.
Features:
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Just a few people can create their own sound system.
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SpeakOut runs in the browser. No need to download a native app.
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The app supports data rights. Groups can build their own version with added security protections.
Primate Quest: Food, Brains and Evolution
Public interactive exhibit
Role
Co-creator with a team of four across concept development, scripting, wireframing, spatial design, UX/UI, original graphics and assets, coding, fabrication.
Tools
Unity, Kinect, AfterEffects, Premiere, p5.js Javascript libraries, serial communication, Illustrator, InDesign.
Context
Exhibited at the New York Hall of Science and Maker Faire; built as part of a graduate course at ITP at NYU called Playful Communication of Serious Research.
Timeline
2 months
Resources
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Watch an overview video of the exhibit.
A visitor starting Primate Quest's main interactive.
The exhibition guided people through three stages: 1) Discover 2) Interact 3) Understand
Brief
Primate Quest challenges visitors to find out your primate identity by exploring how diet relates to brain size in monkeys.
The main attraction allows visitors to use their arms and hands to control a game on a large screen, thanks to a motion sensor and a game engine (Kinect and Unity). You can watch an overview video of the exhibit.
This was a public interactive exhibit based on new research from NYU’s Primatology Lab by Alex R. DeCasien. This research finds that diet, not size of social groups, determines brain size in primates.
We arrived at the exhibition content below after producing a Research Package, Conceptual Package, and Schematic Package. Then we went into production, building every component ourselves.
We used Unity, Kinect, p5.js, AfterEffects, Premiere, Illustrator, fabrication materials, and physical computing using Arduinos
Exhibition Content
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The Brain Interactive asks visitors to guess which diets (plants, fruit, or protein) are related to larger brain sizes.
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The Diet Interactive challenges visitors to search for different diets to find out which primate they are.
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Exhibition wall text explains new research from NYU's Primatology Lab.
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A Pop Quiz reinforces the concepts learned in the exhibit.
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Visitors then visit the Primate Quest Photobooth. We post photos on our exhibit's Instagram account.
I co-created this exhibition with three other teammates: Vidia Vidia Anindhita, Ella Chung, and Haiyi Huang for a graduate course at ITP at NYU called Playful Communication of Serious Research.