Content Creation
Reflecting Signals
Created for the Rhode Island School of Design Makeathon
I participated in a makeathon with a multidisciplinary team of fellow RISD students—including a researcher, an engineer, and two industrial designers.
The theme was to design a product or system that fosters harmony. Drawing on our diverse backgrounds, we developed a device to support inclusive conversations, focusing on the dynamics of group dialogue in conference settings.
I led the design of the digital interface, shaping how participants received real-time visual feedback on their contributions.
The design challenge
Five people from diverse backgrounds and perspectives have just met at a conference.
How might we celebrate the power of a conversation to reflect emotions and nudge insight?
Our premise
Conferences are environments where group dynamics naturally come into play—some voices tend to dominate, while others hold back. Yet for a discussion to be truly valuable, every participant should feel heard.
Our solution focused on moderating conversations to foster inclusion and ensure that all voices had space to be shared.
Our solution
We designed a tabletop device that tracks and visualizes each participant’s contribution to a group conversation.
The ambient display gently nudges more vocal members to make space for others and highlights when someone hasn’t spoken in a while. The interface also celebrates moments of balanced participation, reinforcing inclusive dialogue through subtle visual feedback.
The digital design
The digital interface evolves in real time through interaction. Each member’s voice generates a unique form, represented by a particle trail in their assigned color.
As more people contribute, the visual composition grows, offering a collective snapshot of the conversation. This evolving graphic encourages participants to be mindful of their presence, prompting quieter voices to join and dominant voices to reflect.
The final visual captures the distribution of participation across the entire dialogue.
The form
The device was conceptualized during a 12-hour makeathon. To ensure it was technically feasible, our engineer mapped out the required components and system architecture.
