Hannah Mei

Utilizing the common personification of Earth as a mother, our informational and interactive microsite takes on the maternal, humorous, and satirical first-person narrative of Mother Earth. By personifying a Mom who is fed up and hurt by our actions towards her, but unconditionally loves us regardless, we hope to change our user’s perception of their inherently intimate and significant relationship to the natural world. We intentionally used the internet and Brutalist visual language as a platform to target millennials, who are especially distant from the natural world due to the rise of technology and a culture of convenience, but are also the leaders of the future world.

For the 2019 Microsoft Design Expo we were tasked with accomplishing Empathy at Scale. We determined that scaling empathy would mean that empathy is practiced on a daily basis, in situations both great and small. However our own feelings, perspectives, and biases can stand in the way of building that empathy. From these conclusions we created Ponder, a system that provides people a safe space to vent and reflect while also creatively considering others' perspectives. Using AI, Ponder analyzes your point of view by asking clarifying questions, then using discourse from online articles Ponder suggests alternative perspectives in the form of a story. Finally, Ponder provides a platform by which people can set empathetic goals to help them practice empathetic reaction.

Fed up with the people in your life always leaving the toilet seat up? Petty Potty is a non-intrusive addition to any household toilet. Using Arduino-powered sensors, Petty Potty can detect when the toilet seat is left up after use. If the seat is not put down after 30 seconds, Petty Potty surprises the violator with a gut-wrenching scream from its hidden and powerful speaker. Instead of designing a toilet that automatically lowers the seat, we wanted to create a product that disciplines users to change their inconsiderate habits over time. As people who experience the seat being left up by others, Petty Potty is a humorous approach to provide commentary on this simple but frustrating issue.