Rachel Connelly

Gradience is a brand new magazine exploring how different intersections of queer identity inform unique individual experiences. Our first issue is about Coming Out and all the nuances that are a part or tangential to that experience. Kickstarter: http://bit.ly/fundgradience

Sprout is a mobile app designed to help parents keep track of their children’s developmental progress and celebrate their life. Sprout is based on Babysteps, a research project by Julie Kientz at the University of Washington. The purpose of this app is to create a quick, enjoyable method for parents and family members to become more aware of their child’s development.

A publication encapsulating three months of my dreams. Each recorded dream is paired with a digital collage of its subject matter and a holistic overview of my nightly sleep. Most of us know what dreaming feels like, but recounting a dream is very difficult. How can we better ‘capture’ our dreams? By capturing dreams, can we discover patterns within them to tell us more about ourselves?

Piccadilly is a geometric sans-serif with a splash of British personality. Piccadilly was created by tracing an image of a handmade sign once used for a department store in Piccadilly Square, London in 1936. This typeface was developed over five weeks of drawing, re-drawing, and digitally refining each letter.  Credits also to Sofia Cababa-Wood.

Interaction 19 is an annual interaction conference that brings together Interaction Design professionals and experts from around the world. The challenge with this project was to synthesize what the conference stood for: exchange of ideas, connection and pushing boundaries despite the unknown. We developed a visual language that would convey these ideas while also conveying the fun participants were in for. This was done through experiments with movement and a vibrant color palette.

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.

Gradience is a brand new magazine exploring how different intersections of queer identity inform unique individual experiences. Our first issue is about Coming Out and all the nuances that are a part or tangential to that experience.