Graduate Program (MGD) Project

See initial stages of the Raleigh Revealed process

Project: Collaborate in a group of four to create a speculative web presence illuminating some aspect of Raleigh, NC; Master’s project at NCSU

Concept: My team focused on Raleigh’s history of gardens and characteristically lush greenery. After mapping and creating a mood board, we decided that we wanted the garden experience to be visually abstract, in order to create a surreal and leisurely user experience.

Process: We chose to pepper the journey with a narrative about a real-life historical figure in the Raleigh gardening community—Isabelle Henderson. This narrative provided a common anchor as the user meandered along the virtual garden path. In the final interactive piece, we explored the user's experience by testing levels of user control and moving between layers of engagement—from a large, macro level, into a midsection “mecro” level, and finally, into the most minuscule micro level. Through exploring these different levels, we investigated how the user’s experience of a virtual garden might be changed, altered, or defined. The final demonstrates one path, with the potential for the user to take several journeys through the garden.

Roles: Process Planning, Illustration, Visual Design, User Experience Design

Collaborative partners: Cady Bean-Smith, Samyul Kim, and Rebecca Tegtmeyer