October 2024
Project Brief
Guided by fully developed project proposals, this project focuses on collaboratively designing brand-related communication systems. Various processes and methods inform the design of these systems, including:
- Branding: Brand audits, mood boards, brand architecture and strategy, repositioning exercises, language, and image narratives.
- Interaction Design: Activity scenarios, personas, user paths, activity diagrams, and more.
- Service Design: Exchange scenarios, system touchpoints, user readiness analysis, service blueprinting, and prototyping.
Spanning five weeks, I collaborated with my classmate, Brianna Scott, on a team project that was situated in my core design studio course during the fall of my junior year. We were tasked with creating a design system that encompassed service design, branding, and interaction design. Taking a speculative design approach, we prioritized generating numerous ideas before refining them. Through this process, Brianna and I discovered our shared interest in sustainability, community, and mental wellness, which we used as the foundation of our project, Urban Oasis and informed our mission statement: “As an organization, we strive to build and sustain community through eco-friendly small spaces located in urban greenspaces to promote sustainability and mental wellness.” Together, we developed a cohesive brand identity, a physical location concept, a website, and app to foster community engagement. This project deepened my understanding of designing systems and taught me the value of teamwork in achieving a polished final product.
Below is a gallery of my project deliverables. Please read more about my process here.
We established our personas for the organization, and focused on their needs.
Branding, Service Design, and Interaction Design
Our app allows visitors to view and sign up for all the different rotating activities that are held at the physical locations. This app provides instructional and educational videos through the Oasis+ feature design specifically for encouraging users to integrate the Urban Oasis goals of mindfulness and sustainability throughout there day. This app also encourages setting goals and connecting with the community.
Through many critiques and tests, we were able to get the final design for all of the touchpoints.
Urban Oasis’ website serves as a central hub for connecting with our community and sharing our vision. Its main goal is to prompt potential users to download the app. Also, this website is used to inform users of our mission. It provides updates on upcoming events, and highlights collaborations with like-minded organizations.
Brand Identity
We worked a with many iterations of our brand, and I took the lead in my group on the branding. I designed the brand to use radiant and warm visuals to lift people’s spirits with the use of light and nature. Using colors like greens, blues, and cream, I paired these colors with organic shapes I designed to mirror other design elements in our brand.
Urban Essence
Our sustainably created product gives users the opportunity to bring home the natural magic of the Urban Oasis. We aim to educate users about the healthier side of aromatherapy, even offering programs so that users can create their own!
Physcial Space
The Urban Oasis physical spaces are completely customizable and adaptable for every unique event that is held at the locations. The main urban oasis building and glass green house are versatile spaces that can be a cycling space one day and a social sustainability crafting space the next day. To the right is the serenity circle that is part of the quiet zone where quiet events are held to allow for people to quietly destress from a stressful day.
Printed Booklet
Throughout the month leading up to the final booklet due date, we consolidated our work into a professionally printed booklet, encapsulating the vision and execution of Urban Oasis.
Seeing the booklet come to life through printing was a deeply rewarding experience. It was the culmination of countless hours of hard work, collaboration, and iteration. This was my first opportunity to create something so professionally assembled, and holding the finished product in my hands was both exciting and validating.
Siena Rohrbach 