2020

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Dartmouth's Impact Design is a project-based course in which students work in teams to design user experiences that have impact in the real-world. Taught by Dr. Thalia Wheatley and Prof. Lorie Loeb, Impact Design is taught in conjunction with Dartmouth's Center for Service. I took this class in the Winter of 2020 and it is certainly one of the best classes I took during my time at Dartmouth. I was able to practice my visual design skills and get hands-on training in user experience and product design, all while serving the Upper Valley community.

 

Each team in the class was paired with a student at the Hartford Autism Regional Program (HARP), and tasked with designing an individual-specific, highly curated Delight Experience for the student. My team was assigned to Ben, a 20-year-old with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and bipolar disorder. Through multiple interviews and profiling sessions with Ben and his caretakers at HARP, my team got to know Ben and gathered information that would help us design his experience. After weeks of prototype iteration and product testing, we finished Ben's Delight Experience - Ben's Box.

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Learn more about the experience below.