From Clutter to Clarity: Refreshing City Harvest’s Intranet Employee Portal

Overview City Harvest’s Employee Portal: a Shared Resource and Responsibility City Harvest is a New York nonprofit organization that rescues and delivers food for New Yorkers experiencing food insecurity. In 2023, City Harvest created their first organization-wide Microsoft Sharepoint intranet, the City Harvest Portal, to support employees’ access to shared company resources. Our team provided […]

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“Do I Still Have to Buy Admission Too?” – Redesigning for Transparency at Shedd Aquarium

Abstract A surprising UX issue emerged at Shedd Aquarium: many users didn’t know General Admission was included in the cost of Programs & Events. I focused on uncovering why this was happening and designing data-driven solutions that resolved it. I identified that this critical information was missing entirely, especially on mobile, using eye-tracking data, behavioral

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Preserving The ‘Incalculable Loss’

Our team collaborated with Cooper Hewitt, the Smithsonian Design Museum, to enhance the digital accessibility for their permanent digital exhibit. “Incalculable Loss,” a memorial piece that tributes the 100,000 COVID-19 deaths was originally published by The New York Times. The museum’s challenge: create a more inclusive user experience without altering the integrity of the original

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Making Amtrak’s Website More Accessible: Key Issues and Simple Fixes

Rui Tian, Qingyang Xu (Kacey), Zhining Gu(Emily) Travel should be accessible to everyone. But for many people with disabilities, poorly designed websites create real challenges. During our accessibility evaluation of the Amtrak website, we identified 3 key issues that affect usability for people who rely on assistive technologies, have visual or cognitive impairments, and simply

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Accessibility of the New York Public Library’s Picture Collection: A Critical Assessment

The New York Public Library’s Picture Collection is a trove of over 1.5 million images, ranging from vintage postcards to historical photographs. Digitized as part of NYPL’s Digital Collections, these images serve as resources for artists, researchers, and educators. However, many of these digitized images lack essential features, particularly alternative text. Providing context is central

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Assistive Technology: Estée Lauder’s Voice-Enabled Makeup Assistant (iOS App)

A Step Towards Making Beauty More Inclusive?

Estée Lauder’s Voice-Enabled Makeup Assistant (VMA) app is a tool designed to make beauty more accessible to the visually impaired population. The app utilizes AI to provide voice guidance so that users can get real-time feedback on their makeup application. This blog post examines its accessibility features through disability models, highlighting its strengths, limitations, and potential for a more inclusive beauty industry.

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Design Critique: Stomper’s

A Frustrating First Impression:Why Stomper’s Design is Driving Users Away ? At its core, Stomper has an exciting and creative premise. It transforms walking, an otherwise mundane activity, into something playful and interactive. But the frustrating registration process, unclear interface, and rigid game mechanics create unnecessary friction that discourages users before they can even enjoy

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Design Critique – Timeleft App

Timeleft is a digital platform where users can book dinners with strangers matched through a personality algorithm. The premise is fascinating: every Wednesday, in cities around the world, curated groups gather over dinner, transforming the awkwardness of first meetings into something potentially meaningful. As someone who moved to New York City from India, I know

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