Jules’ Visual Diary

St. Pete, Florida. Known for its vibrant downtown, top ranked beaches, and charming way of life - this city located near Tampa has been booming in population. However, with the pandemic and individuals relocating, St. Pete is experiencing high rates of homelessness and gentrification. It’s caught the attention of hundreds of thousands of people who have a desire to call this place home. While now becoming a top destination and place to live, developers have found their way in and city legislation has allowed them to turn neighborhoods into luxury condo/apartment buildings only a certain class of individuals can afford. While the recent boom has brought in more jobs, locals and their businesses are being pushed out. The city no longer feels small and quaint and some are calling it Miami’s little sister.

Having the option for these gender neutral bathrooms is important for inclusivity and DEI initiatives for organizations and public spaces.

Cultural parameters should never be broken and should always be honored. We should always respect and embrace cultural differences in the sake of design.

Another example of design that rose against parameters was Uber Eats. From big cities, to the pandemic, companies like Uber Eats made it easy for people to eat their favorite foods/restaurants without having to dine in. However, there were many challenges that had to be faced in order to success. Uber Eats had to maintain being cost-effective with all consumers, ensuring safe food handling from delivery drivers, high-quality food (I.e., food delivered warm, undamaged), and so on. They tied into the emotional connection people often experience with food, identified their tangible and intangible parameters, and sought out a solution to keep consumers happy and restaurants operating.

The pandemic created a plethora of needs that designers needed to create a new solution to - one that was digital friendly. Telehealth appointments weren’t new to the pandemic, but they weren’t common practice for most offices/physicians either. All over the world, people needed to stay on top of their health more than ever. The problem? The world was on lock-down. Designers had to think quickly, be adaptable, and work toward solutions to address the concerns. Working amongst tangible and intangible solutions, designers had to work against time, emotional constraint, public opinion, and technology to improve Telehealth services worldwide. While advances are still being made to enhance Telehealth today, designers paved the way to exploring digital health and providing better patient experiences and outcomes.

Companies such as Nest, Amazon, Medium and Uber are just a few using design sprints in their growth and design processes. Medium, for example, performed a design sprint on a new app for millennials. The results after the 5 days were both expected and a complete surprise. In my organization, there’s a lot of growth happening - some bad, some great. Sometimes we are going in blind and not really sure what’s at the end of the finish line.

I would say that it’s fair most people have at one point or another struggled to take feedback, whether constructive or not, and the same is true for myself. As designers, I think we can often get caught up in the passion of our creativity and feedback has a way of making one rethink their process or design. However, feedback is also crucial for improvement and ensuring success. Without feedback, we wouldn’t be able to continuously grow our craft and increase our creative ability.

Bitty & Beau's Coffee - Bitty & Beau's Coffee is an example of a design that both helps and serves as a coffee shop advocating for the value, acceptance, and inclusion of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. While the shop opened in NC, I have only ever visited the Georgetown location but have enjoyed not only the delicious coffee, but the diverse and welcome environment the shop brings.

Confections with Convictions is a perfect example of a business that both helps and serves. Based in Kalamazoo, MI - Confections with Convictions serves artisan chocolates that hires young individuals with criminal records who have difficulties finding employment. The sole purpose of Confections with Convictions is to not only serve the community of Kalamazoo with delicious and unique chocolates, but also serving as a safe and reliable place for young individuals looking to better theirselves.

Airbnb is human-centered at its core. It was developed to give individuals more of an experience when traveling or needing a place to stay. It also caters to all budgets or lifestyle needs/restrictions than hotels/B&Bs. The idea is that users have a choice - much more so than before.

I believe ketchup or condiment bottles such as mustard, ranch, etc. are a great example of a human-centered design. The bottles were originally made of glass and an awkward shape to not only hold, but control the flow of product. Moving to the new bottle provides easy holding (indents in middle), plastic to reduce breakage, and the ability to squeeze or control the product. The new bottle was designed with the user in mind making it human-centered.

I believe Apple knew there wasn’t any stopping drivers from using their phones while in the car, no matter the risks it brought. To reduce the amount of phone related accidents, Apple designed the ability to use their phone(s) in a way that was more safe and more convenient. The ability features large buttons for easy accessibility or can be fully operated by Siri.

I chose the air wrap because I use mine at least 3-4x a week and it has been a saving grace for my hair. The air wrap is a multi-styler tool that reduces the amount of heat needed to dry and style the hair. Because various tools are included with the styler, it can also replace other hair tools such as curlers and straighteners. The air wrap uses its signature airflow technology giving it its power. Users can also add on attachments other than what’s included to increase user friendliness.