Conversation Avenue

This project initially began as an inquiry into how dating apps have worked (or failed to work) among college students during the pandemic. We learned from our research participants that the isolation they were experiencing wasn’t limited to romantic relationships, it extended to platonic ones as well.

After coming up with over 50 ideas for how to address our desired topic, we settled on the idea of an interactive street sign that people could receive conversational prompts from. We settled on a few key elements: A large, unconventional main sign to catch people’s attention, A series of stickers that people could write on and tag the sign, answering the prompt “What do you want people to know about you?”, An interactive button that would provide audio prompts upon being pushed.

We were largely inspired by visual forms that communicate an individual’s presence in a public space, such as street art and interactive art exhibits. We also considered the traditional format of street signs and the bold visual language of the icons used.