Browsing by Author "Dee, Meaghan A."

Now showing 1 - 16 of 16
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    BabyTalk: An App for the NICU
    Robinson, Rachel (Virginia Tech, 2015-06-03)
    The purpose of this project is to improve parents experience in the NICU through design, technology, communication and storytelling. A series of shadowing appointments were conducted to gain empathy and a greater understanding of the environment the design would be in. Next 15 user interviews were conducted. The qualitative data was then analyzed and a needs analysis for the application was determined by identifying patterns in the qualitative data. The design then went through three phases of design, testing and iterating, before the final prototype was complete. This study found that design, technology and storytelling could improve communication and the experience of parents in the NICU.
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    bipolar[i].discuss();
    Walker, Megan Anna Hein (Virginia Tech, 2013-09-17)
    This MFA thesis uses the medium of computer language to explore the chaos underlying Bipolar I Disorder, an enigmatic and disruptive illness. Using creative coding to generate a series of abstract systems representing human traits, I explore the common truth that pervades the seemingly randomness of mental illness: we all break the same.
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    Empowerment in the Transition to Adulthood: Supporting Career Exploration in College Using Participatory Design
    Mouchrek, Najla (Virginia Tech, 2019-07-02)
    Developmental challenges in the transition to adulthood call for a process of empowerment that supports young people in guiding themselves and building capacities toward adult commitments and roles. The purpose of this study is to investigate empowerment in emerging adulthood, aiming to develop interventions to promote college student developmental outcomes, particularly in career exploration processes. A process of theory construction generated an innovative model of developmental empowerment in the transition to adulthood. Empowerment is conceptualized as a systemic process that emerges through the ongoing interaction between individual and relational environment. Empowerment constructs include personal agency and sense of purpose (as internal experiences), and mentoring and engagement in community (as external experiences). In the first study, a survey investigated empowering experiences in college among Virginia Tech students (N= 255). The findings support the theoretical model, confirming the salience and interdependence of the four main empowerment constructs. Preliminary evidence suggests relevant connections among the empowerment constructs and outcomes such as definition of life goals and career identity. Additionally, qualitative findings offered insights about the role of mentors and community in relation to empowerment. In its second phase, the research project narrowed the focus to study how the empowerment framework may be used to support the process of career exploration in college. The final study integrates the conceptual model and findings from the first study in a participatory design-based intervention for Virginia Tech first-year students exploring career options (N=126). A series of workshops generated an extensive data collection, yielding further investigation about empowerment, definition of life goals and career identity. Qualitative and quantitative data analysis demonstrate that the intervention improved scores for agency and purpose, besides improving student career adapting responses, major decidedness, and progress in career choice. Participants also advanced self-knowledge and purpose-driven orientation, and developed personal criteria for choice of major and career.
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    FL3TCH3R Exhibit
    Dee, Meaghan A. (2020)
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    Fostering Creativity in an Educational Environment
    Dee, Meaghan A. (2016-05-31)
    Many believe creativity is something you’re born with, rather than a skill you can learn. But, being a professor of graphic design, I believe teachers can and should foster creative thinking, regardless of the subject matter. Every child is naturally imaginative, but as they grow up they’re taught to conform. One way to encourage students to uncover their originality is to build an environment that is free of judgment. To be creative is to be abnormal, in that it requires thinking in unique ways. In order to be comfortable with artistic expression, students must feel free to make “mistakes” — they must even be encouraged to do so. We’ve all heard the mantra “fail faster.” There’s no way to know if an idea will be successful until you try it out, so the more you can explore, the better. But this might be easier said than done, as fear of failure can be paralyzing. Twyla Tharp, in The Creative Habit, combats her fears by writing them down and physically destroying them. For any creative person trying to get “unstuck,” this sort of ritual can be a first step in getting moving on a project. Under this line of thinking, helping creativity flourish should be integrated into every graphic design course. I focus on creativity in my curriculum by implementing mini exercises, discussions, and by approaching each project with a unique methodology – so students have a chance to learn and make in diverse ways.
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    I Am So Sorry
    Dee, Meaghan A. (University of Michigan Library, 2022-11-08)
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    A Message of Hope
    Dee, Meaghan A.; Pederson, Martin (2021)
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    Ongoing Matter: Design, Democracy, and the Mueller Report
    Berry, Anne; Edmands Martin, Sarah; Dee, Meaghan A. (2021)
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    Portrait of a Concert
    Griffith, Gareth Hungerford (Virginia Tech, 2014-07-01)
    Through the use of bio-metric data and audio recordings this research explores the body as it engages the concert environment. With the help of wearable technology and digital audio recording devices, data from four concerts was documented. Additionally personal reflections were recorded at the conclusion of each concert. These documents serve as qualitative data and a point of comparison between the quantitative recordings. These records were then used in the construction of an interactive data visualization that allows further exploration of the data collected by means of a visual interface.
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    Prioritizing Our Values: A Case-Study Report that Examines the Efforts of a Group of University-Level, Communication Design Educators to Collectively Construct Inclusive and Equitable Design Teaching Practices in a (Post-) Pandemic Era
    Berry, Anne H.; Dee, Meaghan A.; Laker, Penina; Tegtmeyer, Rebecca L. (University of Michigan Library, 2023-12-13)
    The Value Design Education Pledge was co-developed by the co-authors of this article: Associate Professor Anne H. Berry, Associate Professor Meaghan A. Dee, Assistant Professor Penina Laker, and Associate Professor Rebecca Tegtmeyer, with contributions by Kelly Walters (Assistant Professor, Communication Design, Parsons, The New School, New York City, N.Y., U.S.A.), to develop and promote long-term, inclusive, and equitable teaching practices that could positively affect design education. The pledge was initiated in the wake of events that transpired during the spring and summer of 2020—namely, the COVID-19 global pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests, both of which evolved across the United States during that time. It was also undertaken in recognition of 1) the changes and challenges that evolved as a result of remote and online learning having to be implemented across most U.S.-based, university-level and K-12 design education programs, and 2) the need for pedagogic accountability when decisions have been taken by faculty and administrators to commit to inclusive and equitable teaching practices. This case study provides an overview of the timeline of events and the decision-making that preceded the development of the pledge, including the first AIGA (the professional association for design, and the primary funder of this journal) Design Educators Community (DEC) virtual roundtable in May 2020 that spawned a draft of actionable items and outcomes from educators (working at K-12, non-traditional, undergraduate, and post-graduate levels) who participated in the pledge initiative. As a key point of planning and emphasis, the Value Design Education Pledge was developed to meet two key goals. The first was to facilitate manageable and sustainable commitments to students and communities for design educators already overburdened by the strain of adapting curricula and the course materials that support them. The second was to encourage remote and online learning in ways that could effectively provide emotional and academic support to design students throughout the progression of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the social, political, and cultural upheavals that accompanied it. The authors research fueled the generation of ideas for further exploration of initiatives that could effectively support these goals, including:developing mechanisms for measuring students’ learning before and after they leave particular classes and programs identifying ways to emphasize that the outcomes of design processes can provide humanistic, tangible, and positively transformative products, services, and systems; and building better mentor models that could be facilitated inside and outside of a variety of types of design classrooms. While the disciplinary focus of the pledge as it was initially developed was centered on design education, the authors believe that several items and ideas that emerged from operating it can be adapted to benefit education across a broader array of disciplines.
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    Processing the Pandemic
    Dee, Meaghan A. (2021)
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    Protective Body Panels for the ESCHER Humanoid Emergency Response Robot
    Dee, Meaghan A.; Blanchard, Samuel Paul (2016-09-23)
    ICAT (Institute for Creativity, Arts & Technology) Playdate, Blacksburg, VA. Co-presented the research on the “Protective Body Panels for the ESCHER Humanoid Emergency Response Robot,” in the Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech. September 23.
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    re[visualizing] sound
    Dee, Meaghan A. (2016-08-27)
    In the words of Robert Bringhurst: “writing is the solid form of language.” In addition to capturing the human language, designers and typographers also face the challenge of documenting other sounds, such as music and the language of animals. How do designers visually capture these other heard experiences in a meaningful way? In this presentation, I would explore various examples of codified systems that visually display sound with the use of typographic forms and symbols. One example is a design that I created for Oceans Initiative, where the visuals were created by playing a whale song into a cymatic visualizer – and while at first glance the poster appears to be abstract, in reality each form corresponds to a different musical note. Throughout history humans have found many ways of visually documenting sound. While this is primarily done through the use of letterforms, many other visualizations are common. One example is the musical score, which is a very accurate portrayal of sound, as it takes into consideration the loudness, length, and tone of sound. And yet in the realm of design there is often there is a disconnect between the sounds we hear and the designs we see. Warren Lehrer was among a handful of artists and designers to break ground in this area. Lehrer, in his piece “French Fries,” experimented with how to convey multiple voices in a book design by assigning each character their own typeface. More recently, many artists and designers use data collection systems to record accurate data and produce beautiful works of data visualization.
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    Systema
    Merkel, Evan Andrew (Virginia Tech, 2018-02-27)
    This thesis is a three-part creative coding exploration of generative typography and pixel-based image manipulation. Systema is composed of three distinct projects named Lyra, Mensa, and Vela, respectively, that investigate and demonstrate the advantages and drawbacks of generative graphic design.
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    Visual Imprints: Understanding Location Data Through Information Architecture
    Lidwin, Christina Marie (Virginia Tech, 2015-09-09)
    Wearable technologies are creating new ways for people to discover and record personal data. While these devices are raising awareness about biometric information, there is a larger quantified self movement encompassing any type of personal data collected by any means and recorded and shared in a variety of ways. Participants in this movement are experimenting with new ways to view and interact with their generated digital information. On a societal level, as we collect more data (personal or otherwise) we are questioning who should have access to different types of data and how collected data should be used. Visual Imprints documents an exploration into how location data is collected, visualized, and understood by people with varying degrees of data literacy. Through the design and development of the Android application Data Atlas, this exploration utilizes aspects of information architecture to illustrate how we as a society might come to better understand what technologies and applications record personal data and how collected information can be seen and used. The exploration also illustrates how creative technologists can contribute to societal questions on data literacy and user privacy as well as create work as a part of the quantified self movement.
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