Portfolio

Touch & Link is a collaborative drawing system governed by simple rules, wherein participants must touch the preceding symbol to continue their contribution. Through physical contact, symbolic responses and conditional constraints, the project explores how structured systems can generate unpredictable collective outcomes. The final image cannot be predetermined, revealing organic connections shaped by human intuition, interaction and rules.

In this creative endeavour, I sought to decipher the signals subtly inscribed by time, institutions, and daily life. Tree rings, names carved into stone, a phrase scrawled on a wall, rust stains on railings, numbers etched onto poles—these seemingly ordinary traces collectively form Winchester's true language. Through imagery and verse, I have retranslated these faint yet enduring messages, allowing them to be seen, heard, and reinterpreted in their own right.

During my visit to the Who Am I Museum, I observed a rather intriguing phenomenon: visitors generally preferred lingering at the interactive installations flanking the gallery, while displaying marked indifference towards the text-reading areas situated in the central exhibition space. They tended merely to glance at the exhibits within the display cases, seldom taking the time to read the accompanying textual explanations. As this research could not gather data through interviews, I opted to utilise on-site observation and secondary source research to further understand the reasons behind this behaviour and propose appropriate solutions.

This project is an experiment in designing an interactive system from a non-human perspective. By constructing a virtual feeding system with "zombies" as users, it explores the resulting state of being when desires, behaviors, and satisfactions are completely systematized. In this setting, humanity has disappeared, and zombies, as non-human entities, can no longer fulfill their survival instincts in the real world. "Eating brains" is translated into a virtual experience that can be designed, managed, and allocated, and embedded in an interactive system composed of rules, structures, and feedback.

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RRR7 Final Reflective Report

This project aims to reexamine urban tactile paving systems and the underlying, often overlooked issues of public space through communication design and systematic research. The project focuses not only on the phenomenon of tactile paving being obstructed, but also on how society tacitly accepts the visual experience of sighted people as the standard for urban functioning, thereby perpetuating the long-term neglect and exclusion of the visually impaired.

Reflection：

Description

In the initial stages of the project, I first turned my attention to an often-overlooked element of the urban environment—tactile paving. I discovered that, whilst tactile paving exists as a public facility within urban spaces and fulfils an important communicative function—conveying direction, spatial changes and safety information to visually impaired people—it is frequently overlooked or even obstructed in everyday life. Consequently, it has gradually transformed from a system designed to assist visually impaired people in moving independently into a mere symbolic feature of the urban landscape. Consequently, I began to consider whether Communication Design could, through new forms of communication, help the public to re-evaluate the social significance underlying tactile paving. Initially, I hoped to develop this project into an in-person experiential event involving both the general public and people with visual impairments. Rather than relying on traditional promotional methods, I wanted participants to experience first-hand, through hands-on interaction, the challenges faced by people with visual impairments when navigating urban spaces. To this end, I envisaged creating a simulated urban environment incorporating tactile paving, obstacles and various interactive tasks, enabling participants to complete the exploration process through perception, communication and collaboration. As the project progressed, I realised that organising a real-world public event would be constrained by practical factors such as space, time, budget and participant recruitment. Consequently, I began exploring how to translate the core experience of the event into a small-scale prototype that would be easier to test. Ultimately, I shifted my design focus towards a board game format, using a micro-scale city model, tactile guide paths, urban event cards and multi-player cooperative mechanics to transform real-world urban challenges into an interactive model that can be experienced and discussed. In the final design, players must choose between different routes to reach a destination within a simulated urban environment. The game features three distinct routes: the Shortcut, the Standard Route and the Detour. Although the Shortcut is the shortest route, it contains more real-world urban obstacles—such as blocked tactile paving, construction barriers and a lack of information—requiring players to solve problems through communication and cooperation; the Standard Route offers a balanced choice; whilst the Detour, though safer, requires more action steps. At the same time, I designed city event cards to transform real-world social issues into in-game challenges and interactions; for example, encountering an obstacle may require players to stop, change their route, or seek assistance from other players to continue. To further enhance the project’s inclusivity, I incorporated Braille and tactile elements into the promotional booklet and game cards, and selected special textured paper, enabling both sight and touch to serve as means of conveying information whilst enriching the overall interactive experience of the project. I hope these designs not only serve visually impaired participants but also help sighted participants realise that accessible design is not intended for a specific group, but rather a public communication system that enables everyone to participate together.

Interpret

Through this project, I have come to realise that tactile paving is not merely a form of urban infrastructure, but a medium that connects people with the urban environment. In the past, I tended to view Communication Design primarily as the conveyance of visual information, such as posters, branding or digital interfaces. However, through this project, I have begun to understand that communication can also take place through materials, space, touch and behaviour. During my research, I discovered that whilst many accessible design solutions already exist, there remains a problem where they are ‘designed but not truly utilised’. For example, in some cities, tactile paving fails to fulfil its intended purpose due to inadequate planning, poor maintenance or a lack of public awareness. This made me realise that the issue is not merely about designing better facilities, but about establishing a more effective relationship between people and the system. Consequently, I began to view tactile paving as a form of social communication interface—one that not only conveys directional information but also reflects whether the needs of different users have genuinely been taken into account in urban planning. At the same time, as the project progressed, I reconsidered the approach to ‘simulating visual impairment’. Initially, I hoped that by blindfolding sighted participants, they would simulate the mobility challenges faced by people with visual impairments. However, upon reflection, I realised that this approach might oversimplify the real-life experiences of people with visual impairments and risk reducing their challenges to a fleeting gaming experience. Consequently, I adjusted the design direction, shifting the focus away from ‘experiencing the loss of sight’ and towards how people with different abilities can solve problems together through communication and cooperation. This is why the final game mechanics emphasise multi-player collaboration rather than individual competition. Visually impaired players should not merely be the recipients of assistance, but should join the system as equal participants. The game’s support mechanisms not only reflect the supportive relationships between people in real life, but also create a model of two-way communication: players must rely on each other’s information, judgements and experience to complete tasks together. Furthermore, through the creation of the board game prototype, I gained a deeper understanding of the relationship between Communication Design and Systems Thinking. The game board, route design, event cards and player behaviour collectively constitute a system. Every design decision influences the participants’ experience. For example, if a shortcut presented no additional obstacles, players would always choose it, and the game would lose its strategic significance; if obstacles appeared entirely at random, fairness would be compromised. Consequently, through testing, I continually adjusted the relationship between routes and obstacles to ensure that the game mechanics more accurately reflected real-world urban environments.

Evaluate

Looking back on the entire design process, I believe the greatest insight gained from this project was the shift from a simple focus on ‘conveying information’ to creating an ‘interactive experience’. Initially, I hoped to raise public awareness of the importance of tactile paving through traditional promotional methods, but I later realised that merely informing people of the problem was insufficient to change their behaviour. Through games and interactive experiences, participants were able to engage actively with the issue and, through their own choices, gain an understanding of inequality within urban spaces. In terms of material experimentation, the design of the promotional leaflets and cards also constituted a key area of exploration within the project. By utilising textured paper, Braille and tactile elements, I sought to transcend the limitations of traditional visual communication. At the same time, I realised that current tactile design remains largely symbolic in nature; in future, if we can conduct joint testing with people who are visually impaired, we will be able to further optimise the way information is conveyed—for example, by adjusting textural variations, Braille layouts and tactile feedback. During the user testing phase, I discovered that the route system in the initial design raised issues of fairness. Some players tended to choose the quickest path, whilst neglecting the process of cooperation and exploration. Consequently, I redesigned the route logic, assigning different risks and rewards to various routes, thereby forcing players to make choices between speed, safety and teamwork. This iteration made me realise that design is not merely about creating form; more importantly, it involves continuously uncovering hidden issues through testing. Finally, the project still has room for improvement. For instance, the current board game prototype primarily conveys the issue by simulating an urban environment, but the complex factors present in real cities—such as policies, urban planning and socio-cultural factors—have not yet been fully incorporated. Should the project continue to develop in the future, I hope to incorporate more content drawn from the real-life experiences of visually impaired people and involve them in the co-design process, rather than treating them merely as research subjects.

Plan

In the future, I hope to further develop this project, transforming it from a board game prototype into a more comprehensive tool for public engagement. Firstly, I hope to invite more participants with visual impairments to take part in testing and co-design, so that we can optimise the game rules, the tactile system and the ways in which information is conveyed based on their real-life experiences. This will ensure that the project does not speak on behalf of people with visual impairments, but rather creates a platform that enables them to express themselves and participate actively. Secondly, I hope to further expand the project’s outreach. For example, the board game could be incorporated into public events and showcased in schools, design organisations, charity events or museum spaces, enabling more people to understand the importance of accessible design through interactive experiences. At the same time, the promotional leaflets, cards and miniature city models used in these events could also serve as independent media for disseminating information. From a broader perspective, this project has given me a renewed understanding of the value of Communication Design. Design is not merely about solving functional problems; it is also a method for establishing relationships between people, and between people and their environment. In the future, when faced with complex social issues, I hope to continue exploring how, through systems design, interactive experiences and multisensory communication, we can make hidden problems more visible and create a future environment that is more equitable, inclusive and responsible.