Imagine a future where we do this habitually, on a formal level.

The Olerium is a device that assigns an odor to a specific experience. It’s a small magnet that is pre-coated with a user-selected, microencapsulated odor.  You bring this unique odor with you, and it is applied to this experience, creating a relationship. You are NOT capturing smells as you go. You are mapping an odor to an experience. The Olerium odors are then curated, as you would a photo album, creating a personal museum of odors that can bring back an emotional memory in an instant.

Unfortunate Laundry – 2010.

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Graffiti Rain – 2009.    I enjoy the way the background imagery is distilled into subtle, pleasantly dull shapes. The raindrop residue adds an amazing texture that unifies the experience at each stop along a journey on the train.

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Creatures from Another Planet – 2009.

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Trails of Peach, 2009. If the landlord can’t fix the ant problem, why not exploit it and document concocted experiments?

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Design Brief:  Influence people to eat more vegetables as a daily habit.

Description:  VeggieMagic is an application that reminds users to take a photo of their lunch and dinner and text it to VeggieMagic. The photos are distilled and then returned to the users, showing the vegetable content and quantity of their meals each day. If the user decides to compete against a team, she earns points for the number of veggies she eats. We storyboarded many concepts and visual layouts, prototyped it on users to test their experience with the application, and arrived at an easy-to-use, effective solution.

Outcome:  The social pressure and comparison encouraged participants of teams to eat more veggies than non-team participants. Additionally, people generally overestimate the number of vegetables they eat on a daily basis, in part because of miseducation (grains like corn and fruits like avocado are not vegetables). This application draws awareness to their true habits and encourages them to diversify and improve their diets. )Collaboration with Neema Moraveji)

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The following chart breaks down the sequence of habit formation using the example of the Acne.org Regimen. It identifies each step as it relates to BJ Fogg’s Behavior Change Methodology. Here’s a link to a few of my interesting findings. In June, 2010, this presentation was tweeted more than any other document on Slideshare and it was added to Slideshare’s homepage.

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I decided to map my habits onto my body to see if I could find any patterns. As it turns out, my hands are responsible for about half my habits. Perhaps I should hold my hands hostage when trying to change a habit?

Client:  CREES Rainforest Research Center, Manu, Peru

Design Brief:  Fresh food must be driven 12 hours from the closest big city to the jungle communities in Southeast Peru, and landslides often result in a state-of-emergency. The local people need a way to provide a sustainable supply of fresh produce to this area. Additionally, micronutrient deficiency is a problem in this area, and a more diverse diet is needed.

Outcome:  For three months, I designed and led the construction of a large biogarden on an area of vacant land owned by CREES. The materials were locally sourced and appropriate to climate issues in the area. We transformed the space into one that was rich with test plots, a specially designed roof, and an experimental composting pit. We gave demonstrations in a nearby community, encouraging the garden to serve as an educational model as well as a microenterprise for the local community. Three years later, the garden is a huge success and local community members and schools have built numerous biogardens and developed school programs to teach the local kids.

2009
Stop-motion film, 3:09

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The intention is for the viewer to experience his/her unique physical and emotional response to watching these bodies eating. The viewer is allowed to stare, objectifying the bodies while sharing the same space as them. Misperception, prejudice, repulsion, and acceptance are all possible responses. Feelings of guilt, obscenity, fragility, contamination and transference are also elicited.

Two months of design studies in the realm of obesity revealed to me that an intervention targeting the general population, rather than the obese population, was a powerful avenue for changing the fat perception and engendering change.

Three backlit projections on 52″ square screens. Three individuals, 30 minutes of footage each, spliced into three films, 20 minutes length each.

Develop a way to improve the health of poor Rwandan families Client: Project Healthy Children

The Komera (“Be Strong!” in Kinyarwanda) is a $35 mixer that attaches to the output of small-scale mills and evenly mixes vitamin and mineral fortificant into cassava flour.

Malnutrition affects over 2 billion people globally and is linked to 60% of child deaths in Rwanda. While fortification is the most cost-effective solution, it is not yet an option for those without access to centrally processed grains. The Komera aims to solve this problem.

The Komera is developed for a small-scale miller who grinds the grain and starch of a village’s people growing their own food. A small amount of fortificant is added to the flour in the Komera where it becomes well-mixed and quickly turns from a nutrient-free calorie to a micronutrient-rich food supply. The Komera is easily adopted as it doesn’t require a shift in existing milling behavior and it is made from low-cost and local materials.

6 month project, 2009, partership with Sonia Sapre, Akshay Kothari, Hari Srinivassan, Nick Liao. Second prototype manufacturing assistance, MonekyWrench Design.

Watch a Rwandan small-scale mill owner process cassava: rwandanmiller

View the first small-scale fortificant mixer prototype: zingmixer

Watch the improved prototype function: improvedkomera