Advocates Awareness Campaign
One of the most challenging and impactful classes for me so far has been EDGE – Ethics in Design in a Global Environment. Working in teams to design for a nontraditional college student, my group Advocates created an ADHD Awareness Campaign. We spent over a month researching ADHD and how it can impact university students by analyzing articles, conducting interviews, collecting data from a survey, and getting feedback on our designs. Throughout this process my team would review our notes and use design thinking methods to pinpoint what insights we wanted to focus on. The goal was to create something that would enhance the daily lives of students with ADHD at UIUC. We achieved this by creating an interactive installation, informational posters, a dynamic planner, and a website compiling all of our work. Research was done in collaboration with Michael Dalton, Joe Tobiaski, and Xiaoyan Cui. All planner designs are my own.
The Process
We started by researching learning disabilities and decided to focus on ADHD to create a more personalized solution. My team came up with three key insights that would help us determine the direction of our project.
Students need to be self-advocates to take advantage of available resources and be responsible for their own academic success.
Students need guidance to explore tools and skills that help them navigate university life.
Some ADHD students need help developing soft skills necessary for organization and communication.
After a series of brainstorming sessions my team posed the following question:
How might we facilitate the transition into college for students with ADHD so they can become advocates for themselves and others?
The Solution
The final direction we pursued was an awareness Campaign for students with ADHD. This would allow us to educate the UIUC campus about ADHD, which would be beneficial for both students and professors. It would also spark a campus wide conversation! We value representing students with ADHD accurately, presenting the issues they face honestly and being able to cater to their needs. With our Campaign, we would like to contribute to their academic success, improved self-confidence, decrease their stress, and make students feel supported.
The Planner
The Advocates Planner I designed offers physical space to write down assignments and appointments. Additionally, it provides information about available DRES resources on the UIUC campus. It includes advice on organization, planning, communication, and more. Lastly, the planner includes motivational quotes to remind students that their health and self-worth are important. It is a good solution because it allows users to feel empowered about having ADHD, motivates them to self-disclose and start conversations, as well as encourages them to take advantage of the resources DRES offers.
