It is December 10th, 2032.

You open your eyes. Your first breath takes in the comforting fragrance of freshly-baked baguettes.

That reminds you. You’re in your local hospital. You reach up to tap the right side of your face, where the curb met your eyebrow in the hectic cycling-dominated promenades of midtown. Your face is still numb and you return your attention to your nose. The smell makes you suddenly nostalgic for 2020 when everyone around you was baking bread, staying home, endless Zoom. COVID times. It feels like a dream.

While hospitals in Singapore have intentionally piped the smell…

Artist and educator, Kay Liang, talks about squashing “Zoom Gloom” with dog bands, friendly robbers, and disco breaks

It was April 6th and my six-year-old son, Rui, had his first Zoom meeting. He was both anxious and annoyed that he had to do something he neither fully understood nor signed up for. These were the early days of lockdown and as a parent, I was pretty desperate for ways he could stay engaged with his friends and teachers (and also give me time to answer emails, eat a sandwich, and cry in the shower all at the same time). One…

An interview with Tara Pham, Co-founder & CEO of Numina

Cities are products of design. In the last century, the urban planning and design fields often prioritized the mobility of cars over people, and efficiency over community (think: Robert Moses and the post-war demolition of New York City neighborhoods in favor of highways). To address this legacy of a top-down gaze and framework, we need street-level, people-centered perspectives that inform how our cities are designed. This is where human-centered design, equity design, and ethical technologies can be harnessed to champion urbanism in service of people — not cars, politicians, or…

A reflection on leading a remote design studio for the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID) in Costa Rica

How can we continue to study our streets, talk to people, and test prototypes during a public health crisis? How can we identify opportunities to design for more inclusion, equity, and even joy in the everyday life of our cities? And how can we share these new research and design methods with others?

Last month, the Openbox design team had the opportunity to lead a one-week studio course for CIID’s Interaction Design Programme in San José, Costa Rica. It coincided with…

In the Studio with Vinay Kumar Mysore, Design Researcher at Openbox

How do we design together from a distance? As a human-centered design studio, this was our big question as the coronavirus became a global reality and we quickly transitioned our operations from a collaborative workspace to our individual homes. Our first response was to simply swap in-person interactions with digital ones. But as we continue to grow into our life apart, we realized that as designers we have an opportunity to work with physical distancing constraints to explore potentially even more inclusive, engaging, and impactful ways of co-designing with…

My friends and students ask me: Are you okay? How is your son dealing with all this? How are you holding up? It’s been six weeks since we’ve been staying home and I think: Yes, we are okay. There are times at the end of a long day of playing, making art, baking bread, and doing the things that fortunate families like us are doing that I weep. I am exhausted and like everyone else, have no answers on how or when things will change. As parents, we are never processing emotions for one, but for two or more. We…

An interview with Jon Bernstein, Los Angeles-based composer, producer, and musician on how our senses are adapting to the shifting soundscapes.

Stretches of quiet pierced by blazing sirens. The two-minute outburst of pots and pans banging at dusk. Apartment hallways filled with the smell of baking bread and simmering stews. With the Coronavirus pandemic slowing and stopping cities around the world, as a human-centered design studio, we at Openbox have been reflecting on how our senses are adapting to quieter, interior-oriented lives. We’re also exploring how we can continue to engage our senses (beyond eyes glued to screens in video…

1. I take a deep breath: I want to give this breath to everyone running out of air.
2. I look out at other apartment windows: I see you, I love you, we’re here together, we’re not alone.
3. I sift through my sock drawer: I can’t believe I would be annoyed when one disappeared in the laundry. I would give away all my socks along with everything I own to give everyone health and safety.
4. I hear my son’s question of when he can go back to school: I think, for many people, there is a pandemic every day and it never…