Bloom
Bloom is a concept of a digital service platform that provides a safe and engaging space to cultivate emotional intelligence powered with AI.
Individual project
Cristina Tarriba
Advisor
Zach Pino
​
Organization
IIT Institute of Design
Date
May-August 2018
​
​
*All content in the app is from The School of Life
Still from Bloom's future version video
Painting video assets with watercolor
*All content in the app is from The School of Life
Project brief
I was challenged to explore different opportunity areas and create a new concept for a digital platform. Additionally, I was tasked to create an app prototype and visualize the future version of the concept with a video.
Results
A concept prototype for a digital systems
platform that allows people to cultivate their emotional intelligence.
-
App: Shows the present version of the platform service.
-
Video: Visualizes the future version of Bloom.
Key personal learnings
-
Prototyping with storyboards: In addition to storyboarding the video I prototyped this concept since the beginning with low fidelity storyboards. This was extremely helpful to flush out details of the concept which I had not considered before.
-
Aesthetic exploration for video storytelling: One of my favorite project of this process was to find the right aesthetic choice to visualize the concept. I explored different aesthetics and materials to create the video assets.
Opportunity space
Concept proposal
Bloom is a digital platform that provides a safe and engaging space to cultivate emotional intelligence. The app offers a highly curated library of content related to emotional intelligence, customizable learning plans and a journal to capture reflections. Additionally, it offers personalized guidance powered with AI to acquire tools to live more fulfilling lives.
Bloom
Bloom's purpose
We believe that by managing our emotions intelligently we can create a more compassionate, equitable, and healthier society. Our purpose is to foster emotional intelligence by providing a safe and engaging space where people can be inspired to learn and develop emotional intelligence tools to better navigate life.
Bloom is a concept of a digital service platform that provides a safe and engaging space to cultivate emotional intelligence powered with AI.
How it works
*All content in the app is from The School of Life
Still from Bloom's future version video
Painting video assets with watercolor
*All content in the app is from The School of Life
Facilitating co-creation workshop at the 2018 Youth Solutions Summit
Designing interventions of dually involved multi-system youth
Team
Cristina Tarriba, Çagla Kuzu, Ryan Maus
Divya Iyengar, Matthew Impola
​
Organization
DCFS
IIT Institute of Design
Date
Aug-Dec 2018
Project brief
​
We were tasked to design and facilitate a 2-day workshop to encourage youth in the foster care system as well as heads of the Illinois state department to collaborate and tackle some of the most pressing challenges that the youth face
every day.
My role
Facilitator and educator:
I facilitated activities for co-creation and enabled participants to take action smoothly during
each session.
​
​
Results
-
A 2-day multistakeholder workshop at the Governor's mansion at Springfield, IL. Where at-risk youth and 8 state representatives came together to reframe problems and ideate potential solutions.
-
7 final ideas with pilot plans and final recommendations.
Key personal learnings
​​​​
-
Fostering collaboration among participants from very different backgrounds: Meeting people where they are, making sure everyone is on the same page and ready and comfortable to move forward was key.
​​
-
Creating accountability post-workshop: Planning and clarifying what the expectation is for each stakeholder is important to make sure we don't lose momentum and we meet the goals initial goals that were set.
We started off by synthesizing existing DCFS internal information, previous research, documentation, and internal knowledge.
We reviewed previous documentation, secondary research as well as primary research that had been conducted by an internal team at DCFS. We had several calls with youth leaders as well as DCFS members to make sure the expectations and desired outcomes of the workshop were aligned.
​
Previous research identified 5 main problem areas:
-
Violence
-
Educational settings that do not enable them to transition into adulthood
-
Lack of engagement from caring to supportive adults
-
Finding gainful employment
-
Define their own version of success
We designed all the activities, warmups, and exercises to foster collaboration among DCFS members, Illinois State Representatives, and the Youth.
We designed and tested different versions of our facilitation guides and workshop materials
Setting participants (Youth + State Representatives) for success for the 2-day co-creation workshop
Participants were unfamiliar with the design process so we made videos to set participants for success by reducing confusion and creating a smoother and more engaging workshop experience.
​
To give participants a flavor about the design process we created a series of videos where we demonstrated with simple examples the activities they would be doing with and how the design process works. ​
We facilitated the workshop fostering collaboration among multiple stakeholders in the room
​
-
5 ID facilitators: Students from the IIT Institute of design with a diverse background and set of skills.
​
-
4 DCFS facilitators: Folks that work in DCFS and have a deep understanding of the internal DCFS dynamics as an organization and with the Youth.
​​
-
8 Directors of State: Members of different State departments that all have an impact on DCFS policy (Education, Transportation, Juvenile Justice, etc).
​​
-
75+ Dually involved youth: Youth in both the foster care system and the juvenile system.
Post-workshop synthesis and final recommendations
After the workshop, we captured all ideas, and pilot plans as well as additional insights that surfaced during our sessions and synthesized the information to craft our final recommendations.
