Design as Everyday Theatre:
UX Beyond the Screen

Instructor: Yvette Shen ( •᷄ᴗ•́) Teaching Assistants: Borami Kang, Valeska Tan

This studio project explores UX as something that happens across screens, spaces, bodies, and systems. Working in interdisciplinary teams, sophomore students in Visual Communication Design and Experiential Media Design create hybrid experiences that connect a digital interface, a spatial or physical interaction, and a simple generative behavior that changes in response to context.

Each project begins with observation-based research in a real environment. Students study how people move, wait, decide, and interact within everyday settings, using those findings to identify needs, frictions, and opportunities. As a result, the concepts are grounded in research and shaped by actual behavior in context.

From there, each team develops three connected parts: the Script, a 2D interface designed in Figma; the Stage, a spatial experience shaped through projection, movement, and environmental cues; and the Actor, a limited generative behavior that introduces variation while maintaining user clarity and control. Using Figma and Wizard-of-Oz prototyping, students simulate these interactions before technical implementation, allowing them to test, refine, and communicate ideas across both digital and physical experience.

˚*ੈ✩‧₊˚Class intro projection video and ticketing experience designed by Valeska Tan.