ConGrads
Interactive Experience to Connect Graduating Students
ConGrads is an interactive installation designed to help graduating students reflect on their Cornell journey by reconnecting with meaningful but often overlooked relationships. Through prompt cards, playful interactions, and a shared campus map, the station encourages students to reach out, reminisce, and celebrate the connections that shaped their time at Cornell. By blending collective memory with personal reflection, ConGrads transforms the moments before graduation into an opportunity for gratitude, closure, and community.
Time
Team
Year
5 Weeks
4 Designers
2025
BRIEF
Design an interactive prototype for graduating students that creates positive experiences, integrates multiple PER techniques, and fosters memorable, well-being–enhancing activities.
METHODOLOGY
PER Processes
PER (Positive Emotion Regulation) are strategies that help people generate, sustain, and enhance positive emotions in daily life. They are rooted in positive psychology and are often used in well-being–oriented design.
Engaging in a Collective
Reminiscing
Sharing the Positive Experience with Others
Being Aware of Temporal Scarcity
Self Congratulating
User Characteristics
User Characteristics are the key traits, needs, and emotional states of the people the product is being designed for. They describe the users’ demographics, behaviors, motivations, and challenges, helping to ground the design process in a clear understanding of who the end users are.
IMPACT
PRIMARY OUTCOMES
INTERIM OUTCOMES
Emotional change
OUTPUTS
An interactive station (“ConGrads” station with map + prompt cards)
Documented user interactions and stories
INPUTS
NEGATIVE
POSITIVE
Stressed
Academically and Socially Driven
Excited
Lost
Hopeful
Anxious
Impact Ladder
An Impact Ladder (sometimes called a Theory of Change ladder) is a framework used in design and social innovation projects to show how a project’s activities lead to outcomes and, ultimately, to long-term impact. It connects inputs → outputs → interim outcomes → primary outcomes → long-term impact in a logical sequence.
Graduating Cornell students establish novel, well-being enhancing activities that will be remembered 10 years from now
Re-built past connections before graduating, enhances overall graduation experience
Behavioral change
Students reflect on meaningful but overlooked relationships
Students initiate reconnection with past acquaintances
Students meet up or re-engage with someone before graduation
Increased feelings of closure, gratitude, and belonging
An interactive prototype for Cornell students
A set of custom-designed prompts and activities (based on PER)
Designer introspection and experience prototyping
USER JOURNEY MAP
COMPONENTS AND DESIGN
ConGrads is inspired by the themes of nostalgia and connection, expressed through a design modeled after a retro arcade machine. The use of bold primary colors, simple yet effective graphics, and a familiar silhouette creates an approachable and playful presence. The structure is constructed from laser-cut wood panels mounted on a rolling platform, with printed graphics reinforcing the visual identity. Each piece was carefully designed to conceal the electronics, resulting in a refined and intuitive appearance.
At the core of the system are Arduino-powered components that bring interactivity to the installation. An ultrasonic sensor activates the machine when a participant approaches, ensuring immediate engagement without requiring prior instruction. Large illuminated buttons provide clear, tactile input for users, while an LED display offers straightforward guidance through each step of the process.
An LED matrix further extends the interaction by tracking and visualizing which categories of conversation starters are chosen most often, creating a sense of collective participation. Together, these elements integrate nostalgic design with responsive technology, producing a system that is both visually inviting and effective in encouraging meaningful reconnections.
PROCESS
