COVID Memorial

Sci4NY

Atilla Aydin, Brittany Auciello, Nikhar Tandon, Shayna Slodarz

KEYWORDS

Project

The purpose of our capstone project we decided to focus on health and covid-19 in New York City. We chose this topic because it is one of the most prevalent issues in our society today. Covid-19 has affected each one of us differently and we want to help make a positive impact through strategic design. Our objective for this process began with initial investigations of awareness, memorialization, creation, achieving fun interactions, creating trust stories, and getting everyone vaccinated. We wanted to commemorate people who lost their lives to this deadly virus and wanted to create memories for their loved ones. In addition we wanted to commemorate our healthcare workers in New York through creating an impactful memorial that reminds us of their sacrifice for us.

challenge

The challenges we came across were that a few of our initial ideas of possible interventions were already in practice, like vaccination stickers. Moreover, we eliminated the addition of an informative app about COVID-19 since there are already many resources available online. Another factor of consideration while coming up with memorials and the outcomes was the constantly changing situation with COVID-19 vaccination, for instance mid research on the Johnson and Johnson Vaccine was discontinued. We tried to overcome this by researching and being completely updated with any changes to the situation. Moreover, learning about people’s hesitation with getting vaccinated in the city had to be addressed. In order to do this, we researched the different age groups and tried to incorporate persuasive elements in our designed solutions that would encourage them to get vaccinated.

Outcome

Throughout the duration of the semester we approached various ideas for our capstone project. Starting with a strong focus on encouraging vaccinations, our research led us to ultimately deciding on a memorial based deliverable. We reached the conclusion that a memorial was the direction we wanted for our capstone project and more specifically, a memorial honoring healthcare workers. Healthcare workers made up 3.2% of the total NY population that died from covid-19. We found staggering quotes from countless healthcare workers that described horrific work days they had endured. From being overwhelmed with patients to watching countless co-workers pass away, yet they never gave up. This is why we found it crucial to honor and commemorate them. A memorial is made to honor and serve as an everlasting tribute to a life worth remembering, which is what we aimed to do with our deliverable.