Empathy and Interaction: Students Design Helpful Mobile App Concepts for Underserved Populations

The act of design in the broadest of terms is seen as using skills to make people’s lives more safe, efficient, and/or pleasant. In particular, graphic design is seen as making visual communication more clear, focused, and/or compelling. The typical graphic designer finds their work in the service of business, promoting goods and services to consumers or other businesses. In this role of promoting goods and services for a business, a graphic designer might not feel any responsibility to question potential negative societal impacts their work might generate. Is there room in the role of a graphic designer to take on any of that responsibility? Do they have agency enough to make positive impacts on our society? University students in an introduction to interactive media course were given the opportunity to practice this kind of decision making by conceiving of mobile phone apps that might possibly benefit individuals with specific needs that are seen as societal gaps. Students conceived, designed, and tested mobile app prototypes for several different types of underserved populations. This mobile app project gave the students insights into how their work can be a positive influence on society as well as broadening their perspective on the role of graphic design in general.