Neighbor to Neighbor

As a joint project between North Carolina State University and IBM, I collaborated with a team of designers to develop solutions for a local nonprofit (Neighbor to Neighbor) working with at-risk youth in the Raleigh area.

Over several months, the team conducted qualitative research and interviews to pinpoint obstacles facing this organization. We then used IBM’s Enterprise Design Thinking workflow to generate solutions to these obstacles. This process included several levels of qualitative research, including interviews, mapping, and participatory design activities. The team worked closely with administrators, mentors, and tutors from the program — as well as students.

Neighbor to Neighbor was faced with the problems of student retention, recruiting, transportation, content-creation, and spatial limitations. Through an iterative process of co-design, brainstorming, and prototyping, our team was able to propose a re-design of their campus which would allow this nonprofit the room to incorporate more students and new courses to aid retention of returning students. By balancing the needs of administrators and students, we were able to re-design this campus in several optional phases which allowed Neighbor to Neighbor the flexibility to approach this expansion on their own terms.

Click to view the final Playback (PDF)

View a walkthrough of the final design concept