SOPHIE BECKER

504/GWT

Hey, I’m Sophie – a designer, researcher, strategist, and artist. I hold a BFA in Industrial Design and Psychology from the Rochester Institute of Technology. 

I focus on design research, community engagement, and piloting interventions. I'm driven to address system-level problems through a design-lens, particularly environmental and social issues such as urban design, housing, and homelessness.  

I am based in Denver, CO where you can find me enjoying the mountains and sunshine.
 

    Atlanta Community Needs
    Child Care Matters
    Home Here
    Immersive Innovation Labs
    Jane Fonda
    Alpyn Beauty
    Vignelli Medal
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    Writing
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    On My Mind
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    ATLANTA REGIONAL COMMISION

    DOC 234—34/2


    Atlanta Regional Commision  

    // Fall 2022     CHALLENGE: How can communities better reach consensus of their priorities to encourage government response?

    PROCESS: Having run a series of engagement sessions to hear community concerns, the Atlanta Regional Commision (ARC) needed assistance in understanding how communities prioritized their own needs, a vital step before interventions could be designed. We broke the project into 3 phases: 

    Phase 1 – Realizing we needed to establish a coalition to meet community needs, our team recruited partners, identified champions within the community, and created a roadmap for the project even beyond our involvement.  

    Phase 2 – To facilitate the actual prioritizing of needs, I led the design of a voting mechanism to be deployed at local public events. The final design (featured above) was a modular and highly customizable tool that had an accompanying handbook to share possible configurations, uses, and maintenance, but also allow communities the freedom to make it their own. 

    Phase 3 – The team attended various local events to train the ARC team and community leaders on the tool, as well as see it in action to gather data and insights of community needs. 
        
    OUTCOMES: 
    1. Voting Tool – The tool was designed with a particular focus on modularity, affordability, and functionality. We went through multiple iterations of drawings, a prototype, and then a final design. It was accompanied with a handbook for use and customizable communication templates.  
    2. Community Engagement Roadmap – Recommended how to conduct future events for voting. Also our strategic recommendations on future interventions for the project and potential barriers we foresaw.






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