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Students See Human-Centered Design In Action

Aug 23, 2022

Last month, the Design Initiative at Dartmouth (DIAD) sponsored a student field trip to Burlington, Vermont to see how human-centered design and virtual reality (VR) technologies are used by companies. The students, led by Human-Centered Design Fellow Espy Thomson, visited three design and startup organizations—Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies (VCET), Mamava lactation pods, and OVR Technology—and explored real-world examples of creative problem solving.

"The field trip to Burlington was a great opportunity to learn from designers in the real world and see all of the cool things they're doing. The trip gave me a greater understanding of what I want to do as a designer, and allowed me to share these thoughts with other design-oriented peers."

"I knew that human-centered design could help me thoughtfully engage with problems in the world. On this field trip, I saw this applied in a venture capital startup building up rural communities through the intersection of government, education, and business addressing entrepreneurial needs."

"It was an invaluable trip to experience different services and products in various startups!"

"Talking to professionals gave me context of how human-centered design is applicable to the real world! It was super cool to see material we learned in the classroom be applied in real life. This field trip also allowed me to get to know people I would not have necessarily met otherwise!"

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