Making the arts more accessible in Boston
brief
Our goal was to use different design research methods to produce a project that would respond to the needs of our research. My partner and I wanted to focus on the arts scene in Boston (or lack thereof) and how we could make it more accessible. By accessible, I mean to provide more visibility to events and make sure people have all of the information they need to make an informed decision.
context
Research Methods at Northeastern University — Fall 2025
tools and methods
- Ethnographic Surveys
- Stakeholder Mapping
- User Interviews
- Affinity Diagramming
- Secondary Research
team
Zach Marino, Lane Afrookteh
timeline
12 weeks
insights
We noticed a barrier of perception around the arts during our research. People viewed the arts as “elitist” or were otherwise skeptical. We also found that our interviewees were much more likely to get involved with the arts after being exposed for the first time. We also found that it was important to provide users with a "rules of engagement" for events to promote getting involved, though secondary research was needed for the amount of information given.
deliverables
We used our research to create an interactive mobile prototype that focuses on event discovery and accessibility. All users get a feed based on a recommender system that provides events in the area based on their interests and content tags. They can also send events to their friends and see what they are interested in to set up group experiences. The logo and brand colors were inspired by the painting L'Heure Bleue by Carl Soete.
Full prototype
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