Journey Across Continents
A project exploring human behavior and emotional connections across borderInspiration : My Journey
The inspiration for this project stems from my upbringing as a third-culture kid, growing up in Saudi Arabia with Korean heritage, where I experienced the blending of diverse cultures and languages. Navigating these differences taught me the importance of human connection and finding ways to communicate beyond words.
This perspective, combined with my passion for design as a tool to bridge gaps and create inclusive experiences, motivated me to explore how emotional connections and human behavior can be expressed and understood through strategic interaction design.
Reflecting on My Journey
From my childhood in Saudi Arabia, where I grew up navigating a blend of cultures, to my transformative years in New York at Parsons, and finally returning to Korea after graduation, my journey has been defined by adaptation and self-discovery. Each phase of my life brought new challenges, decisions, and growth, shaping my identity and my perspective as a designer.
Moving between countries and cultures pushed me to constantly reflect on who I am and where I belong. It made me realize that my life, like everyone’s, is a series of choices and experiences that form an intricate web of connections, emotions, and relationships. Analyzing my own journey inspired me to explore how these transitions and decisions could be visualized and shared with others—allowing them to navigate the choices and paths that made me who I am today.
Exploring the Impact of Relocation
This inspired me to analyze relocation as a shared human experience, exploring how different individuals perceive and navigate change. By gathering insights on their emotions, choices, and challenges, I aimed to incorporate this understanding into my project—focusing on how human behavior evolves in response to new environments and circumstances.
[ALL SURVEYS WERE CONDUCTED WITH 10 PARTICIPANTS RANGING IN AGE FROM 20 TO 60]
QUESTION 1 - HOW DOES FREQUENT RELOCATION AFFECT YOUR PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP?
QUESTION 2 - PHYSICAL DEMANDS VS. EMOTIONAL DEMANDS
Exploring the Impact of Relocation
I envisioned my journey as an interactive narrative where users actively participate in exploring the key moments and decisions that shaped my life. To deepen engagement, I structured the narrative into chapters—each representing a stage of my life—where users must make choices and complete “games” to progress. This approach mirrors the way life unfolds, with each decision shaping the path ahead and its outcomes becoming increasingly complex.
Prototype to Digital Interaction
To bring my prototype to life, I transformed the conceptual framework into a fully functional digital interaction using a combination of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This allowed me to create an immersive experience where users could navigate through the chapters of my journey, interact with the decisions I made, and engage with the challenges along the way.
This HTML file structures a chapter in an
interactive web experience, focusing on a
maze game. It includes key visual elements
and interactive elements, maintaining a
consistent design across chapters.
This CSS file defines the layout for
chapter navigation, game interfaces,
mazes, and popups, ensuring a consistent
and responsive design.
This JavaScript file handles the logic for
the puzzle game, enabling drag-and-drop
functionality, collision detection, and
game completion events.
This JavaScript file controls the maze game,
managing player movement, collision detection
with maze paths, and triggering events when
the maze is completed.
Interactive Element : Maze Game
The maze game symbolizes the complexities of navigating decisions, mirroring the challenges of designing intuitive user experiences. It reflects my ability to address obstacles and guide users seamlessly, a skill central to my design approach.
Interactive Element : Puzzle Game
The puzzle game represents the complexity and unpredictability of navigating life’s challenges and decisions. It is designed as a visual metaphor for the twists, turns, and obstacles I faced during key phases of my journey.
Digital Interaction