Good Interventions is an annual exhibition of intangible design projects that address the pressing issues of our time by bringing together the power of design and social sciences. For its fourth edition, fifteen projects have been selected to be exhibited. The program is organized by the School of Design Strategies and will take place in its permanent exhibition as a portal in the Platform of Design Strategies.
Designers: Andrés Fechtenholz | Cliff Gallant | Cornelia Hulling | David Pinto | Deng Haoyong | Dr. Astoin Houlsworth | Finlay Batts | Grace McGing | Hoda Solati | Hyo-In Jensine Won | Julián Pereyra | Kareena Vaswani | Liu Qianwei | Laura Badino | Liu Shuzhan | Mariana Salgaso | Maryam Ashraf | Mercedes Salgado Moralejo | Mohamed Berrada | Monica Gomez Barboza | Nakshi Shah | Polly Xu | Prajakta Gholap | Priya Chaudhary | Shima Solati | Vibha Tourani | Vidhi Shah | Xuanxuan Huang | Youngjun Shin | Zheng Huiyan
Bread Economics draws parallels between building a thriving economy and baking sourdough bread. Using flour and water as metaphors for labor and capital, we explore how Adam Smith’s free-market economy can shift through invisible forces and interventions. Inspired by J.K. Gibson-Graham’s alternative economic theories, we reimagine economies as living systems, like sourdough starters, that thrive through continual care, sustainable practices, and more balanced approaches to markets, enterprises, and labor.
But they built roads…” is often used to justify colonialism, suggesting its infrastructure benefited colonies or excusing its violence. This project challenges that myth by analyzing the economic legacy of colonial transport networks in Africa through a slime mold simulation model.
The findings reveal how colonial railroads, built for extraction not connection, still constrain African economies—highlighting the need for indigenous infrastructure and critical reassessment of inherited colonial systems.
Carelink is a framework that harnesses the data management capabilities of artificial intelligence to bridge gaps in breast cancer patient care.
Through qualitative research, we examine patient experiences, identify key stakeholders, and explore how AI can enhance care. The fragmented healthcare systems and overwhelming medical jargon leads to confusion and stress. To address this, we propose a centralized, user-friendly framework that simplifies medical data, consolidating information from various providers. Integrating AI, our design enhances clarity, emotional support, and ethical data management, building a more patient-centered,
proactive approach to breast cancer care.
Alexithymia, a condition marked by deficits in emotional recognition and expression, affects over 50% of individuals with mental health disorders. Traditional interventions relying on verbal articulation often fail due to heightened cognitive demands and psychological resistance. Addressing this gap, we present Coloring the Emoji, a gamified coloring intervention designed to enhance emotional clarity through non-verbal, low-cognitive-load interactions. The game employs a three-stage progressive framework: (1) Emotion-Color Mapping via a dual-dimensional "pleasant-unpleasant" and "calm-excited" color gear, translating abstract emotions into intuitive visual symbols; (2) Contextualized Emotion Attribution using 53 high-frequency, sentiment-polarized emojis to link emotions with real-life scenarios; and (3) Free Coloring Expression with adaptive tools, enabling non-verbal emotional externalization through dynamic feedback and personalized pixel art creation.
This project implements a neoliberal notion of redistribution by proposing a new function for money that renders income tax redundant, directly redistributing wealth between people’s bank or savings accounts. In doing so, the system transforms trickle-down economics from rhetoric into reality. Friedrich Hayek, Margaret Thatcher, and Ronald Reagan would be proud.
This project explored the potential of a UN Design Charter to formalise design’s role across the UN system. Through participatory research with designers and leaders, it developed a prototype charter as a living, open document that frames design intent and identity. By integrating designerly approaches such as cultural probes and prototyping, the research positions design as a tool for institutional transformation and systemic change within the UN.
Innovations include replacing language-dependent labels with visual metaphors (e.g., color-emotion associations derived from Russell’s Circumplex Model and Emocards scale) and integrating gamified principles from cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness into a structured yet flexible interface. A mixed-methods study (n=15) demonstrated acceptable usability, with 80% of users reporting improved emotional awareness and reduced cognitive burden. Qualitative feedback highlighted the effectiveness of color as an intuitive emotional proxy and the value of progressive task design in mitigating psychological defensiveness.
This paper explores Ecosquared, an alternative economic system that redefines money as a vector rather than a scalar value. Using relational mathematics and the Social Quotient algorithm, Ecosquared measures trust and redistributes resources based on collective valuation. Implemented through the Sqale platform, it demonstrates new models for fair exchange, decentralized coordination, and ecological stewardship—offering a mathematically grounded alternative to conventional market systems and addressing issues of inequality, volatility, and institutional mistrust.
The project was started a few years ago and continues to be distributed in the designers’ hometown of Portland, Maine, both as a hard copy and an online publication under the name Figaro’s Portland Resource Guide. The mission of the publication is to make low-income and no-income residents of the city aware of the wide range of resources available to them, and to provide the information they need to access those resources. The guide includes about twenty different categories, covering everything from where to get free food and medical care to how to obtain a library card and borrow books and videos.
From Stories to Systems: A Participatory Design Intervention for Student Wellbeing in Under- Resourced China
This project explores participatory storytelling as a tool to reshape student well-being within the regimented K-12 education system in China. Responding to rising mental health challenges, it critiques how schools often equate adapting to rigid structures with well-being. Collaborating
with a middle school in Guigang, the project developed a four-component framework to amplify student voices. It offers a replicable model to surface student stories as a bridge between lived experience and systemic action in constrained educational environments, reframing the
narrative around student well-being.
A design exploration of alternative public engagement in infrastructure projects that span over long time scales and long distances. It deals with the specific case of the North Bothnia Line in the north of Sweden - a railroad in the making.
The final design is a conceptual proposal for an alternative communication platform which focuses on creating public engagement through reflective sharing of personal experiences over long periods of time.
Inclusive Smart Mobility is a digital platform designed to empower individuals with mobility impairments by breaking barriers of ableism and promoting equality. Built with user-centered design, it offers interactive maps, real-time navigation, accessible parking reservations, and community-driven insights. By enabling independent mobility, social
participation, and informed decision-making, this platform fosters inclusion, enhances mental well-being, and redefines accessible travel for local and international destinations, turning mobility into freedom.
By utilizing ethical game design and the social shaping of technology in today’s age, create a game that allows people to experience the consequences of senseless violence and war without romanticizing them. This game enables individuals to make decisions and experience the impact and consequences of their actions on others and themselves, fostering a personal and empathetic approach to realistic violence that people encounter and continue to face.
Manual scavenging, banned in India since 1993, persists due to caste discrimination, poverty, neglect, and weak enforcement. Lack of data and open dialogue hides the scale of the problem. Threshold, an atypical publication, addresses these realities through Vocalization (stories), Perceptions (facts), and Actions (future steps). Combining narratives with data, it focuses on fostering empathy, challenging biases, and calls for dialogue, dignity, and collective responsibility toward ending this human rights crisis.
Walk Her Path is an interactive facilitation device to engage critically with the diverse experiences of Domestic Abuse and make visible the additional barriers faced by excluded groups. It aims to assist service providers and policy makers identify changes needed to take an intersectional approach that responds to the needs of all women, especially the most disadvantaged. Co-designed with researchers working on Violence Against Women and the NGO Amina MWRC.
Committed to amplifying diverse voices, The New School offers more than a thousand public programs and events each year, providing fresh perspectives and unique learning opportunities. These lectures, exhibitions, concerts, and performances feature prominent and emerging artists, activists, and thought leaders.
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