The Yellow Staircase
Lawrence Paskaruk
How can we create a community environment for OCAD during periods of online-only learning, to decrease the isolation experienced by students?
The closure of university campuses due to the Covid-19 pandemic, has put distance between students both physically and mentally. Students at commuter schools, like OCAD, who don’t have much of a school-related social life before a pandemic, are now feeling more disconnected from each other and are lacking meaningful social interactions during and outside of class time.
The Yellow Staircase aims to unite OCAD students through replicating a daily communal experience missing in online-only classes: climbing the yellow staircase and adding to the myriad of drawings and writing covering the wall.
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INSIGHT
During Covid-19, university students, who are at a stage in life where they are more at risk for mental health problems, are experiencing the onset or exacerbation of mental health problems like depression and anxiety, and heightened feelings of loneliness. OCAD students, who have a less all-encompassing social life than students at non-commuter schools, are feeling more disconnected than ever.
IDEA
The Yellow Staircase is an augmented reality experience, letting students communicate and connect virtually in a way that accentuates the unique social aspects of OCAD. This app features an augmented reality staircase that students can “climb” and contribute to, either by posting a previous work from camera roll, or drawing and writing directly on the wall through the app. The Yellow Staircase provides students with the same freedom and anonymity of the real staircase
IMPACT
By replicating this experience through augmented reality, The Yellow Staircase acts as both a transitional space to help students move into or out of online classes, and as a social media tailored to the OCAD experience. With OCAD students around the world, The Yellow Staircase provides real-time interaction with other students in a non-classroom OCAD environment, outside of the boundaries and social hierarchies of social media platforms. This app also offers a starting point for enhancing in-person experiences post Covid.
Lawrence Paskaruk
Lawrence is an industrial designer from Toronto, interested in human interactions and examining societal structures. He enjoys creating macabre and weird objects and concepts, and playing with the idea of “the norm”. When there isn’t a pandemic, Lawrence can often be seen stage managing in theatres around Toronto and the GTA.
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