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Adaptive Spatial Intelligence

Redesigning digital screens and mobile systems for the Smith Campus Center

Adaptive Spatial Intelligence (ASI) is a redesign of the digital experience inside the Harvard Smith Campus Center.

The system integrates public digital screens and a mobile interface to improve event visibility, room utilization, and spatial decision-making. Through interactive event displays, real-time spatial data visualization, and a streamlined room reservation flow, ASI helps visitors understand what’s happening in the building, where to go, and which spaces fit their needs.

Role

Product designer

Skills

Concept development
Product design
Interactive prototyping
User research & testing

Timeline

1 week, Dec 2025

Tools

Figma

Team

Yichen Wang
Sophia Liao
Qian Xiang

Context

The Smith Campus Center is a central gathering space at Harvard University, hosting events, study sessions, meetings, and social activities throughout the day.

To support these activities, the building is equipped with multiple public digital displays and an online mobile system of study room reservation and event info display, intended to help visitors make use of available rooms and discover events.

Current Problems

However, this digital infrastructure is fragmented and difficult to use in practice, resulting in the following issue:

(01) Underperforming Public Displays

Public displays primarily show event information, yet the layouts are visually noisy, non-interactive, and difficult to parse, resulting in low engagement.

[ Vertical Digital Display ]

Lacking Functionality

Prominent screens are non-interactive with minimal content

Replacing them with interactive displays would improve engagement and clarity

[ Interactive Welcome Wall ]

Unclear Information Layout

Content is scattered and visually inconsistent

Users can’t easily tell what the screen offers or that it’s interactive

[ Interactive Welcome Wall ]

Unintuitive Interaction

Touch interactions feel sluggish and unresponsive

Slow loading breaks the exploration flow

(02) Outdated Mobile Experience

Meanwhile, room reservations and event details are handled through the Harvard Common Spaces portal, which suffers from outdated UI patterns and unclear information hierarchy, and poor mobile usability.

[ Room Reservation ]

Overloaded Availability View

Dense time grid makes availability hard to scan on mobile

Optimized for completeness rather than quick decisions

[ Room Reservation ]

Fragmented Booking Flow

Simple booking requires excessive scrolling and effort

Information and actions are visually disconnected

[ Event Info Display ]

Uninformative Event Interface

Events presented as database entries not spatial experiences

User Research

We handed out surveys to 33+ Smith Center visitors to further confirm existing problems with the current digital infrastructure.

Survey Key Findings

(01) Visitors have low awareness on events, even though infos are displayed in multiple touch points.

More than 50% of respondents rarely heard about events.

44% of respondents found the visibility of event information low or very low.

(02) Visitors want more guidance and data to support their spatial navigation inside the Smith Center.

Around 70% of respondents would like to know crowd levels and noise levels for navigating.

Respondents rated low score on Smith Center's clarity of navigation signage.

Design Opportunities

Synthesizing insights from the problem analysis and user research, we identified two key design opportunities.

Design 1: Vertical Digital Display
An in-building spatial interface for quick orientation and decisions

This includes

Adding a simple home page showing facilities by floor

Adding an interactive map with data visualizations on crowd, noise and light levels and 3D navigation to help visitors find desirable spots for their activities

Redesigning the event info display for visual clarity