Students will investigate how elevation changes affect ecosystems and human activity by engaging directly with local environmental stakeholders, documenting insights through structured empathy tools, and grounding future design decisions in real user evidence.

Students will analyze patterns across stakeholder interviews and environmental data to define a focused, user-centered problem statement that guides the design of their topographic map prototypes and community installation.

Students will generate a wide range of user-centered solution ideas for helping their community understand and respond to elevation change, then narrow to their strongest concepts grounded in stakeholder evidence and ecosystem impact.

Students will build and refine testable topographic map prototypes that visualize current and future elevation changes, using real stakeholder feedback to improve clarity, scientific accuracy, and user usefulness before moving to final production.

Students will conduct a final round of user validation on their interactive laser-cut topographic installations, refine their models based on authentic feedback, and present their full design journey—user research through iteration—at a public Map Makers’ Gallery Walk with community stakeholders.