← Selected Work

🏆 2026 CAPSTONE AWARD: CREATIVITY 🏆

Helping makers feel like they belong.

MakeLab Makeover

Role: Physical space design, user research
Timeline: January 2026 – June 2026
Team: Sehrish Daud, Rhiannon Hayes-McQueen, Jordyn Padzensky, Darby Moore
Context: HCDE Capstone · UW Sieg MakeLab

View our project on the official HCDE 2026 Capstone Showcase site →

The Problem

The HCDE MakeLab in Sieg Hall has tools, tables, and department funding, but most students never walk in. Over 80% of survey respondents had never used it. Those who did often treated it as class storage, not a place to make, learn, or connect.

For our capstone, sponsored by HCDE, we asked: How might we redesign the Sieg MakeLab to better support HCDE students by representing their values and needs?

North star: The MakeLab will provide an opportunity for HCDE students to rediscover Sieg Building as the home of HCDE, where various resources, events, and community spaces exist that promote a sense of belonging and inclusive representation within engineering education.

The Research

Two site visits, a 31-response survey, eleven interviews, and affinity mapping with students and faculty across HCDE.

Existing limitations

Limited funding/resources, strict UW policies, and HCDE program systems that cannot be changed.

"I know the MakeLab and CELT Space are really kind of isolated on the first floor. And, you know, I wish they weren't so isolated." — Faculty interview
Need for informational access and awareness

Students have minimal awareness and knowledge of the MakeLab. 80.6% of survey respondents had never used the MakeLab.
Desired use of the MakeLab

Users would like aesthetically pleasing storage, and new tools/resources. The MakeLab currently is used for class storage only.
Desire for connection through events and activities

Students want organized events and activities to connect with their peers. They also felt intimidated at HCDE events.

"Sometimes with, like, those types of events [tea time], a lot of people are, like, either awkward or just talking with their friends." — Student interview
Need for available trained staff

Students need available staff to be present (at diverse hours), attentive, encouraging, and skilled. They want to feel safe.

"Well, I would hope for them not to be like the staff at the MILL, who truly don't care to help you." — Student interview
Desire for collaborative and comforting installations

Students want a space that is designed for physical collaboration and has cool features, especially those made by students. People specifically mentioned putting up old student projects.

FigJam affinity map — research themes from interviews and surveys — Affinity mapping — turning interviews and survey data into shared themes.

Four Interventions

We didn't redesign the room itself because of funding and building constraints. Instead, we prototyped four interventions HCDE could implement: make the MakeLab discoverable, celebrate student work, hire equitably, and make the space feel like home.

Advertising campaign

Guidelines for reaching students where they already are:Slack, Instagram, physical flyers, etc. A clearer web presence explaining what the MakeLab is, when it's open, and what you can do there.

Instagram post mockup on iPhone — MakeLab now open to all HCDE students, Sieg 129 — Instagram campaign concept — hours, location, and what the MakeLab is.

Trophy case displays

A plan to use the empty trophy cases in Sieg's first-floor hall for rotating student project displays to help create a sense of belonging and inspire creativity.

Trophy case in Sieg Hall displaying student projects — electronics, sketches, models, and MakeLab signage — Trophy case prototype — student work on display in the Sieg hall.

Equitable hiring & training guide

Hiring criteria that prioritize passion for teaching, a learning mindset, and justice-driven thinking over prior makerspace experience to ensure staff reflect and welcome the students who use the space.

MakeLab hiring process diagram — application, interviews, training, and continuous improvement stages — Proposed hiring process — from application through ongoing training.

Aesthetic improvements

Tool organization by category with consistent signage, student art on the walls, and clearer pathways. These will be small physical changes aimed at comfort, accessibility, and "homeness."

MakeLab interior — organized tools, student art on walls, and welcoming workspace layout — Spatial recommendations — organized tools, student work, welcoming paths.

How We Got Here

We ran a co-design session with five HCDE students, mapped the MakeLab ecosystem, and used five whys to connect behaviors to values like equity, belonging, and agency.

Research & synthesis

Understand the space and the people

Site visits to the HCDE MakeLab and UW Bothell's makerspace. Surveys and interviews with students and faculty. Affinity mapping to find patterns — especially around awareness, staff, and belonging.

Co-design

Design with students, not just for them

Five BS students explored the MakeLab, sketched mock layouts, and mapped where they expect to find resources across Sieg. This helped us ground our proposals in how people actually move through the building.

Co-design session — students sketching MakeLab layouts and mapping resources across Sieg Building — Co-design session — students mapping the space and their expectations.

Mission statements

Turn findings into four actionable missions

Instead of one huge redesign, we aligned each deliverable to a mission: empower learning outside the classroom, celebrate diverse identities, represent students equitably, and cultivate homeness. A service blueprint mapped the ideal student journey through the MakeLab over time.

MakeLab service design blueprint — student touchpoints across discovery, entry, and return visits — Service blueprint — how students discover, enter, and return to the MakeLab.

MakeLab ecosystem map — how students interact with the space and touchpoints over time — Ecosystem map — student touchpoints across the MakeLab experience.

Two ideas, live status tracking for tool availability and a full materials reorganization, were scoped out due to time. They remain in our final report as recommendations for HCDE.

Capstone Showcase

HCDE Capstone 2026

Creativity Award

Recognized for risk-taking in design, research, ideation, and prototyping at the capstone showcase.

Our final poster and presentation video from the capstone showcase — where we presented MakeLab Makeover to faculty, students, and industry guests.

MakeLab Makeover capstone showcase poster — research, interventions, and recommendations for HCDE — Showcase poster — summarizing research, interventions, and next steps for HCDE.

Showcase video — our capstone presentation.

Reflection

What I learned

Space design is service design. The MakeLab's problem wasn't missing tools, it was missing discovery, representation, and reasons to stay.
Our team shared a similar background as many BS students, which built trust in interviews. However, that also meant we had to actively seek perspectives we didn't represent (graduate students, international students, non-makers).
Meaningful work doesn't always result in a product. Our deliverables are guidelines and prototypes meant to persuade HCDE to invest, and the real test is whether they get implemented.

What I'd do next

Research with MS and PhD students: scheduling conflicts kept them out of co-design, and their relationship to the MakeLab may differ.
Test interventions after implementation: especially the advertising campaign and trophy case, once HCDE puts them in place.
Revisit status tracking: students wanted to know when the lab is open, staffed, and not overcrowded before making the trip to Sieg's first floor.

MakeLab reminded me that inclusive design starts with who feels allowed to enter a room, and that the most impactful work isn't always a new interface. Sometimes it's a trophy case, a hiring guide, and a flyer that tells you the door is open.

HCDE Capstone 2026 · Team: Rhiannon Hayes-McQueen, Jordyn Padzensky, Darby Moore · Sponsor: Tyler Fox