Within Reach: toward a future where care meets play
Thesis Faculty:
Mani Nilchiani, John Sharp, Ethan Silverman, Andrew ZornozaWithin Reach is a speculative interactive mural designed for elderly patients with limited lower-body mobility, where small, easy arm movements can produce open-ended visual responses.
This project explores how to make healthcare feel human again. Care used to focus on connection, built on trust and intentional relationships between doctors and patients. The world we live in now increasingly values efficiency, but healing is rarely efficient. It is slow, emotional, and deeply personal. Many people are invested in their health, yet once they enter the healthcare system, they lose their sense of control. Through design, I hope to give them small ways to participate in their own care, regaining their agency. This project approaches care environments through the lens of play and explores how imagination can support healing.
Within Reach is a speculative, interactive mural interface that encourages engagement, active imagination, and personal expression. Through evolving, open-ended watercolor visuals, patients are invited to move their arms to doodle and tell stories about what the resulting shapes are or could become.
