My MFA thesis explores how design influences everyday emotions and experiences and how that influence can be used positively.

Design can create small, joyful moments in everyday urban life: especially for young adults moving through public spaces like streets, subways, and parks.

Through interviews, participatory workshops, and playful prototypes, I studied how objects, environments, and interactions can tap into people’s “inner child,” support emotional well-being, and foster tiny bursts of connection in otherwise routine or stressful city days.

This lead to my theory: The Pillars of Joy. There are many products and experiences that bring people joy, but what are the factors that actually cause people to stop and appreciate the moment?

In order for joy to be long-lasting and impactful, it must include a sensory feature, spontaneous moment, and a shared connection with another soul. Only once these three factors are fulfilled does an experience or product truly effect one’s self.

About Me

Sofia Grytsenko is a user-experience & product designer, with a background in computer science, web development, and psychology.

She is the co-founder of a merchandising studio called Okio (with cohort member Ana) and is developing Cool Dogs, a blind-box collectible all about surprise and delight.

When she’s not building products, she is chasing playful ideas: from running a stall at The Lucky Flea to working and DJing at WSVA Radio.

**Resume | Website | LinkedIn**

Thesis Advisor: Sinclair Smith

Key Term Glossary

• My thesis lexicon

Thesis Blog

• View topics

Acknowledgements

• The People Who Made This Process More Joyful.

Final Presentation

(Recording to come)

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“To this day, and no doubt for good reasons, suffering remains the almost exclusive preoccupation of professional psychology. Journals in the field have published forty-five thousand articles in the last thirty years on depression, but only four hundred on joy”

– Barbara Ehrenreich Author of Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy

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Explorations of Joy: A Series

Asking “What Makes YOU Happy?”

Nearly 100 years before my red balloon crossed Madison Square Park, Joan Miro painted The Birth of the World in colors that feel murky and unsettled as a grey New York sky, then pierced that darkness with a small red sphere and other floating signs.

Through several different experiments, I tested how design can be used to influence individual’s moods and opinions. I also wondered if there was a way to investigate these inquiries without being so obtuse and obvious about it.

I pondered the question: What brings you joy?

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“We wanted people to get back to their primal state of learning, like they were babies again discovering the world for the first time.

It [Arkhé] seemed to bring a lot of joy to people.”

– Jake Adams Co-Founder of Arke, Professor at RIT

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3D Product Design (Coming Soon)

https://youtu.be/q-YCQU2nrcc