BUILDING H • SPECULATIVE DESIGN 2026
TIMELINE
2026
ROLE
UX Designer
ORG
Building H: Public Health Institute
TOOLS
Figma, Claude
A speculative design study on transportation defaults, healthier routines, and the small product moments that shape how people move.
Transportation is often treated as a problem of speed: what is the fastest way to get from A to B? But commuting also shapes health, social connection, exposure to daylight, environmental impact, and how cities evolve over time.
As part of a graduate capstone sponsored by Building H, our team explored how everyday commuting choices connect to larger infrastructure feedback loops. My design exploration focused on one question: what if the apps people already use could make the value of a commute visible at the moment they choose how to move?
the concepts assume an AI layer that can read across permissioned signals – route, calendar, health, ride, and listening context – then decide whether there is a useful suggestion to make. the design problem was not how to make the AI visible. it was how to make its output feel contextual, optional, and accountable.
The fastest route is not always the most valuable route.
CONTEXT
From system to screen
The broader project identified a feedback loop: infrastructure makes driving alone feel easiest, more people choose it, and that demand reinforces the same infrastructure. My screen explorations looked at a smaller leverage point inside that loop — the product moments where people decide, schedule, modify, or experience a commute.
I explored five surfaces where commute decisions already happen or are felt: route planning, scheduling, health reflection, ride modification, and the ride experience itself. Each concept below follows the same three-part lens — the default it challenges, the value it surfaces, and the restraint that keeps it respectful — expressed natively in a different app people already use.
Design principles
1
Make commute value visible before the choice is locked in.
2
Meet people inside tools they already use.
3
Optimize for agency, not guilt.
4
Match suggestions to attention and context.
5
Keep every nudge optional, reversible, and permissioned.
Every screen below is live; scroll each row sideways.
Smart route home
Apple Maps
Moment in the system — route planning
MOMENT
Choosing how to get home
NUDGE
One line naming what this particular ride makes room for
ACTION
Queue the audio, reading, or activity it names
GUARDRAIL
The label and the suggestion both change with the transport mode — driving gets audio, transit gets a podcast, never the same item twice
DEFAULT CHALLENGED
Route apps usually optimize for speed and efficiency alone.
VALUE SURFACED
This route also creates a pocket of attention — time for audio, reading, or decompression depending on the mode.
DESIGN RESTRAINT
The suggestion lives inside the route card, so it feels like route context rather than a new productivity layer.
Walk over together
Google Calendar
Moment in the system — scheduling and social coordination
MOMENT
Agreeing on a time with other people
NUDGE
An earlier start that would let the group walk from work
ACTION
Propose the new time to the guests
GUARDRAIL
An invitee proposes, never reschedules — the group still decides
DEFAULT CHALLENGED
Calendars treat events as fixed blocks, even when small shifts could change how people move.
VALUE SURFACED
Moving dinner earlier makes walking socially possible, not just individually preferable.
DESIGN RESTRAINT
Because group time belongs to everyone, the suggestion is proposed rather than automatically applied.
Recovery trend
Apple Health
Moment in the system — bodily consequence
MOMENT
Reviewing a decline that has no obvious cause
NUDGE
An association, not a cause — recovery reads lower on weeks with more sedentary commute time
ACTION
See a plan: a walk-transit route twice a week
GUARDRAIL
Both futures drawn as widening estimate ranges, everything past today marked as estimate, labelled as not medical guidance
DEFAULT CHALLENGED
Health apps often show outcomes after the fact, while commute choices are made elsewhere.
VALUE SURFACED
Repeated sedentary commutes become visible as a pattern that may affect recovery over time.
DESIGN RESTRAINT
This is not a diagnosis. It is a way to make a repeated commute pattern visible and suggest a small routine change, so the language stays associative and the projections are drawn as ranges that widen with time rather than lines that land on a number.
Walk the last 0.4 mi
Uber
Moment in the system — mode shift and last-mile behavior
MOMENT
The final few blocks of a ride
NUDGE
A permissioned Health signal, offering the last stretch as a walk
ACTION
Change the dropoff to Cedar St; the driver is told
GUARDRAIL
Attributed and permissioned, placed below the trip and safety controls, and retired into ordinary trip state once accepted
DEFAULT CHALLENGED
Ride-hailing makes door-to-door convenience the easiest option.
VALUE SURFACED
A Health signal makes the last few blocks visible as a small movement opportunity.
DESIGN RESTRAINT
The red heart is not a decoration; it marks provenance. The suggestion comes from Health, but the action belongs to Uber. Keeping the cue small and low in the sheet lets the apps connect without letting health context outrank the ride itself — and once accepted it becomes trip state, not a card that lingers.
Recovery Mix
Spotify
Moment in the system — emotional recovery and the ride experience
MOMENT
The ride itself
NUDGE
A mix the length of tonight’s trip home
ACTION
Play it — paced to the ride, then softened near the transfer
GUARDRAIL
An ordinary shelf card; ignoring it costs a scroll
DEFAULT CHALLENGED
Commute media is usually treated as background entertainment.
VALUE SURFACED
Music can help the ride become a transition ritual between work and home.
DESIGN RESTRAINT
Spotify does not need to tell anyone to reclaim their commute; it can simply shape the ride. Route duration and the transfer are used only as timing and mood, surfaced as an ordinary shelf card and player context rather than an integration badge — no Maps icon appears anywhere, because the listening should feel native, not instrumented.
What I would test next
Because this was speculative work, the next step would be testing which nudges feel helpful versus intrusive. I’d want to understand when people welcome commute suggestions, when they feel moralized, and how much control they expect over signals like calendar, health, location, and media. The larger question is whether products can expand people’s sense of choice without pretending individual behavior alone can solve an infrastructure problem.