NYU Reflections
Video Booth
Commencement has a way of stirring up memories – the first day on campus, the friendships formed, and the milestones once thought impossible. As students reflect on their NYU journey, the University recognizes its essential role in helping them make the most of their college experience. NYU’s Flourishing Framework supports that journey through three core pillars: belonging, well-being, and purpose.
Belonging sits at the heart of student flourishing at NYU. It’s shaped through meaningful relationships and community involvement, giving students the space to express their unique values and identities. To explore and measure its impact, the Student Affairs division gathered student reflections in a storytelling video booth, an experience I helped design.
Core Responsibilities
Design and Editing
Created vinyl panel designs and video slides for the booth’s exterior and interior experience.
Collaboration
Partnered with the vendor and department stakeholders to ensure alignment with the project vision.
Project Management
Oversaw timelines, coordinated production, and supported implementation through the installation.
Logistics and Setup
The video booth was installed for seven days during Commencement Week in the Kimmel Center, coinciding with cap and gown pickup. Graduating seniors were invited to step inside the booth and record one-minute reflections about their time at NYU.
The booth provided a quiet, reflective space amid the excitement of commencement, allowing students to share authentic stories and insights in their own words. These recordings later served as qualitative data for understanding how students experienced belonging throughout their time at NYU.
Video Booth Front Exterior
The Design Process
Approach: I aimed to create a booth that felt both approachable and energetic — a space that reflected NYU’s collective spirit while allowing each student’s individuality to shine.
Visual Direction: NYU’s brand colors — especially its accent colors — guided the design, bringing the community’s vibrancy to life within a cohesive, modern aesthetic.
Collaboration: Communicating with the Marketing and Communications team, I ensured the vinyl design aligned with NYU’s brand and commencement graphics.
Through feedback and iteration, I refined the visuals to balance vibrancy with clarity, ensuring they effectively supported the booth experience.
(Left to right) NYU violet, medium violet 2, megenta, teal, blue, and yellow
The accent colors and graduation caps represent the vibrant energy of NYU’s graduating students.
(Right to left) first side panel, back panel, second side panel, and doorway
Inside the Booth
The booth, provided by the vendor, was decorated inside with an NYU-branded wallpaper. It also included a built-in video recorder, microphone, and a touchscreen that participants used to navigate the video slides I created.
Students were seated under fixed lighting and could close the door for privacy, creating a comfortable space to answer the following questions:
Where on campus did you find connection and community?
What advice would you give your first-year self about how to find connection and community at NYU?
After a five-second countdown, participants had up to one minute to share their responses.
Welcome Slide
Instructions Slide
Analysis & Insights
In total, the video booth collected 118 student interviews. The Data Strategy team analyzed the videos and transcribed them to identify patterns in student reflections.
Responding to the reflection questions, students shared:
Advice to their younger selves, providing insights for future students
How their sense of belonging manifested during their time at NYU
From the analysis, four primary areas emerged as central to students’ sense of belonging:
Academics – 38 students
(including classes, programs, study abroad, cohorts)Extracurricular activities – 36 students
(including clubs, events, Greek life, athletics, research labs)Physical spaces – 33 students
(including dorms, Washington Square Park, Bobst Library)Social media – 7 students
Where Students Found Belonging
Advice to Their Younger Selves
Students also offered five key pieces of advice to their younger selves:
Explore outside your comfort zone – 41 students
(including put yourself out there, explore the city, say yes to things)Have fun and be yourself – 23 students
Take advantage of resources and opportunities –
6 studentsFind community – 6 students
Take mental breaks – 2 students
Student Insights on Belonging Barriers
Unlike traditional campuses, NYU is dispersed throughout New York City, which students noted can affect their sense of community.
While they shared positive reflections in their video testimonials, they also highlighted that:
Limited third spaces and common areas make casual social interaction difficult.
The urban environment can feel alienating or overwhelming.
Photo Credit: New York University
Creating More Opportunities for Community and Belonging
The Kimmel Center’s main staircase serves as the unofficial central hub for both commuting and on-campus students, where they often run into each other and interact on their way to class or club meetings. Many memories have been made here, and a recent renovation will allow for even more.
At the start of Fall 2025, the Office of the Dean of Students unveiled seating pods to provide spaces where students can study, socialize, and engage. This major renovation will help foster a stronger sense of community and belonging on campus.
Photo Credit: New York University
Project Reflections
Challenges
Design constraints: Being the first video booth project required ensuring that the vinyl panels and video slides fit the booth’s exact dimensions, which demanded precision.
Timeline and vendor coordination: With just three weeks before commencement, balancing production deadlines with last-minute vendor requests made the schedule tight.
Data usability: Despite careful planning, 10 out of the 118 video interviews were unusable due to audio issues, limiting the data available for analysis.
Takeaways
My design role in this project brought the NYU Reflections Video Booth to life, creating new opportunities to foster student belonging. The installation captured more than 100 student reflections, offering valuable insights into how students experience and cultivate a sense of community on campus.
The project also served as a learning opportunity in environmental design, collaboration, and project management, providing insights that will guide my work on future initiatives aimed at creating meaningful opportunities for student success and growth.
Video Booth Back Exterior