WWDCScholars

In 2021, applicants were tasked with building an interactive playground to showcase their creativity and technical abilities. Here’s how Radija describes her winning submission.

My project “Put Yourself in Someone's Place” is about mourning and empathy and the awareness that we need to talk about grief because even though we don't know each other's pain, there is one thing that brings everyone together - the awareness that this is one of the hardest tests in life and having empathy to deal with someone at that moment is the place we all need to know. I developed that big idea as a way to deal with my grief and also because this process is happening in the world in a staggered and intense way in the current moment of the pandemic that we are in. The project has an animation that tells the story of Khadi and her grief and continues through a game where the user interacts helping Khadi in her grief choosing speech options spoken by her friends and family. Each option represents something good or bad to be said to someone who is grieving. Each user's choice will influence Khadi's emotional state. This project is intended to teach about actions and speeches that are good or not to be expressed to someone who is grieving. “Put Yourself in Someone's Place” was developed in Swift with SpritKit. Assets were created in Figma and Illustrator. I used CBL in the process and through the research, I filtered and applied a way to better experience to the user. Because this topic is delicate and I really wanted to pass it on in a clear, objective, and light way. I believe I did it!