the psychedelic literacy project

Designing for understanding: how experience-centered education can help reduce stigma, contextualize complexity, foster curiosity, and make difficult conversations more approachable.

team

Alice Qiu Natasha Gengler Kaitlyn Gehrman

timeline

Jan - May 2026 (5 mos.)

skills

Fieldwork Qualitative interviews Persona mapping Storytelling Information architecture Vibe coding Interaction design

tools

Figma Miro Adobe Illustrator ChatGPT Claude + Claude Code Gemini VS Code Github Vercel

introduction

As psychedelic-assisted therapies gain momentum in research, healthcare, and public policy, public understanding has struggled to keep pace. Conversations around psychedelics remain shaped by decades of stigma, misinformation, and abstinence-based drug education, leaving patients, clinicians, policymakers, and communities without accessible, trustworthy ways to navigate an already complex topic. Partnering with Texans for Greater Mental Health (T4GMH), a nonprofit leading psychedelic policy and advocacy in Texas, our capstone team explored how experience-centered design could bridge this gap. Together, we designed a new model for public education—one that weaves together scientific evidence, lived experience, harm reduction, history, and Indigenous knowledge into a credible, interactive learning experience. One that replaces fear with understanding.

challenge

Some interconnections in systems are actual physical flows, such as the water in the tree’s trunk or the students progressing through a university. Many interconnections are flows of information—signals that go to decision points or action points within a system. These kinds of interconnections are often harder to see, but the system reveals them to those who look.

solution

Some interconnections in systems are actual physical flows, such as the water in the tree’s trunk or the students progressing through a university. Many interconnections are flows of information—signals that go to decision points or action points within a system. These kinds of interconnections are often harder to see, but the system reveals them to those who look.

result

Some interconnections in systems are actual physical flows, such as the water in the tree’s trunk or the students progressing through a university. Many interconnections are flows of information—signals that go to decision points or action points within a system. These kinds of interconnections are often harder to see, but the system reveals them to those who look.