User-target Solution to Emotional Health Monitoring: In this project, I addressed an ignored gap in emotional health management by using the IoT concept. This was inspired by target audience who I surveyed and interviewed.
Focus on Accessibility and Usability: The design prioritizes ease of use and accessibility, making it suitable for a wide range of users, including people with disabilities. This product are engaged accessibility features, like touching, vibration, monitoring health of depression patient’s learning, working, and daily living.
Comprehensive Approach to User Pain Points: By addressing the three key pain points identified, I provides a comprehensive solution that combine patient and their family involvement, which was realized by the connection between physical devices and digital user interface.
My Takeways
There are 280 million people suffering from depression around the world, and depression has become one of the major contributiors to global burden of disease.
Depression patients are unable to communicate or express moods normally. This symptom can be called alexthymia, which is common among depression patients.
Alexthymia makes it difficult for their familily and friends to understand them. However, family and friends play an important role in the treatment of depresion.
Sometimes I really want to talk with my families.
Depression Patient
But they always feel confused about my emotions.
How to help depression patients express their emotions appropriately?
Persona
User 1 | Depression Patient
User 2 | Patient’s Family
User Flow
I connect the functions of wearables and the app to structure an information architecture, coordinating the interaction between two users and the device. Orange boxes represent main features of the device and blue boxes represent key functions of each stage.
User Journey
I identified two user journeys for simultaneous wearable interactions. The entire process involves patients with depression receiving timely alerts and comfort from another user when there is an incorrect expression of emotions, thereby stabilizing their mood. This process is seperated into three phases and includes four emotional changes of users.
69% of depression patients are female
Only 34% of families keep positive attitude
40% of people have depression patients surrounded
Only 21% of families can completely empathize with patients
I interviewed 5 depression patients and 5 people they are close to, and received 30 surveys.
Narrowed Concepts
Paint Point 1: Families are unable to understand patients’ mood state
Families can have better understanding of patients’ unstable mood states. Real time values related to emotions can be collected. If values are abnormal, patients and their families will receive reminder.
Wearable based on contextual design can remind patients by different visual signals and vibration levels in different scenarios. Patients can adjust their emotions when realizeing their unconscious behaviors.
Families getting reminder can give patients comfort to release their stress. Tactile conduction or scent treatment can be used to appease patients, and families seem like accompany them in a remote way.
Paint Point 2: Patients express inappropriate emotions unconsciously
Paint Point 3: Patients need comfort from others when feeling bad
Mood Monitering
Timely Reminder
Sensory Consolation
I defined three pain points and chose to develop the following three essential features.
Depression patients showing alexithymia
Be calmer when they should be excited
Brust into laughing or feel sad when they shouldn’t overreact
Alexthymia is one of depression’s symptoms. Patients often express inappropriate emotions in social situations, and they feel that their emotions are unbalanced with the world around them. It can be showed in several different ways.
Research
Source of distress during depression
Negative behaviors of depression patients
Products purchased besides medicine
Family and social factors are primary stressors in depression.
There's a notable avoidance of medical advice among depressed individuals.
Depressed patients often seek alternative therapeutic options beyond medicine.
Results:
Overview
Sense is a wearable I designed that reflets depression patients’ moods in real time. This design includes a concealable body patch, an aromatic headset, and a coordinating application that oversees the wearable's functionality. The patch and app are designed for simultaneous use by patients and their families, gathersing data to monitor mood fluctuations and provides timely alerts for emotional support. Synchronized with smartphones, the system allows users to regulate the wearable, observe emotional condition, and review detailed mood analyses.
This design aims to help patients adjust their emotions and get relaxed, such as by touch transmission and scent treatment, which helps them alleviate moods. Crafted with sensitivity, Sense ensures users retain their dignity, with the patch effortlessly hidden under attire and the headset styled akin to conventional eyewear.
Product Design
Wearable System
When expressing abnormal moods, patients will receive reminders from the patch attached to their bodies. Then patients can pull down the headset, and the stomata will be aligned with their nostrils. Choosing scents on app, patients can smell fragrance transmitted from a device behind their ears, which helps them calm nerves and get relaxed. With the patch monitoring, patients can also receive tactile conduction from guardians who get reminders.
Stroyboard
My Role
UI / UX Design
Product Design
User Research
8 weeks
Oct 2022
Figma
Adobe Photoshop
Duration
Tools
Individual Work
Wireframes
Homepage
History Information
Notification
Treatnment Selection
Among all the interactions, the home page that shows the patients’ moods is the one that took the most time. This includes the most comprehensive information in the app, such as the patients real time moods, heart rate, body temperature, environment information and suggestions. In the home page, users also have access to history mood data, which is a modality page.
On profile page, users can set personal information and check their associating users.
When the patch vibrates, there will be a notification page on the app, and users could stop the reminder or go on a treatment. The patients can start a scent treatment by themselves.
Prototype
Users can choose to attach the patch on bodies or wear it on wrists like a watch. When fitting to a sticker or a watch slot, the four slots on the back of patch can coincide with the protuberance of the two formers. There is a device behind the ear for placing fragrance. When users start a scent treatment, the scent is transmitted from the device to the stomata at the nostrils
Loading
Connection
Recommendation
Other Options
Scent Information
Time Setting
Smart Report
Profile
Instead of don’t know which scent is appropriate for their current moods, users can select a recommeded scent on recommendation page.
But they can also select a scent they enjoy on other options page.
Choosing a scent, users can look the scent information, and then set treatment length on scent information and time setting page.
On smart report page, users can check the mood report of a period of time.
Patch & Headset
Users can choose to attach the patch on bodies or wear it on wrists like a watch. When fitting to a sticker or a watch slot, the four slots on the back of patch can coincide with the protuberance of the two formers. There is a device behind the ear for placing fragrance. When users start a scent treatment, the scent is transmitted from the device to the stomata at the nostrils
