Context: Project for Design for America UW (DFAUW)
Duration: 3 Quarters (Fall 2017 - Spring 2018)
Collaboration: Project Lead of 5-person team
Tools: Adobe Illustrator, 3D Printer
I formed and led a multidisciplinary team in the design of an original, wearable technology prototype intended to assist high school students manage to panic attacks. I practiced my leadership, teamwork, human-centered design, and prototyping skills.
My team's problem area centered on high school student stress and anxiety. College-bound students struggle with the pressure of achieving high test scores and GPAs in hopes of being admitted to a prestigious college. Local schools have raised this as a growing problem in the Seattle area, as significant amounts of pressure and stress negatively affects students’ mental health.
We dove into secondary research to learn more about our problem space.
Our secondary research focused on learning more about the symptoms and definition of anxiety, existing solutions, mindfulness, and academic pressure. We gained a solid foundation in the topic of anxiety to ground us in our problem space.
Two popular anxiety apps
Researching exisiting solutions helped us understand the market. We learned that current anxiety apps revolve around mindfulness and meditation that help users track their mood, offer relaxation and breathing tips, or let users play relaxing games. This helped us target potential growth areas within the current market.
We worked closely with our community partner, Roosevelt High School, to understand students' thoughts and feelings regarding their own mental health. As project lead, I initiated all outreach and coordination with our project sponsor. Our methods included an online survey, love/hate boxes, and one interview with a high school junior. Because mental health is such a sensitive subject, we ensured that our research methods preserved student privacy.
We distributed a Google Survey to several schools throughout the Seattle area. The purpose of our online survey was to better understand high schoolers' feelings toward their own mental health, stress triggers, and how they relax. We received 240 responses.
We implemented love/hate boxes in Roosevelt High School’s teen health center. Boxes were used to ask more open ended questions to further understand how students feel. We had two boxes, one for love and one for hate. Students anonymously wrote on a slip of paper what objects, activities, and people whom they love and/or hate.
Lastly, I conducted a one-on-one interview with a high school junior to learn more about a new mindfulness club at the high school and to listen to a student’s perspective about mental health, specifically anxiety. Due to time and school constraints, only one interview was possible.
1) Many teens are stressed because they feel challenged to balance school assignments, college applications, and extracurricular activities.
2) Students are self-aware and know they are stressed when their behavior is more aggressive and they have difficulty focusing on every day tasks.
3) To relieve their stress students enjoy hanging out with friends, listening to music, and concentrating on their breathing.
After the research phase we created our project’s How Might We statement.
Initially, we thought about prototyping a phone app that would help students with their anxiety, but we didn’t want to create just another mindfulness app. Our Artefact design coaches challenged us to design something new and futuristic.
We then created three design principles that represented the core of our ideation phase.
We became interested in the area of technology wearables. We ideated different wearable stress relieving devices: a sticky, thin pad students could wear on their heart, an attachable monitor on pant waists, and a modern bracelet.
We ideated utilizing calming blue and green lighting and pulsating motions to calm students during panic attacks. Also, based on our primary research, it was important to incorporate a customizable music element. But our main goal was to create a wearable technology that would provide the student a support system they could trust.
Balloon protoype of "breathing" feature
Narrowing down our focus, we ideated futuristic, in-classroom devices. This led us to create a wearable technology prototype intended for a classroom environment. We used sewing, cardboard, balloons, and ultimately a 3D printer to create our prototype.
The Coeur system is an entire network that utilizes a high-tech stress ball to create community support for students dealing with panic attacks. There are two physical components to the system: the stress ball and the docking station.
User story
At school, a student is able to discreetly carry the stress ball that will “breathe” with them during a panic attack through gentle expansion and compression. The Coeur System will be connected to the student's chosen support resource such as educators, nurses, and parents through a wireless app (future feature). The Coeur ball will alert the student's support resource with customizable vibrations when a student is experiencing a panic attack.
At home, the Coeur ball will rest on its wireless docking station that illuminates calming blue and green light. The docking station serves as a speaker that plays music to help with generalized anxiety.
We presented our project work and prototype to community members, professors, industry mentors, and Artefact employees at our final showcase expo.
My multidisciplinary team consisted of Human Centered Design and Engineering, business, electricial engineering, and industrial design majors ranging from freshman to seniors. Our entire team is passionate about design, technology, and designing for social good. Each individual brought different persepctives and unique backgrounds to the design process.
My team could have just created another app, but we met the challenge and designed a product that is novel and futuristic; we didn't shy away from software and hardware limitations. I'm excited that design is at the core of building the future!>
Teamwork is enhanced by friendship. My team bonded over late night udon and funny pet stories. This created a team dynamic that was welcoming and safe for creative, outside the box ideas, which helped our project succeed.