DESIGN CHALLENGE

How can design address some of the problems coming from the COVID-19 pandemic?

Design a low-fidelity prototype of a product and/or service that addresses a real human need created by the COVID- 19 pandemic. Apply a human-centered design process to the creation of a non-intrusive interactive experience.

My team and I were interested in the effects of social isolation on relationships.

We wanted to use technology to imitate the sentiments that come from simple human interactions that many online services, such as Zoom, lack in compensation.

1/6 - Starting with Research

SURvey quotes

After getting almost 60+ responses to our survey, we came up with the following user needs statement:

Due to social isolation, users need a product that embodies a social connection, and exchanges physical sensations to fulfill their loss of human interaction, expression, and communication with their loved ones, which will also prevent any negative impact on users’ mental health.

So, How might we design a product that incorporates the human connections that current technologies lack?

2/6 - Ideation

reverse brainstorming

We were introduced to new brainstorming techniques. Reverse brainstorming asked us to think of the worst-case scenarios around our topic of human connection, focusing more on pointing out problems that would then lead to solutions.

We also came up with a headline to describe the goal of our product in the most general way before we narrowed down. This headline lead us to pull together references and sketches that would help us come up with ideas for interactions as well as both feasible and north star ideas for mediums that would execute these interactions.

FINAL DIRECTION sketch

Help from an expert

For more information on existing projects related to mimicing human touch, we reached out to Afroditi Psarra, a Ph.D. in Cyberpunk and New Media Art.

3/6 - The Snug Story

User Task flow

At this point, we realized that we needed to include a way for users to onboard their blankets, so we made an app that helped users connect and register their products.