DESIGN NAME: enLighten
PRIMARY FUNCTION: Phone Use Tracking Lamp
INSPIRATION: On an average, we spend about 3 hours each day on our phones. While technology enables us to do more, its overuse is beginning to show negative effects on our sleep, psychology and relationships. Our digital interactions are designed to persuade us to binge and mindlessly consume digital content. Through user research I discovered how common is our unrestrained use of phones in bed, at night while falling asleep. These are some of the reasons why I decided to design the bedside lamp.
UNIQUE PROPERTIES / PROJECT DESCRIPTION: enLighten is a bedside lamp that tracks your phone use in bed and correspondingly transitions from a pleasant mint green to a throbbing red to make you aware of prolonged interaction.
While certain phone makers have recently begun notifying us of our phone use habits, these notifications are merely passive indicators and hardly signal overuse or help us change our digital habits. Moreover, the user experience doesn't prevent us from dismissing the warning and resuming our digital experience.
OPERATION / FLOW / INTERACTION: Phone app counts the number of interactions and sends it to the Arduino, via bluetooth, to transition the LEDs from green to red. User may confirm settings on their phone app.
PROJECT DURATION AND LOCATION: Project started in September 2018 and ended in February 2019.
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PRODUCTION / REALIZATION TECHNOLOGY: Arduino, bluetooth BLE, versatile nylon 3D print
SPECIFICATIONS / TECHNICAL PROPERTIES: length 4in x width 4in x Height 12in
TAGS: technology, phone, overuse, addiction, sleep, psychology, health
RESEARCH ABSTRACT: The design research involved talking with about 100 people about their digital habits like which apps they use, how frequently, when and where. Through user interviews, prototypes and testing those prototypes I arrived at this design outcome. Throughout the process I received invaluable feedback from behavioral design experts from Stanford, technology design directors and my faculty at the Rhode Island School of Design.
CHALLENGE: Accomplishing behavior shift through a subtle feature like the transition of the LED colors.
ADDED DATE: 2019-02-27 23:39:17
TEAM MEMBERS (1) :
IMAGE CREDITS: Shreyans Bhandari, 2018.
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