MOOD: A WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY
UX Industrial Design Case Study: A wearable that let's you know how you sound when you talk to others
Individual Project, Spring '17 - Fall '17
B.F.A. Industrial Design Senior project focused on how we might use technology to improve our communication and relationships with one another. Research and product design resulted in a conceptual adhesive wearable that understands and shares how you are really feeling.
Defining a Subject of Interest
1. The future of big data and analytics
2. The 5 senses, Desensitization
3. Communication Technology
4. Relationships
I wanted to select a topic that I was really curious about. Something I wanted to learn more about. I have experience studying Public Relations, Forecasting, and Transportation Design (the future of mobility). I also share very interesting relationships with members of my family, that I feel deem as untraditional. A combination of these things cause me to become fascinated with communication. How do we communicate with one another? One on one? To a group? How does the media communicate with the world?
I feel that we are living in a time of a technological revolution. Technology is advancing at a very high speed. What does this mean for us? For future generations?
How do we, as Industrial Designers, effect the evolution of inventions? If we have a deeper understanding of our past and our present, we can drastically change the future for the better. History is capable of repeating itself. With technology such as Autonomy, Artificial Intelligence, Digital Assistance, how might these inventions effect how we interact with our friends, family and peers?
These are all questions I ask myself frequently. I decided to merge 4 subjects of interest and then correlated a relationship between them all.
Problem: Excessive use of technology damages social skills, & lack of physical interaction is desensitizing our natural desire to be around others
92% of respondents from a study conducted at Elon University believe that technology negatively effects face to face communication.
The Huffington Post states 65% of those divorced state communication was the leading cause.
There is speculation and now research conducted that confirms the very technology we designed to improve our communication with one another, is actually damaging it. And it's showing- in America, divorce is on the rise and communication is mostly to blame.
Goal: Develop a future technology that intends to improve communication
“Technology destroys interpersonal communication” Communicating remotely eliminates physical contact which desensitizes our need or ability to interact. It is doubted that early generations will not be able to live without communication technology.
-”Technology Destroys Interpersonal Communication” Sean Simons, Collegiate Times, 2010
“...degradation in human relations in respect of the capacity for, and habit of, empathy, understanding and thoughtfulness between individuals, and an undermining of the expectation of reasonable anticipation in relation to others and the consequent relief from the responsibility of having such anticipation.”
-”The Degredation of Human Relations Through Instant and Ever-present Communication, and the New Etiquette It Requires” John Shand, Journal of Philosophy of Life, 2012
