Human Centered Design Project
An ambient off-screen design product
bringing people closer intuitively for long distance relationship
With the increasing population started to enjoy a lifestyle containing traveling, international studying or living abroad, long-distance communication has been valued but also been monopolized - suddenly everything is design based on the screens: software on the laptops, the social network on the mobile phones, even apps on the watches. Everyone staring at their screens and forgot what is the true demand of the human being hiding beneath the screens: people communicate with each other to feel connected, to feel intimacy, and even feel the self-importance.
The initial idea of Aroma project was generated by 3 different interviewees and integrated persona study in making an ambient wearable device connecting people from long distance.
Human's 5 basic senses are the origin of interaction. Since digital interaction already floored people's sense of seeing and hearing. Our team found touching and smelling were the proper way in Aroma Project.The Aroma project is a handmade bracelet equipped with solid fragrance and thermal conductive filaments inside together with an indicator light, all powered by built-in lithium battery. It works in pairs, once triggered by touching the affordance surface at one end, the other set of Aroma device would gradually turn on and heating the conductor to melt the fragrant.Since Aroma device is made by alloy, the conductor would warm up the bracelet, the user would slowly notice the warm on the wrist and smell the fragrance at some time. Similarly, while the receiver touching the affordance surface, the sender would receive the same signal with warmup and fragrance release.This ambient interaction device could help people truly feel the intimacy comfort and pleasure been missing and caring,which would greatly close the relationship between the people in long distance.
Interview Analysis & Persona Study
Rapid Contextual Design Anaylsis
Prototyping
User Testing
