Health Monitor Terrarium
Design for Utopias and Dystopias
Explored concept of designing for future. Researched for possibilities for future scenarios, created possible future (utopia or dystopia) and made products fitting into future scenarios. First made short video explaining future environment and moved on to designing products.
Obejctive: To create appropriate future scenarios and design products which respond to either utopia or dystopia.
Step I: Setting Up Future Scenario
Made several story boards explaining and exploring possible concept of the future. My focus was on health and how technology would limit people's access/freedom in response to their status of health. Theory was that people developed health paranoid society in the future. After story boards was revised, shot the scenes with a partner, and edited with iMovie.
'Health Indicator' shows a future which a system monitors people's health. Here, the main character uses sticker which both monitors and indicates user's health. Notice instructions of sticker shown in video and how it changes color when low health is detected. Ultimately, her low health triggers lockdown in her house thus preventing others from sickness as well.
Step II: Product Development
Came up with 5+ health related (mental and physical) products during class. Classmates voted on most interesting products for each student. Out of those ideas, Germ Filter and Pleasant Dreams were most liked. Develped those two ideas and future scenario concept in detail.
Step III: Final Concept
Health Monitor Terrarium is used in environment with larger groups of people: libraries, classrooms, offices, and more. Ideal setting is in an office. Each user receives a health monitor terrarium and a cup. The terrarium is permanently placed on their personal desk.
The cup uses technology which sends user's health information from their saliva. Using cloud/bluetooth technology, the cup sends information to terrarium which displays user's health status. If the user's health is low, the terrarium will send information to user's phone which will broadcast loud noise. This noise will slowly start to spread to other users' phones forcing unhealthy user to exit the environment.
Step IV: Protoyping
Created files to use laser cutter to make prototypes. My goal was to have mushrooms inside the terrarium move in response to users' health status. Most of time spent in prototyping was to figure out correct mechanisms. For final product, mushrooms were needle felted, inside mechanism (acrylic) was laser cut, and outside casing (wood) was hand crafted then spray painted.
When user is healthy: Mushroom moves and light is on
When user is sick: Blinking red light
Step VI: Final Product
Health Monitor Terrarium comes with 2 products: the cup and the terrarium. I designed packaging to show welcoming feeling for a new user. The back of terrarium was made with open doors to manually control status of terrarium. Final product was displayed in exhibition along with other classmates' works.
