Collections

Interaction Designer

Product Designer

3D Renderer

Adobe Suite

Figma

Rhino 3D

The Collection aims to change the dynamics of how the elderly interact and bond with their friends & family during the pandemic in a safe, contactless, low-bandwidth method through touch lamps.

Background

Due to the ongoing pandemic, social distancing policies have been implemented, separating families, especially the older generation (60+) from the community. As a result, feelings of loneliness and isolation in the older generation skyrocketed.

The Collection aims to change the dynamics of how the elderly interact and bond with their friends & family during the pandemic in a safe, contactless, low-bandwidth method through touch lamps.

Research

Learning about the problem space

“About a quarter of people over 65 living independently in their communities are considered socially isolated, and 43 percent of those over 60 report feeling lonely — and that was before public health officials instructed older people, and everyone else, to stay home.” (Span, 2020)

Brainstorm

After researching the problem space thoroughly, we began brainstorming ideas and conducting concept selection exercises to narrow down which idea to continue developing.

Using an objective tree, stakeholders analysis, and mind-mapping we found that we wanted to step back to conduct a survey and rapid prototyping to prevent early lock-in from occurring.

Stakeholder Analysis (left) & Objective Tree (right)

Rapid Prototyping

We rapidly prototyped each concept using styrofoam, cardboard, and any other scrap material. We also sent out a survey to help us gain insight into our target users needs which would help us contextualize while evaluating the different concepts. We used a decision matrix to aid us and decided to move forward with the touch lamps.

2 different touch lamp forms

Interface

The interface of the lamps have 2 features, one being the ability change the lightbulb colors and the other is changing the intensity of the light. We put a lot of thought into integrating these features into the lamp designs while preserving simplicity and ease of use. We iterated ideas from our initial sketches to a simple circular interface that could be applied to most of the lamps.

Initial Sketches to Final Model

User Journey

Final Product

Takeaways

Iterating on User Feedback

This project has taught me a lot about the importance of User Feedback and how it can be the key in re-aligning the project with its original problem definition.

Team Dynamics

This was one of my first leadership experiences and I learned a lot about cultivating a work environment that promotes inclusivity and innovation. As a result, the work environment led to healthy team dynamics which was essential in the success of this product