Health Helper Product / Interior Design / UX 2021 - 2022
Lumion, AutoCad, Sketchup, Rhino, Keyshot, Figma
Data Collection, User Research, Product, Interaction, Prototyping
Showering brings benefits to our body. But in fact, there are potential risks exposed to our
body during the shower. In Taiwan, many people die indirectly due to improper ways of the shower.
This comprehensive project devotes itself to the concept of helping people shower correctly and adequately to live a healthy life and combines the technology with the Google Smart Bathroom. One of the main functions is “the lightening reminders,” which will be triggered depending on the users’ blood pressure to avoid being dizzy when showering.
This comprehensive project devotes itself to the concept of helping people shower correctly and adequately to live a healthy life and combines the technology with the Google Smart Bathroom. One of the main functions is “the lightening reminders,” which will be triggered depending on the users’ blood pressure to avoid being dizzy when showering.
Function Discription
Light, Sound, Showerhead, Display Board, Sensor Mat
Definition & Storyboard
Take the three senses as the cut-in point
Inspiration
Taiwanese celebrity Alien Huang died suddenlyThe cause of this accident was dehydration after showering, slowing down the blood flow. And when walking out of the bathroom, he fell due to the fail of the body oxygen transportation system, causing hypoxia and falling to death.
- The wrongy Way to shower leads to Death: In Japan, at least 1,4000 people died due to the wrong way to shower. Especially people aging over 65y constitue over 90%.
- Extreme hot shower water causes high blood pressure. As the blood concentrates on the heads, the blood will not flow to head smoothly.
- To pin down the possible risks people may meet when showering, and find out the painpoints and opportunities.
The most proper time-length for showering is 5 to 15 minutes. Disadvantages Brought by Taking long showers
- Increase the risk of having cancer: kidney functions failure, skin aging, hair quality
- Dizziness: Hypoxia due to unenouogh oxygen, hypotension becauge of dilating blood vessels, hypoglycemia
Advantages Brought by Taking Right Showers
- Reduced Fatigue
- Better Quallity of Sleep
- Impoved Blood Circulation
Questionnaire
This emphasizes on subjects’ showering habits and their knowledge of shower.
Bathroom Conditions
- Most people pay attention to the bathroom's ventilation system with exhaust fans and windows but do not care about water-saving showerheads and the potential risks of chlorine in tap water.
Habits of Shower
- Most people do not know that washing their head first exposes themselves to stroke due to blood vessel rupture.
- Nearly half of subjects have a wrong concept about the appropriate showering time.
- It is not believed that too long showering time will cause harm to the body.
- More than half of the subjects had dry and rough skin after shower.
- People feel dizzy and hard to breathe if showering for more than 15 minutes.
Experience
The purpose of this experiment is to explore changes of subjects’ body conditions before and after shower in different bathrooms.
Painpoints and Opportunities
- The water temperature is too hot. = Lead to dry skin, increased heart rate and blood pressure
- The shower time is too long, full of mit in the bedroom. = Lead to breathing difficulties, dry skin and dizzness.
Market Analysis
Ideation
for the interaction of the bathroom to maintain the body health
Reflection
The most difficult part in this project is how to converge and define necessary functions in different design fields (including product, interior, interaction) after the problem analysis and user research. Sometimes I would add some unnecessary functions on my design as I want to solve all problems at the same time. However, this leads to digression from the main purpose and turning the cart before the horse. It is very vital to know what are the cores to our design, making the design fully focus on the main idea.
Appendix - Design Research
Title
Healthy shower habits bring people a healthy life
Introduction
Although showering brings many benefits to people [1], many overlook that the wrong way of showering can cause serious effects. For example, when the cold wave strikes, many prefer to shower with extremely hot water, which will cause serious loss of skin moisture and increase blood pressure. Also, some may ignore bathroom air circulation, resulting in a lack of air circulation, substantially increasing the risk of suffering from breathing difficulties and syncope. Last but not least, several people in Taiwan even lose their lives every year due to improper bathing [2].
Research Background
Today, with rapid economic and technological progress, people' 's concepts toward health have been changed a lot. More and more people pay much attention to their physical conditions. Advanced technology should be more humanized and help people have a better quality of life. Hence, based on the concept of healthy showering, I hope to work on a project that aims to manage the overall planning of bathroom space and introduce intelligent detection technology incorporated in a well-rounded UX system. [3] It would remind users to take care of their health when bathing in different ways.
Research Methods
I will approach this project named Health's Helper with surveies[4] and then conduct scenario-based thinking to sort out the problems that people may encounter when showering and briefly verify the issues brought out in the early stage. In addition, user questionnaires will be launched to explore people's bathing habits and body data, such as blood pressure, heart rate, and P.W.V. measurements, to gain insight into the problems people encounter and their real needs when bathing.
Secondly, supported by my basic knowledge of 3D and skills in rendering software such as Rhino, Sketchup, Lumion, Keyshot, commonly used in interior design, I will try to develop a comprehensive mosnitoring and reminder mechanism within the user experience system. For example, the music system will stop when it detects abnormal showering time. Also, the showerhead grip will be equipped with a skin moisture analyzer. The water flow will become slower if the user' 's skin tends to be dryer. The pressure sensor mat will be set to detect the user' 's blood pressure heart rate. Hence, if their blood pressure increase, the light will be changed to remind them of their body conditions. Last but not least, an interactive interface will be set up to display data accordingly and help users understand their state while bathing.
In the future, this project can be further incorporated with the Method of mind-body rest[5] to consider how to use technology to help users relax while bathing in a systematic way so that bathing can become a way to heal people's minds and bodies.
Conclusion
In the digital age, where people are more aware of their health condition, health-related projects and services are becoming more and more in need. Therefore, designers like me need to take advantage of the convenience of technology, such as artificial intelligence, to conduct more profound research on health, which is why I would like to work on this project.
Bibliography
[1]Health 2.0 Information Network.(2020). Bathing helps us to relieve fatigue, improve blood circulation and metabolism, stimulate lymphatic secretion to purify toxins and improve sleep quality.
[2] Free Times.(2018). Improper bathing causes up to 16,000 deaths each year, about 90% of which are among people over 65 years old and the most accidents occur during December and January each winter.
[3]Google Smart bathroom. (2016). A range of sensors and cameras are used in instruments such as electric pressure-sensing carpets, colour-sensing mirrors and ultrasonic bathtubs: Electric pressure-sensing carpets sense the pulse wave speed of human blood.
[4] Hanington, B.M.B. (2012). Universal methods of design: 100 ways to research complex problems, develop innovative ideas, and design effective solutions.
[5] Inoue, T. (2020). Body-Mind rest, a bath that helps people relax by activating the parasympathetic nerves.
In the digital age, where people are more aware of their health condition, health-related projects and services are becoming more and more in need. Therefore, designers like me need to take advantage of the convenience of technology, such as artificial intelligence, to conduct more profound research on health, which is why I would like to work on this project.
Bibliography
[1]Health 2.0 Information Network.(2020). Bathing helps us to relieve fatigue, improve blood circulation and metabolism, stimulate lymphatic secretion to purify toxins and improve sleep quality.
[2] Free Times.(2018). Improper bathing causes up to 16,000 deaths each year, about 90% of which are among people over 65 years old and the most accidents occur during December and January each winter.
[3]Google Smart bathroom. (2016). A range of sensors and cameras are used in instruments such as electric pressure-sensing carpets, colour-sensing mirrors and ultrasonic bathtubs: Electric pressure-sensing carpets sense the pulse wave speed of human blood.
[4] Hanington, B.M.B. (2012). Universal methods of design: 100 ways to research complex problems, develop innovative ideas, and design effective solutions.
[5] Inoue, T. (2020). Body-Mind rest, a bath that helps people relax by activating the parasympathetic nerves.