Dataland
A system that helps people enjoyably, motivationally, and selectively interact with their sleep data and encourage them to develop a good sleep habit.
DURATION TEAM MY ROLE
4 weeks Jiayi Tang Research
Wendy Gui UX Design Chris Hong Concept Sketch
Storyboarding
Video Effects & Animation
Background
Sleep quality is important for people’s working efficiency and health. However, these days, very few people realize the importance of having a good sleep habit. Many people are staying up late and having insufficient time of sleep either due to lack of self-discipline or busy schedule. Some people stay up late because they cannot stop scrolling on the phones, and some people get used to procrastinating and frequently put off work into late night.
Most of people are curious about their sleep data. However, there is no sufficient and effective way to track their sleep. Featureless sleep data visualization are big obstacles to people's motivation to change sleep habit.
Response
Dataland is designed to visualize sleep data in a vivid form, as it allows users to understand both their short-term and long-term sleep quality through animations of city construction and encourage them to form a good sleep habit.
Process Overview
Graffiti Wall + Questionnaires
We created a graffiti wall to explore what kinds of data that people are most interested to narrow down our design direction.
We also created two questionnaires one of which is online and the other is on paper to research data collection and meaning-making, Finally, we received more than 80 participants’ answers with deeper understanding.
Findings
Both groups of people from 20-50 years old are more interested in data about their sleep quality.
A good-quality sleep lies a foundation for people’s life in aspects of work efficiency, metal and physical health, and mood. Thus it was regarded as the most important personal data among the participants.
Target User Group
We narrow our target user group to be college students who are 20-25 years old, because bad sleep habit is common among this group of people. College students usually have busy schedule of study and always stay up late to study or play games.
Interviews
One of our interviewers, Jianglin, is a 22-year-old college student. She is passionate about pursuing a life of high quality and always stays up late due to busy schedule frequently. She uses an app called “Health” to help her track sleep data. However, she pointed out certain problems with devices which currently exists.
Quotes
“I can not be encouraged to keep a good sleep habit because of the boring display of the data.”
“A bad sleep negatively impact the next day’s work efficiency. It would be better for the data to inform me about the relationship between them.”
Findings on Current Way to Track Sleep Data
People collect their sleep data through various type of devices. However, they don't check the data very often. The primary problems are:
Lack of Interaction
Users seek for other ways integrated with sensations to receive data rather than visual feedback itself.
Lack of Analysis
Raw data without analysis cannot report the relationship between sleep and their needs directly to them in which reinforcement can not be produced.
Synthesis & Define
Design Principles
Initial HMW
How might we help people understand their sleep data and encourage their good sleeping habits?
Ideation
60 Ideations
Initially, we brainstormed and sketched 60 ideas about how we can collect our sleep data to address on our initial HMW. Putting together, as a team, each of us vote for 3 ideal ideas and we generated a heat map with 9 ideas picked shown in red dots.
3 Down-selections
Based on the design principles, we then determined the three most satisfactory design schemes.
We met with participants for feedback on these three down-selected concepts.
Feedback on Idea 1
+ "Just seeing that your sleep habits are bad isn't going to help someone improve them."
+ It might not be the most efficient way to store and visualize data, because the comparison of data is too abstract and can hardly resonate with users.
Feedback on Idea 2
+ The socialized aspect cannot be a sufficient way to prompt people to sleep. People would hardly care about other's sleep behaviors.
Feedback on Idea 3
+ "I really enjoy this idea! Watching a “city” build is a good incentive for me to want to sleep."
+ "I like how I can interact with the data through a game mechanism."
With the feedback from participants, we further evaluate the three concepts based on the design principle and rate them accordingly on a five-point scale.
Idea 1: Interaction ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Straightforwardness ⭐️ Encouragement ⭐️
Idea 2: Interaction ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Straightforwardness ⭐️⭐️ Encouragement ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Idea 3: Interaction ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Straightforwardness ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Encouragement ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
In the end, we decided to develop Idea 3 - Bedside Hologram Lamp.
Participatory Design Workshop
In this part, we worked with some participants who were not trained in design together to further define our chosen design concept. We have organized some small activities to complete with our participants. Through this process, we can analyze the choices and behaviors of participants, and co-design specific solutions that further define our chosen design concept.
Paper Space + Card Sorting
We provided papers and pens for Yifan to draw and to illustrate her design ideas. We also prepared several sets of cards which are grouped in function, material, shape, visualization, etc. Yifan picked and sorted certain cards according to her design ideas.
3D-Mockups
We offered Jianglin and Will with lego, plants, containers to transform design ideas to tangible objects. Jianglin built a lego model which mimics buildings construction on a planet while Will made a small ecosystem which contained a small plant.
Envision & Enactment
Jianglin envisioned herself in the future situation when a planet, which grows according to her sleep status, is projected to the air above her head. Will imagined himself touching the physical product placed near his bed.
Findings
Time length: Considering the amount of data should be shown at once, all our participants agree that one month is an ideal amount of data.
Data Visualization: In order to let users better to understand their sleep quality. Our product should use lively animation to show the sleep data.
Less disruptive: Our product should not be disruptive to the user. Otherwise, it could worsen user’s sleep quality.
Customization: Our product should include multiple themes for users to choose from.
Notification: The design should remind users to check their data in a proactive way.
Enforceability: Since cell phone is the biggest distraction of people’s sleep. Our design might require users to put their phone on the device while the device is recording the data.
Refined HMW
How might we design a product to help people to enjoyably, motivationally and selectively interact with their sleep data and also to improve their sleep habit?
Design
Storyboard
To address the problem of our HMW, we came up with a possible story that the main character is accustomed to have insufficient amount of sleep and she needs a flexible and motivated way to interact with her sleep data in order to improve her sleep habits. Based on this story, we set up a solution: A hologram city lamp beside the bed that allows the user to track her sleep progress through the building construction. We assume that contemporary technology allows hologram to project 3D visualization in the without screens.
User Feedback
This time, we brought our initial prototype to our participants. We explained overall flow experience to our participants and asked them about what the material, texture, shape of the device; how the overall experience feel for them; and whether the concept can encourage them to form a good sleep habit.
Problems + Improvements
01 External Appearance
Problem: Jianglin thinks that the prototype is too big and the shape is a little bit bulky and rigid. She prefers natural feeling material.
Revisions: We decided to use wood or ceramics as materials and small simple shape to substitute the bulky form.
02 Concept in General
Problem: They doubt that only showing their sleep data is not enough to change their sleep habits. The incentive to change sleep habit should be greater.
Revisions: We decided to incorporate a reward and punishment system into the building construction. For example, a good night sleep will be rewarded with high-quality constructions which can promote city development; on the contrary, bad sleep can result in slow development. The quality of construction will not only be shown in the height but also the degree of oldness of the building.
03 Possible in Misuse
Problem: They are worried about being distracted while using the product if the game attracts and needs too much attraction.
Revision: We decided to set the storyline randomly and keep the changes within the system instead of allowing users to play with. The existence of the system would be more ambient. Besides, the building construction will be dormant during user's sleep. Users will only see the construction after the sleep the next morning.
Prototyping
3D printing
In order to make our idea tangible, we decided to make a physical prototype, so people can hold it I their hands. We used 3d printing to represent the holographic buildings.
Video
Making video prototypes is one of the most important part of our project. We spent weeks to figure out how to fit animation into our device.
Final Deliverable
Features
Ambient Existence
As a small device that a user can put on their bedside table, it is able to be integrated into the user’s home. The embedded sensors can capture users’ sleep data intelligently.
Short-term reflection
User’s sleep quality is reflected in the quality of the building. The animation shows the process of construction in a few seconds, so the users can understand their sleep in a fun and interactive way.
Long-term reflection
Since users’ sleep data are converted to buildings in the city, users can track their sleep history by exploring the city
Data Analysis
If the user click on one building, a graph will appear beside the building. The graph shows details about the user's sleep on during that night, such as the length of the user's deep sleep, light sleep and awake time. Users could evaluate their sleep quality based on graph and data.
How it Works
The device is made of a glass dome with touch sensors, a hologram projector and motion trackers embedded at the base. The motion trackers record users’ data, which is then converted to visualizations and projected in forms of buildings in the dome.
Interfaces
Video Prototype
Next Steps
1. Improve UI elements
2. Explore more options on technologies
3. Improve animations
2. Explore more options on technologies
3. Improve animations
