COMFY
DATE: May 2021
TYPE OF WORK: Group Project, 4 Members
IMPACT: Reduce emotional eating, promote healthy sustainable habits, and increase confidence to wear any outfit.
CONTRIBUTION: User Needs Research, Framing Design Problem and Solution, User Testing
RESEARCH METHODS: Double Diamond Design Process, User Interviews
FIELD: Human-Computer Interaction, App Design, Body Positivity
01. Overview
Context
In a world filled with social media, advertisements, and peer pressure, people across all ages, gender, and locations struggle with body comfort and confidence. Teenagers develop disruptive habits to maintain a socially accepted (promoted) body image and suffer from mental health issues consecutively.
Target users
College Freshmen who are uncomfortable with their body image in the US and need/desire to be comfortable about body types and develop a healthy mindset and lifestyle.
There is a fine line between body acceptance and toxic body positivity.
Issue
College Freshmen, who are uncomfortable with body image and are overwhelmed by changes, support others but are harsh towards their bodies.
User Desire:
• To be comfortable and confident with their bodies • To feel healthy mentally and physically
Existing Solutions
Focus on temporary escape using external interventions that lack internalization and long-lasting changes in mindset. A few coping mechanisms include - Socializing with friends but internally self-comparing; trying healthy eating habits, exercising or balancing your life but failing to sustain it; and self-affirmations/social media detox but not being able to sustain or internalize.
Design goal
Help College Freshmen develop self-love and acceptance of their own bodies by appreciating and supporting themselves.
Before coming up with a solution we need to see if the problem is prevalent.
Solution
A wearable smart bracelet with gesture sensors that nudge users to meditate and indulge in mindful exercises to accept their bodies while boosting self-love. The audio and haptic-based cues in the wearable provide reminders and guided meditation throughout the day in both social contexts and when the user is alone. The mindful exercises are designed to use when the user is alone.
02. Identify Needs
User Group
All freshmen (aged 18-20), regardless of whether they have taken a gap year or not, were included as our target primary user group, as they are all experiencing a transition from high school to college life.
Inclusion and exclusion criteria
Inclusion:
First-year college students between the age of 18-20 years, studying in a US college/university.​
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All genders and ethnicities
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self-identify as being interested in body image issues
Exclusion:
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Do not speak or understand English
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Have no experience in using mobile applications, and web interfaces
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Lack of informed consent to collect and use their data
User interview goals
To better understand the following about users:
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perception, thoughts, and factors influencing their body image
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constraints and motivations to maintain their body image
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emotional, physical, and financial relationship with body
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Current priorities regarding body image
To better understand user behaviors and contexts:
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To understand the lifestyle of the user (including eating, exercising, sleeping, and socialization habits )
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To gauge how environmental conditions (e.g. social norms, location, job/study pressure, etc.) influences users’ behaviors and perceptions regarding body image
Interview insights
We interviewed eight freshmen from Cornell University (male: 3, female: 5) about body image and mental health, in which we touched upon topics such as dieting, clothing, social activities, personal values and reflections, exercise, societal influences, and life in high school vs college.
While the interviewees consider themselves healthy eaters and have relatively positive perceptions towards their own body images compared to when they were in high school, they are still working towards accepting their perceived body concerns. With regards to their bodies, most interviewees indicated high levels of anxiety when comparing themselves to others, while one explicitly communicated bodily confidence. They are somewhat influenced by the toxic social norm that they must have positive mindsets towards bodies sometimes exacerbated through their friends, family, or social media. The interviewees actively converse with their friends about body image concerns and have clout over each other's body comfort levels.
Affinity mapping
Quotes, body language, and contextual observations were clustered into common themes or patterns related to the desires/ needs of the user group. A few topics covered are - college, lifestyle, eating, exercise habits, and the influence of social support.
Journey mapping
Scenario: A normal work day for a college freshman's life who has a busy schedule but is trying to deal with negative body image thoughts (with and without our intervention).
Goal: Want to be more comfortable with my own body.
different user contexts have different triggers and change how the user acts.
User insights
Needs:
Many desire to be pretty, thin, fit, or have some physical features that society considers attractive. But the root need is to be more comfortable with their body types and develop a healthy mindset and lifestyle. Some specific desires include:
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Wearing whatever clothes they want
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Looking happily at their own body in the mirror
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Showing their bodies in photos
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Eliminating stereotypical ideas of a “perfect” body type
Constraints:
Several contextual constraints and reasons include -
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Weight and shape stereotyping, social conditioning, and low self-image
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Body representation in social media, movies, and publications, and limiting garment sizes
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Living alone /in isolation and budget constraints for healthy living
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Hormonal changes and biological factors
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Socializing events and college lifestyle
Significance:
While social trends in healthy living are shifting towards loving oneself, it is usually hard for freshmen to incorporate these solutions. It is challenging to balance a healthy mindset about their bodies while living independently, overemphasizing perfect body images. Creating a freshmen-centric solution would be meaningful in building self-recognition, seeking support, building confidence, and finding a balanced way of being comfortable in their bodies.
03. Brainstorming Solutions
Framing design problem and solution
Using user insights, key problems were identified for college freshmen. Possible solutions were formulated. Ultimately, the highlighted problem was taken up for solution exploration.
Searching for existing solutions
Summary:
In searching for the existing technological solutions, we looked thoroughly and excerpted classic examples from the internet and research papers. From the intrinsic aspect, cognitive-behavioral strategies have been extensively applied in the existing technologies. For example, there are techniques using evaluative conditioning, self-awareness creating, and personal thought re-evaluating. Extrinsically, some solutions are transforming the intangible into the tangible like writing ideas out. There are also additional technologies that focus on creating and enhancing physical fitness activities. Overall, most solutions are internally focused and intangible in nature.
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Findings:
Looking at the existing solutions, there are already lots of non-tangible strategies that target to change and improve people’s intrinsic mindsets regarding body image, which could be transformed into technological solutions easily. In terms of tangible solutions targeting the intrinsic aspect, there are some in the market that is not technological either. On the other hand, there are not many tangible or intangible solutions that address interaction with others and the external environment.
Design direction:
With the gap present in the existing solutions, our design could be built upon these solutions by adding more technological elements. We aim to create more innovative tangible technologies that address both intrinsic and extrinsic aspects concerning body image issues that change the status quo.
usability and user experience factors can also be included to catagorize existing products.
Generating and categorizing design ideas
Each team member came up with 10 different ideas. They were first clustered together in terms of similarity. These clusters were mapped onto a time cone to understand how feasible a given idea was. The x-axis represents if the design is feasible now, in the near future, or in the far future. The y-axis shows the amount of re-education or changes in user/social fabric required for the solution to be accepted.
covid-19 was an environmental catalyst that changed how people think about mental health.
Design iteration 1
04. Design Iterations and Testing
Design iteration 2
Final design guidelines
05. Comfy
A wearable smart bracelet as a comfort object
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Hand gestures that activate haptic vibrations
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Separate hand gestures for separate emotions (also making the user self-reliant and aware of their emotions)
App on mobile connected to the bracelet
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Recommend 2-min CBT exercises and body image-related quotes responsively to users’ stress level
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Progress and mood tracker
using paper prototypes allows participants to focus on the subject and not the appearance.
User scenario
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The comfy bracelet and application are designed to be used in social and private settings.
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By doing certain hand gestures when feeling negative about their body, users activate the bracelet’s calming vibrations to refocus their minds in public areas.
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In private settings, users use the application to understand, synthesize and reflect on their thoughts while the bracelet’s vibrations act as a calming aid.
User journey map with Comfy
A user scenario was made to explain the device usage to the participants.
Scenario focuses on the user interaction and expected feeling/ outcome.
1st Interaction
05. Interaction Design
the user will be able to choose the challenges/issues they are facing; the users will enter their information; the users can also personalize the interface design
2nd Interaction
progress and mood tracker allows the users to record their feelings, and reflect on why or what is making them feel that way and log it in
3rd Interaction
Using the gesture classification structure devised in the paper "Classification of EMG signal for multiple hand gestures based on neural network" by Abu et al., we created a third level of interaction. By gesture recognition and the records and the frequency of the user activates the bracelet, the app will recommend either exercises or meditation with quotes that can help with the user's current anxiety level towards the body.
While the product uses existing technologies, the sizing is not yet feasible. We envision the product to be possible in 3 years' time.
Different Gestures indicate different levels of anxiety and discomfort (Users can personalize gestures through the app). E.g., “Pronation” for mood swings, “Grasp” for guilt
4th Interaction
There are two interfaces; they can choose from mindful exercises or meditation. The app will ask about the user's feelings again and show a weekly summary of the emotion curve.
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With these interactions, Comfy can help relieve users' anxiety about their bodies by reflecting on how and why they are feeling negatively and engaging in mindful activities, gathered from reliable platforms and psychology-related sources.
06. Reflection
Product Analysis
There are a number of existing products that promote body positivity with a focus on healthy eating and mindfulness. Some popular examples include apps that track food intake and exercise, as well as meal delivery services that promote healthy, balanced meals. Additionally, there are a number of books and online resources that offer guidance on how to practice mindful eating and develop a more positive relationship with food.
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While these products can be beneficial in helping individuals develop a healthier relationship with food and their bodies, they might end up inadvertently contributing to body shaming or perpetuating the idea that there is a "right" or "wrong" way to have a positive relationship with food and your body. To truly be effective, products that promote body positivity should be inclusive and celebrate diversity in body shape and size and should be mindful of the impact of larger systemic issues such as weight stigma and diet culture.
Learnings from project implementation
This project helped me understand the application of user-centered research and design. Being an architecture student, I was aware of design iteration and thinking but this course made me realize the importance of qualitative data collection and analysis. It was a lot of fun going through a whole HCI design cycle. I was not only exposed to useful and thought-provoking design challenges but also was able to work on a topic I am personally passionate about with a group and propose a cool technology. I learned to schedule and work with group mates, organize thought processes, and be inquisitive researchers in user testing and participant interviews. I also learned to keep the users in mind from the beginning to the end so that the product we come up with would address the problem properly and effectively.