Wearable for women with Anxiety
Through a Social Design process we developed the concept of three wearable devices for women with academic anxiety to avoid panic attacks.
This project was part of Designskolen Kolding education, and we collaborated with Ohmatex and DesignPeople Århus.
How to enhance women's wellbeing with anxiety through wearable technology?
Process. Design Research. Framing information through the use of Success criteria' and 'SWOT' methods.
Conducting surveys, interviews and workshops with stakeholders and companies. Then framing the information through “clustering” to reframe HMW.
Sketching, quick prototyping, user testing, feedback from user, and companies.
Research / Data analysis. (Surveys / Interviews / Success criteria / SWOT / Clustering). Women are nearly twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder in their lifetime. Nearly 250 million women suffer anxiety in some way. Academic anxiety is one of the most common types.
Persona
"Holding things feels like a physical closure, like a tiny hug"
LEA. 23 years old
Architect student
Lives in Denmark
/ Started to feel anxiety at the age of 16
/ Feels nausea, dizziness, increased of heart rate and shivering.
/ "the fear of fear". Spiral feeling
/She calms down by fidgeting, white sounds or visual stimulation depending the day
/ She does not people to notice it
Workshop. (Co-creation session).
Structure.
/Step 1. Presentation of research and insights through objects that were chosen by women with anxiety.
/Step 2. Individual image sorting
/Step 3. Dividing participants in two groups. And ideation process by sorting "lotus" out.
/Step 4. Sharing
Reframing HMW.
How might we create wearable technology for young women with academic performance anxiety without the aspect of a medical device?
Ideation / Conceptualization.
To develop a toolbox to concentrate into breathing exercises through different ways to focus, aiming to low down heartbeats before having an attack.
These tools assumed the shape of a 3 pieces jewelry where all three have different functions and ways to generate breathing concentration.
Generate a concept it does not necessarily needs an app to be used.
