COURSE

Project description

Many people have the intention to exercise more. However, it is easier said than done. Changing one's behavior to adopt healthier routines is hard and often feels like a lonely effort. What if you could rely on your relatives as co-responsible partners in that endeavor? And what is the best method?

Course is an interactive research artefact, aimed to investigate the notion of co-responsibility for behaviour change focused on physical activity. by acting as a tangible visualisation of activity and co-responsible behaviour.

If one of the two pawns - representing you and your co-responsible partner - reaches the end of a track, the other pawn will fall simultaneously. Acting as a pleasurable troublemaker, it relies on the aesthetics of friction to provide annoying feedback in a nice way

CLIENT / PARTNER
PHILIPS DESIGN
TIME
Autumn 2019
TYPE PROJECT
Design Research
MAIN ACTIVITIES
IOT-Prototyping, User Studies,

The process

This project focused design-research, and was my first experience with Research-through-Design, together with CDR. Throughout the semester I developed an established understanding of design research.

The result of my M11 project served as the starting point for this M21 project, which resulted in COURSE. In addition, I created Prints to compare different strategies of triggering co-responsibility. Both artefacts were crafted as connected data gathering artefacts for long-term user tests. In addition, as they were designed for the home environment, I paid attention to the aesthetics. Realising these artefacts was challenging and slowed down the process but significantly improved my skills in developing connected data-gathering systems. For external validation of my concept and research outcomes, I organised expert interview. This created a better positioning of my work and I added a new method to my skillset. Overall, for my first individual design-research project, I am happy with the result.

Looking back at this project, I now truly understand the importance of collaboration to manage complex challenges, which co-responsibility and developing connected systems were at that moment in time.