User Research / Design probes
Solving Stress through Human Centered Design
In User Inspired Design (UID) module designerly problem solving and approaches for stakeholder involvement are applied to find out, describe and build on emerging practices.
During the course our team of 5 students worked on the concept how stress could be a positive one and how it could use it to their advantage in work place?
For research we used design probe as a method and final concept was a stop-motion inspired by Critical design thinking.
Client /
Part of Aalto University course
My Role /
Research / Concept / UX / UI
Course work /
8 week - User Inspired design
Team -member /
Jani Saarijärvi, Chen Bowen, Kiia Korpi, Noora Kuutti.
Year /
2014
Research Questions
Is it possible to change the way people think about stress?
How stress could be a positive one ?
How it could be used as an advantage in work place?
Research Methods
Design Probes - After finalizing the research questions, the team did a quick brain-writing session. The next stage was to use design method for gathering information and since the course was User Inspired Design we decided to Design Probe, the main reason to use Probe is to get Inspiration, Information, User Participation and create Dialogue with the user.
The Probe Kit was given the users for one week and the kit had some small exercises and simple writing task along with task of taking pictures. Before giving the Probe kit to the user the team made a prototype and evaluated within the group. The contents of Probe Kit / task were- Daily reflection sheet, Comic strip, Stress indicator badge, Personal secret task, Bubble wrap.
Analysis and Interpretation
To confirm the findings and its evaluation we invited the user for a group interview and discussion. The second stage was to analyse the findings through Affinity diagram which helps us to links the findings in a logical manner.
The next step was to create Personas which can help us to visualize the scenario and also aid in ideation as well as explanation of the concept.
Final concept
Stress Emergency System (SES ) which is based on Critical design thinking of challenging perception and provoking people to think Positively. The outcome was a stop-motion video along with stress relief chart and replica of oxygen mask as provided in airplane during emergency.
Stress Emergency System (SES)
Conclusion: Provoking people to think about - how stress could be a positive one and how they could use it to their advantage.
Storyboard
