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Euphoros
Overview
Euphoros is a wearable mental-health device that provides an early diagnosis of postnatal depression in new mothers as well as effective continuous care by detecting the user’s emotional status.
Role
Planning the entire design research process and product development. Organising multiple interviews and workshops for the usability test. Designing a wearable device and a connected app. Pitching the product’s business plan to potential investors.
Details
This project began as a solo research project intended for development as a new business. The project duration was six to seven months from 2014 to 2015. The project was exhibited at the 2015 RCA show and presented as part of the RCA innovation summer launchpad.
Problem
Depression is a global public health concern.
-Ref. WHO Executive board 130th session. Provisional agenda item 6.2 -
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), depression is a global disease that affects people in all communities around the world. Current predictions indicate that, by 2030, depression will be the leading cause of the global disease burden. Effective action is required to solve this problem.
Focusing area
Among many types of depressions, postnatal depression was considered as the first area to solve. Because it is one of the depressions which can be predictable when it can be determined.
Definition of postnatal depression
Postnatal depression is a type of depression that many parents experience after having a baby. It’s important to seek help as soon as possible if you think you might be depressed, as your symptoms could last months or get worse and have a significant impact on you, your baby and your family.
Ref. NHS
Core Needs
Through meeting with psychiatrics, new mothers, expected mothers and family members, I could understand the postnatal depression and what is the challenge in treatment process.
· Improving the self-awareness of PND
· Continuous monitoring for follow up and emotional support
Product Features
This device monitors physical and social activity as related to the common symptoms of PND. People experiencing this depression shun activity and interaction with people. They try to isolate themselves. The collected datasets are visualised through a connected mobile app. If there are noticeable changes, a notification is sent to the new mother and approved others, such as family members and doctors. As a result, the user can get proper treatment for recovery, and the continual datasets reporting the user’s emotional status help the doctor to more effectively monitor and follow up with the patient.
Physical Activity
Amount Of Movement
Sleeping Analysis
Social Activity
Amount Of Conversation
Only User’s Voice With
Voice Biometric Software
Taking Further With Voice Analysis Technology
Consumer Journey
Euphoros is a personal-care product that can also be used for clinical purposes, depending on the user’s mental-health status. To find the key UX touch points, I mapped the entire customer journey for this product. This process helped me to understand both the user needs for each point and how this system can support the user during the whole experience of being a new mother.
Design For App (UI/UX)
Based on the mapped consumer journey, I defined the required features and the information to be visualised through a connected app. The typography and colour palette were carefully selected to ensure a soft and emotionally supportive brand image.
Persona
A specific persona of target users was created based on the profiles of the people I met through interviews. The distinctive characteristics of the persona included using mobile apps in daily life and being curious about lifestyle devices.
User Scenario
It was necessary to sketch out a user scenario in order to understand how the multiple users who can get notifications about the collected data would interact with the product. In this scenario, the main user is a new mother and the connected user is her partner as a caregiver.
Prototyping
A working prototype was created to demonstrate the idea. Three components were used in the hardware: MPU 6050 (triple-axis gyroscope), accelerometer and MEMS microphone (RedBear micro Bluetooth). The data from these components were visualised on a test version of the application.
What I Learned
Finding a design opportunity by analysing the trend of science, technology and social issues
In this self-driven project, the challenge and the main learning point involved initiating the project and executing it as a new business. The key processes included (1) finding a topic based on research about trends in science, technology and social issues, (2) clarifying the main question to address it through the design process and (3) defining the solution to be scalable based on the given resources and timeline. Through these processes, I developed an integrated perspective on the issues to tackle in the design solution. The experience of pitching the product to potential investors helped me understand how to build the business case to take the conceptual idea to the market as a consumer-ready product.