ABOUT US
HALO
Therapeutic support system
Product and system design
The basis of this project originated from the need
to deliver solutions for the widespread global issue of mental health.
This project was aimed at developing a system that
aided students in venting out and achieving emotional stability
Team project by - SG Sacchita nandi, Harshith Vuppala and Satyam Chandra
The Crisis.
In this early college snapshot, our smiles hide the silent battles of dissatisfaction, anxiety, anger, and helplessness we were going through individually . By probing , we discovered a pattern among this shared turmoil, realizing many newcomers to hostel life faced similar mental struggles.
As we spoke to others, the problem became clear: young students navigating college life and hostels lacked support for their mental turbulences.
“The Nation as a whole has one of the world’s highest youth suicide rates.”
According to a 2012 Lancetreport
Initial Research Mapping.
How does hostel life impact students?
Positive aspects
Boosts Self-Confidence
Creates Independence
Enhances Management Skills Gain Emotional Maturity
Learn to Adjust and Adapt Become Goal-Oriented
Freedom
Wider Exposure
Personality Development
Negative factors
Mental Conditions
Influences (Drugs)
Peer Pressure
Stress
Ragging / Harassment / Abuse
Isolation / Abandonment feeling
Cult Formation / Involvement
Mentally weak / Unstable
Loneliness / Helplessness
Money / Bills
Managing Time
Health / Hygiene
Storage / Space management
Self Control
Eating / Sleep Pattern
Balancing Chores / Work
Adjusting lifestyle
Clothes / Laundry
Financial / Emotional
Compatibility
Personal Privacy
Sound Sensitivity
Light Adjustability
Hygiene
Washroom Timings
Space Division
Room Sharing
Disorganised Life
Mental Health
While the positive aspects of living independently away from home have its perks, they are also at times overshadowed by negative impacts rendering it an imbalanced and harmful experience. Unless addressed and dealt with the right care, at the correct time, it can evolve into major life-threatening issues with low chances of recovery.
Sports
Extracurricular
Academics
Financial Background
Sexual orientation
Age
Physical Disorders / Disability
Height / Weight
Mental Health / Disorders
Relegion / Culture
Field Research.
To better understand the context of the problem, we conducted personal interviews with around
40 hostel students from across
5 different campuses including CEPT, NID, IIT, and UID (Ahmedabad)
Extreme Users
Based on the research data, we plotted out the extreme users to better categorize and understand the problem in detail
Research Methods.
Metaphor Elicitation
Metaphor Elicitation is a research method that was used to invoke conscious and subconscious feelings in the user through the selection of random images.
Metaphor Elicitation
Match the character
What is it?
It was designed to discern active and latent preferences in specified hostel scenarios. It brought out dormant mood pre-sets and helped us decode any influences. Users matched character cards to situations, provided reasoning, and wove a narrative, offering understanding of their perspectives.
By intertwining insights from the metaphor elicitation images with the game, we fostered discussions on the users needs, desires, and the interplay between past experiences and future aspirations.
How is it conducted?
The user had to choose any five cards from the stack and then match the character cards relating to the situation accordingly. They had to give reasons for their choices and create a story with the sequence. Connecting these with the metaphor elicitation images, we found useful insights about the users. This helped the users talk about their needs and desires, evoking the past and visualizing the future.
Data Synthesis.
Value Statement :
Establish a sense of safe dependability, enabling individuals to gain emotional control.
Approach:
Implementing a therapeutic support system that facilitates the expression of emotions through interactive spaces, addressing the need for emotional release and balance.
We observed that expressing emotions, or "venting out," played a crucial role in preserving mental well-being. Students sought a reliable, interactive support system that would serve as a safe space for emotional release, maintaining emotional balance.
After developing these concepts further, we ended up with defined clusters consisting of ideas that supported our insights. The clusters included ideas—like modified lights that provided a change in atmosphere/ambiance, creating new ways of interaction between rooms helping to find like-minded people, improving communication between roommates through various mediums, providing virtual systems to aid students, and creating interactive spaces with varying purposes.
Ideation.
In order to gain first-hand wild ideas to work on, we conducted a workshop between 10 randomly selected individuals. This helped set the foundation of the ideas we wanted to work on and helped give direction to what we wanted to achieve.
The Final Concept.
Inspired by the traditional stress ball, Halo is an interactive device that fulfils the need to express suppressed hidden emotions by providing sound and light output upon interaction.
A standalone product, its functions can be enhanced with an interactive display.
Some initial prototypes
Art and Interaction board.
The feel of the product has to resonate an emotional response within the user. The sensorial feedback plays an important role in effectively helping the user control their emotions
The System.
The ball is equipped with full sensorial feedback (touch, feel, and sound), that works as an intermediate substitute within a system that facilitates multiple features. The ball, display, and mobile application make up a singular ecosystem to provide a seamless experience.
The Experience Map.
The user enters the recreational space with an interactive display and a few balls. The recreational space consist of a few interactive balls and a projector.
The user downloads the app and pairs the ball via Bluetooth.
The system consists of various activities catering to different emotions of the user. The presets can be explored in the app/system with the help of the conversational AI.
The modified recreational room imparts white noise and low light with the ball acting as a focus point to concentrate.
Interactive Activity.
Interaction can be boosted through a number of activities that can be played by more than one person.
The app keeps a record of the mood and usage of the ball's user. Based on the data it provides certain suggestions at crucial times to improve the user's emotional stability
2
The user is in an environment where the ball cannot be used with the interactive display.
It provides data based on the pressure applied by the user and provides visual/sensory feedback. The intensity of pressure changes the color from yellow(low) to red(high) in an exponentially proportional manner.
The ball can be carried around and used for different scenarios.
Whether at home or on the go, it can be used independently.
B
It also acts as a focus point and provides the necessary sound and visual feedback to set the mood for meditation helping the user calm down.
C
When frustrated, the user can apply pressure /hurl the ball at any flat surface and get visual and sensory (sound) feedback from the ball.
A
System Overview.
Product Explosion.
Battery Pack
The outermost shell is a seamless transparent and glossy material.
The second layer is a strong semi-soft, translucent material. that blends the LED output. It also acts as an immediate impact absorber.
The Mobile Application.
Information Architecture Overview
The Screens.
Launch
Home
Activity
A
The launching screen shows a logo animation for 2 seconds while the app loads
All the features of the app are presented in this space. Necessary notifications pop up at the bottom of the page ie. reminders, activity feedback, etc.
All the available activities are listed here and they record relevant data that is used to perform data analysis. New activities are added at frequent intervals.
B
Mood
The user can fill in information regarding their feelings and their causes. The archive saves all its past inputs. All the information can be viewed in an analytical manner through stats. By performing supervised machine learning on big data obtained from users, the AI can understand patterns and give reviews.
Articles
Devices
Here the user can find tailored links from different news outlets based on the individual persona the system gathers from the data.
A list of paired and available devices are shown