Concept:

The project's topic is recreating sensation so we designed and name it to "Stressless Galaxy". The galaxy-schemed zone was intended to drive the user away from the stressful earth. This private space, only allowing one person to get in at one time, will shut down the user's outer stress Here, various interactive celestial bodies give out positive emotions. The user can nudge, hug or even squeeze them and receive multi-sensory exposure treatment like a dynamic light show, surround sound and vibration.

The interaction flow of Stressless Galaxy try to reduce the stress of the user by three main functions which is sounds effect, lighting effects and vibrating effect.

User can choose one of the balls with a pressure sensor in the private space. The pressure connected with a lighting effect and vibrating effect. The strength of the vibrating level and lighting brightness will based on how much pressure that the user put on the ball.

On the other way, User can rotate the angle of the ball to play some relaxable music. The volume of the left or right side depends on the angle of the ball

Why?

"Multi-sensory therapy is an activity which usually takes place in a dedicated room where patients experience a range of unpatterned visual, auditory, olfactory and tactile stimuli (Baker et al, 1997)"

Therefore, we want to create a feeling of comfort and safety, where the individual can relax, explore and enjoy the surroundings

According to the research , colour change and relaxable music can influence a user's emotion, which helps relieve stress

Using vibration to stretch the muscle which can reduce the fatigue. Fatigue is also related to the mental health

Interaction paradigm:

•Embodied Interaction Using hand squeezing or pressing on the prototype to recreate some senactions which is lighting, vibration and sounds effect to the user.

•Manipulating and Navigating User can control the power of lighting and vibration by their squeezing power on the pressure sensor. Moreover, User can rotate the prototype to different angle to play some relax music.

•Exploring and Browsing Combining dark and privacy area to create a safety and relax experience to the user. In addition, the lighting function by the Neopixel sensor can also browsing the vision effect to the user

Design Process:

We had done so much research during the beginning to improve the concept. The method that we had used is brainstorming to think about the concept or how can we improve it, During the beginner, we are thinking to create a product that could help people to release their stress in a short time, for example, worker after work and do not bring stress to home. This is our original purpose. Furthermore, user interview to specific audience to get useful data to see which method we can use, mockup, low and high-fidelity prototype to see the exact reflection from the user. We had tried so many different materials to see which one is the best for our audiences.After testing our prototype. Then we found out that the interaction method that we provided to the user is too less, so we added more interaction ways based on the research. After that We had completed 90% of the functions in prototype session, therefore, we can receive the accurate data to improve the final product. After that, SUS testing and user testing will be done during the last stage to see what problems is still existing.

Final statement:

Visitors responses

In the exhibition, we received a lot of complements as well as suggestions. Most of the our visitors appreciated its dark and intriguing environment with little ‘stars’ around the top,, which was described as “peaceful” and “mesmerizing”. We found some young girls exclaimed with several ‘Wow’s while interacting with our design. Setting a cozy and sweet smell satisfied people from all ages and got a lot of appreciations, which meet our expectations to the purpose of design.

Relevant suggestive advice and improvements

According to their feedback, we have several aspects to make further improvement.

The first one is about the approach of relieving stress. Each person has different preferences and choices for decompression methods. Some people like a feeling of quiet and calm. They need gentle and soothing methods in a silent environment to achieve the decompression goal. On the contrary, some people are in favor of unexpected feedback or frightening stimuli to instantly divert their attention to relieve stress. In the design process, we need to consider the preferences of different kinds of people.

Secondly, adopted music is so cute and lovely that makes people think of the baby carriage. It provides another way of implementing the interaction. A user put forward that it will be more comfortable if the person is sitting or lying down to have interactions. It seems like lying down and look up at the sky filled with a spinning planet and you can touch, squeeze, or rotate it. This kind of interaction experience makes people feel romantic and dreamy.

Thirdly, users have higher expectations and demands for surround sound effects. It had better set more speakers around to set off a more immersive atmosphere from the sound effect progressing, eliminating unnecessary interference from the outside world.

Finally, to increase the aesthetic value of our design, we might have to avoid too many steel wires at the top, affect the aesthetics and resolution of the entire galaxy design. Some people cannot even realize that this is a starry sky. Using some items to cover the traces of the steel wire can make the entire galaxy more beautiful and authentic.

These constructive reflections would help us further progress the prototype and show more future development possibilities to provide a better interactive experience for users.