Night Night
Fall 2016 | Class Project
Research, concept, & graphic mockups.
Illustrator & Photoshop
Creating a coercive design that generates positive change.
This was a brief conceptual project created for my Interaction Design II course in which we were tasked with choosing a single moment in our day-to- day lives where we saw an opportunity to intervene. Our interactive design should then prevent or encourage individuals from doing that task using the ideas of Coercion or Unpleasant Design. Through the conceptualization of Night Night, I addressed the rampant issue of sleep deprivation among young adults.
PROBLEM
RESEARCH
“Brightness from iPad screens, when set to the brightest setting, can suppress melatonin by 22% which can fake your body into thinking it’s morning when it’s really night.”
“Take some time in the evening to work through the day, make lists to do tomorrow and clear your mental desktop of the stuff that you still have to think about. Then go to bed,”
Identifying ideal methods for beneficial intervention.
As a result of the brief timeline, much of my research was based on personal experience and secondary research. Existing information indicated the need to create a dim screen based intervention which lifts burden and guides relaxing activities to encourage sleep. Research indicates it is beneficial to create a list of remaining responsibilities, distract your mind with a simple task, and ultimately shift to voice guided off screen activities to unwind.
SOLUTION
A service that demands balance.
I decided to name this application based on a common term individuals use when heading off to bed; "Night Night”. Once set up, this application would disable all other computer functions outside of the application activities, and would also sync with the phone to disable any distractions that could prevent sleep.
In order to coerce the user into a sleep focused state of mind, I created an interface which would automatically dim the screen and enter a fullscreen view of dark grey with soothing blue undertones. I included accent colors of muted blue as well as occasional touches of pastel yellow, which are both proven calming colors.
When setting up the application, the user would be able to exercise control by selecting adjustable preferences including music genre, target bedtime, level of priority for rest, and a comfortable activity level. Night Night would then move the user through 4 steps to facilitate sleep, and checkins as desired to allow users to "snooze" the application until they are ready to complete all the steps.
Fall asleep with Night Night's four simple steps.
First the user will be prompted with a todo list to fill out in order to alleviate the fixation on accomplishing these tasks immediately and would be provided the following morning.
The second task is a relaxing game that mimics the movements of the calming music, as it has been shown that simple activities that utilize the brain and hands helps users destress and loose focus on other concerns. The light blue circle is the user's cursor which is used to collect blue dots and avoid yellow dots. The cursor size grows as the user collects more points by popping the blue dots.
Time for sweet dreams.
Step three is a 10 minute non-screen based activity. Depending on preferred activity level, this could include voice guided tensing and un-tensing of the muscles, or minimal yoga poses that can be executed in bed. This also includes illustrations for further guidance so the user can reference the screen if needed.
The final step in the sleep inducing process with is a 3 minute 4-7- 8 breathing exercise. This breathing exercise is proven to help individuals relax and destress; two essential factors in the attempt to fall asleep with ease. The calming voice guidance leads this exercise accompanied by a relaxing visual aid indicating when to inhale and exhale by the size of the circle.