2.0UV

UV Free

Responsibilities

Project Context

Tools

User Research
UX design: Sketch, prototyping
ID design: Material exploration, prototyping
UI Iteration

Industry sponsored: Cognizant
Group Project
2022 Fall

Figma
Rhino
Grasshopper

Problem

Sun exposure causes sunburn, skin aging, and skin cancer, the most common form of cancer in the U.S.

Skin cancer is on the rise in the U.S. The National Cancer Institute estimates there will be 99,780 new cases of skin melanomas and 7,650 related deaths in 2022. In 2019, there were an estimated 1.3 million people living with melanoma of the skin in the U.S. About 4.3 million people are treated for basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, two of the most common types of skin cancer, in the U.S. every year, according to published data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

How might we improve the overall awareness of people to do sun protection and help them build a habit ?

Solution

Make it noticeable

We use shape memory material to metaphor a person's skin deforming (aging/sunburn/cancer) under sunlight to remind people to take sun protection seriously.

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Add UV to the routine

As most people have the habit of checking weather, UV as an important part of the weather, could be integrated into the weather forecast and seamlessly bring it to everyday life.

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Remind like a friend

Reminding users on a high UV day, along with a small tip about sun protection

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Our Approach

Define

Research

Design

Test

Understanding problem space
Defining project goals
Expected methods
Forming a schedule

Observation
Survey
Interview
Literature Review
Affinity map
Persona
Task Example
Flow diagram
Metrics

CoDesign Workshop
Sketch
Material Exploration
Prototype

Usability Test
Iteration

View whole process in Figma 🔗

Flow Diagram

In this project, we employed a flow diagram which closely resembles a user journey map but with a more intricate design and extensive details. Through our use of the flow diagram, we were able to identify potential hazards.

Insights from research

Turn insights into design ideas

Co-design Workshop

To better understand customers needs regarding sun protection, 7 participants were invited to the co-design workshop. It was interesting to see how actual users improved their experiences and created new concepts.

From the workshop, we learned that:

Users want a combination of a wearable device and an app.

The wearable device receives accurate UV values and sends them to the phone app.
The wearable device reminds users when the UV value is high.
The wearable device should be easy to attached to hats, bags, neckless, etc.

Based on the insights from research and co-design workshop, we started brainstorming the solutions to app and wearable device.

Sketch & Prototyping

I was primarily responsible for two tasks: (1) innovating the interaction mode of wearable devices, and (2) UI iteration. Additionally, I also participated in decision-making for the main features of the app and its framework, user testing for the wearable device and the app, etc.

1. wearable device ideation

Through sketching, I found the concept of melting sunglasses interesting, but considering comfort and reversibility of deformation, I switched to trying a thermo-sensitive color changing polymer that was easier to implement.

On top of the thermo-sensitive color changing material, I think it would be also interesting to use materials with different expansion coefficients and heat them to reveal bulging patterns and underlying base colors.

The deformation is triggered by UV values, with higher UV resulting in greater deformation and more prominent bulging. The outcome ranges from healthy skin (low UV, no expansion), sunburn (moderate UV, limited expansion), to cancer risk (high UV, significant expansion). The latter result serves as a reminder to take sun protection measures.

I set the value collected by the UV sensor as the input. As the UV value increases, the heating element starts heating, and the product changes from brown to orange.

Besides heating expansion， pneumatic power could be another solution, which seems easier to control

Usability Test

According to the results of usability testing,

users enjoyed the concept of using material deformation to indicate the need for sun protection.

However, they expressed concern that if the device was worn in obscured places, such as under a hat or in a backpack, they would not be able to see the deformation and therefore miss the prompt.

Iteration: In addition to the visual prompt of material deformation, we added a phone vibration prompt that users can choose to use or not, based on their preference.