SMART BENCH FOR MOOD REGULATION
Summary
Emerging smart technologies now include devices for mood tracking and regulation, yet usability challenges limit their adoption among older adults. This thesis combines research and design to propose a new approach: shifting from individual devices to collective, environmental interactions. It introduces a smart bench that responds to users’ daily social and environmental engagement through kinetic, blooming flowers. By encouraging interaction with others and the surroundings, the design subtly promotes mood regulation while offering an inclusive, non-intrusive way to track emotional the emotional well-being of older adults.
The design concept
The design proposes a smart bench to help older adults track and regulate their mood. By encouraging outdoor activity and social interaction, the bench facilitates environmental and community engagement as a strategy for mood regulation. Through kinetic flowers that bloom in response to users’ levels of social and environmental engagement, the bench visually represents and communicates the emotional well-being of older adults to the surrounding community in an inclusive, non-intrusive, and intuitive way.
Concept development of the bench through sketches: dimensioning based on ergonomic guidelines, shape for interactions and roof shapes
Illustrative collage of the design’s intended mood regulation strategies: environmental and social exposure
Design concept's main features
Key Design Features
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Kinetic flowers bloom in response to users’ presence and social interactions.
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Illuminated flowers glow in the evening, reflecting collective participation levels.
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A transparent roof maximizes daylight and enhances evening visibility.
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A central armrest aids safe movement and encourages social proximity.
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Ergonomic seating ensures comfort and safety.
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An arc-shaped, dual-sided layout offers flexible social and environmental engagement.
The design interaction
By applying the principles of proxemics—the study of how spatial behavior reflects social interaction—the bench’s smart system detects and interprets users’ levels of social engagement.
a) Proxemic zones: intimate zone (orange: 0-50 cm), personal zone (bright green: 05-1 m), social zone (green: 1-4 m), and public zone (dark green: 4 m or more); b) and c) smart system and flowers responding to different levels of social interaction
The flowers bloom in response to users’ presence and proximity-based interactions, with greater social engagement resulting in fuller blooming. Naturally, social interactions contribute to a more extensive blooming effect than mere presence at the bench.
(Top) Kinetic flower blooming scale; (bottom) different blooming stages representing varying levels of engagement throughout the day. From left to right: no engagement, moderate engagement, and full engagement of target users
(Top) Kinetic flower blooming scale at night; (bottom) from left to right: no target users have visited the bench during the day, some have visited, and all have visited
The tracking works on daily cycles, providing at the end of the day a visual representation of the daily engagement of the target users through the installation lighting.
From this, the more the older adults from the community arrive and interact at the bench, the flowers have bloomed during the day, and the more light the instalaltion will provide to the surroundings during the evening.
The design process
Building on an understanding of older adults and their context, the design process shifted from conventional mood-tracking device/app design to outdoor, collective interaction as a means of supporting mood regulation among older adults. Accordingly, focused on the design of a visual metaphor to represent mood and a smart bench to facilitate its regulation.
The kinetic flower
(Left) Blooming and (right) withering of a flower, used as a design metaphor for the positive and negative moods of the target users
Design process sketches of the kinetic flower mechanism
(From top to bottom) CAD model, render and prototype of the kinetic flower
Kinetic flower opening sequence viewed from the side and below.
The kinetic flower embodies mood states through a mechanism that moves its petals to simulate blooming and withering. A central lightbulb enhances this effect, with its brightness linked to the flower’s openness, reinforcing the metaphor and adding functional illumination.
The bench
The bench design addresses older adults’ ergonomic needs while fostering social and environmental interaction. A sheltered structure supports both weather protection and the hanging kinetic flowers, with wood and metal chosen for durability, feasibility, and aesthetics.
Ultimately, the integration of the kinetic flowers and smart bench culminated in the final design concept introduced earlier in this section. This required further conceptualization of the smart system and user interactions. For a detailed discussion of the design process, the full report can be requested here.
(Left) design process sketches of the bench and (right) final bench design.
Bachelor's thesis assignment
May - August, 2022
#mood_regulation
#older_adults
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