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4 Ways, All Pays – Crafting a dark wellness world

The tale of my parody health app for smartwatches

In the bustling realm of smart technology and wearables, I wanted to create a whimsical journey to introduce some humour in the often anxiety-creating realm of health and fitness apps while criticising some unethical practices that they implement at the same time.

Mockup of the application later replicated in the smartwatch.

The Problem

I had the inspiration to work on this while browsing some health apps and finding out what kinds of dark patterns are evident in a wearables. I stumbled upon surveillance and privacy concerns quite a lot but not into actual evident dark patterns. I started doing a little market research and stumbled upon an app called “StepSetGo”.

https://stepsetgo.com

They often label the fact that the users are unable to work workout as lazy, or not finding motivation. They oversimplify it by handing in rewards in exchange for the number of steps that the user takes in a day and long term.

But the underlying problem is much deeper and intrinsic to every person who are called these labels by society.

The Idea

There is no doubt that this information is useful to the users but the people implementing them always find ways to take advantage and capitalise on the people using them which often causes a lot of harm.

I wanted to call out these types of unethical patterns that health apps often tend to have. Similar to the Discourse project, I wanted to explore different ways of tackling this problem and decided to go down the smartwatch route as it was the most accessible to me at the time.

User Journey Map

I created a user journey map of the user experiencing this activity as a starting step of the design process.

The Design

I created 4 ways in which these practices are often implemented and taken advantage of which are Step count, Heart rate, Period Tracker and Sleep Tracker. I created an over engineered design flow for the Step Count and Heart Rate as a starting point.

The user collects coins for each of the activities performed or data that is checked. In exchange for those coins, they are shown a “Rewards Shop” screen where they see that there are certain products that they can buy (not for free, for a discount) and that they still have a long way to go in order to even get that discount.

Prototyped design connections of the app.

Prototype link

I used a Figma mockup called Watch Mirror to prototype it on the Apple Watch.

The Presentation

Slide 1
Slide 2
Slide 2 – Animated version

Lilian tried the watch with the prototype on for the entire class to see while she was using it.

The Learning

While the idea was communicated to the class, the execution could have been more apparent and more parody-like. Since this app was too realistic and was providing tangible rewards in exchange for the tasks while the tasks itself were mundane, are some elements I can exaggerate for the future.

I learnt how to prototype an app on a smartwatch for the first time and also design an interface for the app. That was extremely new to me and posed challenges like lagging and the prototype not working the way I wanted it to during the actual presentation due to the technicalities on the Watch Mirror plugin.

This project really made me introspect and understand the way I approached this project a little more. The narrative and the tone of the design is important with projects like these and this is something that I am going to keep in mind for the future.

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Discourse

“Tragic design” refers to a book that discusses designs that, due to poor design choices in impolite technology, can be lethal, frustrate users, and exclude users. This occurs inadvertently through poor design as well as on purpose through the use of dark patterns.

This project is in reaction to the book by Cynthia Savard Saucier and Jonathan Shariat, which illustrates dark patterns and draws attention to the problem in a more tangible way than digitally. I wanted to demonstrate more concretely how users’ mind is manipulated by dark patterns, leading to elevated emotions.

They eventually ended up doing just that whilst my professor was going through the digital aspect which was the “tutorial” for opening the box. It was a complete mislead which added to her frustration.

I just kept this box in front of the my classmates and observed their reactions. They had a hard time opening the box as I had put forward a condition which was to not to pick up the tiles of the box.

The Ideation

After reading books on behavioral economics like “predictably irrational” and “tragic design,” I was motivated to take action. They provided motivation regarding the functioning of the human mind, the behaviors that surround it, and the range of emotions that it encompasses. I started off by trying to figure out how to make dark patterns materialise.

The Iterations

I attempted to create a lock and key mechanism whereby the user would need to solve the maze in order to obtain the key to the lock in order to access the box. I searched for ways to accomplish this but had to abandon the plan when I realized that the lock and key mechanism would need a lot of bulk in one specific region of the box.

Instead, I decided to go for a puzzle mechanism that less visible and wasn’t too obvious for the user to solve which required them to move five tiles in a specific pattern while sliding the box out underneath simultaneously.

The Cutting

I made the choice to cut the acrylic and plywood for the box using the Trojan laser cutting machine at the Digital Fabrication Lab.

One of the materials I utilized was 2.3mm clear acrylic on three sides, which would enable the user to see what was inside the box as motivation and encourage them to solve the riddle and open it.

I utilized 3mm plywood for the creation of the puzzle and the other three sides. The order of how the laser would cut the plywood depended on the kinds of colours used to create the lines of the vectors on illustrator file.

The Assembling

I created the box 15 cm in size using finger joints mechanics for the box’s base. I initially, made a prototype box made of acrylic on all sides as a test to see if it would work.

The Testing

The mechanism is such that there are little pieces of wire and tape attached to the tile and move along the path of the opening in the slide below. So where there is no path, the tiles don’t move and the user has to try again to figure out if they have to move it horizontally or vertically in order to slide the lid out.

I used a chemical that, when placed in close contact to one another, could melt the acrylic and fuse the two pieces together. The knowledge and counsel of the Design Woodshop Technicians were needed for this. I was able to adhere the acrylic pieces to one another as a result, and I used book glue to stick the acrylic and plywood pieces together.

The Application

In order to really focus on driving the subject of dark patterns in the non traditional and traditional sense, I made a digital version to which the QR code’s sticker leads. The application is supposedly a “guide” to open the box but once the user begins to use it, they find it full of misleads and extra barriers to opening the box.

The user begins by seeing a landing page with a logo. The words on the screen are misleading as they say tap anywhere but it only proceeds forwards when the user taps on the logo.

Similar to the previous mislead, the flow moves forward only when the user clicks on okay and not “no thanks”.

The close window button is made tiny such that the user is unable to view it better to click on it and the primary buttons are made the opposite of what the user needs to proceed forward.

After a long process of going through ads and cookie popups, the user is led to the “steps” to solve the puzzle on the box. The steps are complete misleads as well and doesn’t really have any substance to it when the user tries to follow it to open the box.

The Conclusion

This project was mostly just trial and error in terms of the mechanism and how it would function but the idea that it is built on is a direction I’m very much interested in and would like to take forward. I would use this as an opportunity to make more projects that could provoke and inspire thought as well as awareness about more such topics. There are some things I could try to figure out a bit better in terms of how exactly it functions and resolve the issues such as smooth tile sliding and I would make it much less fragile than it is currently. I also would change the UI a little bit to better match the visual language of the box and maybe refined the look of the box itself.

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Projects

Service Design

Vancouver has its fair share of grey and rainy days, as I’m sure we all know. Cozyglow cozyglow is a service that helps provide a bit of warmth and comfort on bleak days.

The Design

Together with Maria, I worked on this project to build an interactive flower lamp with a digital game design element. When a user “waters” the flower lamp, it illuminates a brilliant orange hue to contrast and counteract the gloomy, grey days in Vancouver.

The lamp has a QR code on it that, when scanned, directs users to an app where they can virtually take care of and water the flower. It provides feedback to the user in the form of a little animation. It draws inspiration from the current trend of cozy games.

The Ideation

We were motivated by our classmates from the last project’s critique, wherein all of the people who had lived in Vancouver for an extended period of time had to deal with dreary, gray days and were searching for meager solaces along the way. It was our intention to provide them that sense of comfort through light. After deciding which talents each of us would employ independently, we began to brainstorm. In addition to using the wealth of resources on campus, I wanted to explore 3D printing so that I could practice my 3D modeling techniques. We made the decision to power the LED that would be installed in the lamp using Arduino.

This required frequent trips to the Digital Fabrication Lab as well as the Wearables + Interactive Products Lab on campus whose technicians helped us build on our ideas with respect to theory as well execution.

The Digital Model

I started by using Blender to construct the 3D model, but I found that the meshes and lines were too difficult to deal with to get it to print properly. Instead, I used Shapr 3D, which much improved the model’s refinement. I wanted to create a low poly version of the flower that looked very different from reality to avoid it being mistaken for a real flower, which is not what it is intended for because I believe it is unnecessary to water a plastic flower when a real flower can do the same.

Thus Shapr 3D was used to create the low poly effect. Because the flower has an 8 cm diameter, I had to make sure there was enough space inside the hollow aperture for the crocodile clips and LED. With a diameter of 3 cm, the flower stalk provided ample space for two crocodile clips to fit.

The Physical Model

Transparent PLA plastic was the material utilised for the 3D printing, and it had to be exported in the respective manner. This made it easier for the LED glow to show through the flower and maintain its lamp-like appearance and function.

Regarding the circuit, we experimented with a few techniques and finally landed on using two pieces of copper tape attached to pieces of foam to complete the circuit connected to the Arduino and LED. In this manner, the foam at the bottom of the pot floats up to connect to the second piece of foam hanging halfway through the pot, completing the circuit, when water is added.

In order for the printing bed to begin at the bottom of the model and move up to the top, it was moved closer to the nozzle. The video shows the nozzle moving to create a base layer for the flower.

The support structure surrounding the flower was designed to prevent the heated plastic of the petals from melting into the printing bed and to give the petals appropriate stability during printing. Because it is so thin, removing the support structure from the primary model won’t harm it. The model was tested to determine whether it functioned with the entire circuit after the support structures were removed.

The Application

The purpose of the application was for the user to be able to water the flower digitally as a comfortable and cozy game; the animation displayed was the reaction or feedback to the user that it gave after being watered.

The Learning

While working on this project, I learned how to use 3D printing and a new piece of software called Shapr 3D to make the model, among other new abilities. I also gained knowledge of the intricacies and software used in 3D printing. Bobby at the WIP lab inspired me with their creativity and experimenting in coming up with numerous approaches to design the circuit. It was also a pleasure working with Maria because of her unwavering support in everything. The next time, I would focus on refining and perfecting the 3D model’s finer features and the animation’s and the app’s visual language to better match the model.

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Projects

Gift

It is always fun working on a project that is fun and playful in class. This project in particular had an outcome of generosity, meaning and bonding amongst ourselves.

The Object

The class started off by random pairings of people to work with each other. The design brief was for us to understand and get to know each other, likes and dislikes, interests, hobbies, practice, experiences and cultures by frequently interacting and making a gift by analysing our learnings. The partner I was assigned to work with was Asad. We started off by showing each other an object (physical or digital) that spoke about our practice in some form or another. After which we had to create responses to each other’s objects with play-doh! I showed a plant to Asad signifying that I have moved to a different continent and hope to learn more about people and grow as a person and a designer by learning about different cultures as well as exploring the paths that lay ahead of me. Just as a plant grows with the help of adequate sunshine and water, my journey would shine and blossom into a beautiful plant with the support and guidance from my professors, peers and the environment around me.

Asad’s picture of geodesic dice spoke about his interests in game design while also being a metaphor for unpredictability and risks as he’s embarking on a new journey and is looking forward to exploring new interests and aspects of life. Diving into the unknown is exciting and fun while also being scary and intimidating at the same time and the dice represents the same.The response I had with play-doh was to create a deck of cards with a leaf on top.

The Response

My thought process while creating this response was that it goes with a lot of games that include dice and that it is another way of looking at unpredictability and taking risks in life, not bring afraid to make mistakes and learning from them by observing patterns which allows the player to create a better strategy for the next time that they play the game. The leaf represents the big move to Canada and the other cards are hidden as the hand he’s going to be dealt with next underneath the first card, is unknown.

Asad and my interactions were virtual as we were in different countries and time zones. We got to talking using Zoom meetings and I discovered that he was interested in topics like game design, movies, anime, Kpop and Formula one among other things.

We were given a week to choose what we could create as a gift to each other and I decided to make a deck of cards to recognise his game design practice and customise it to one of his interests. I decided to use Kpop as the customisation for the deck of cards which would be unique to him which I saw as an exciting opportunity as Kpop fans have a way of connecting with other Kpop fans and their favourite groups with…well, cards!

The Design

I envisioned making the entire 54 card set along with the packaging for the same. I started off by designing the Kpop card deck on Figma using the standard card measurements as the frame of reference for my cards.

Measurements and uniformity with guidelines.

I designed the cards using albums of two of Asad’s favourite groups which were Blackpink and G(idle) themes as each of two quarters of the deck, respectively. For the other two quarters of the deck, I decided to go with Shinee and BTS themes, respectively.

I designed the back of the cards by using a collage of images of different photoshoots and covers of Kpop stars. It is colourful as Kpop music contains a diverse range of genres. I wanted to represent what a typical Kpop music video would look like as they often times are colourful, visually pleasing, high production value and bright.

Back of the cards
The packaging for the cards

The cards are designed such that the ace starts off with cover of the first ever album that the group released and chronologically increases with the higher cards with the King card containing the cover of the latest album released by the group.

The Process

I aligned the cards such that they would print front and back with the covers respectively. I approached the Digital Media Lab’s Print Room and with the technicians’ help, I was able to print the cards out with the required thickness and texture of a typical deck of cards.

I cut the sheets using the communication lab’s cutters and cut some by hand, myself, as well (and made a huge mess of my studio during the process.)

However, I cut them all and completed making the box for the packaging using the template I made.

The Final Product

Joker Cards using Big Bang and Girl’s generation lightsticks.
Front of the entire deck of cards.
Back of the entire deck of cards.
Packaging design images.
Asad’s Response.

The Learning

I really enjoyed working on this project as it involved getting to know one of my classmates and sharing the excitement of a common interest that we could have fun with. I realised the value of designing a physical product as a gift from start to finish which involved challenging myself and managing time such that I was able to finish mini tasks on the timeline that I intended to. I also learned how much texture and feel of the type of paper matters while printing something classic like a deck of cards. Something I would be more mindful and consider next time is the alignment of the back image and front image of the cards. Theoretically, it made sense in my mind the way I had arranged the layout but when it came to actually printing the cards, something I hadn’t realised was that the back cards would be printed in such a way that it would be the mirror print of the original layout. In order to make it more immersive, I would also add QR codes to each of the cards so that, on scanning it, they are led to that card’s Spotify album. Overall, I had fun with this project and designed something colourful and playful which I truly hope Asad enjoys playing with as much as I enjoyed designing it.