UX Design
UI Design  
UX Test
2022
Deep Sleep -
speculative design

A speculative design, meaning it is intended to spark conversation and challenge the future rather than present a fully realized product. My goal with this project was to create a dystopian design that would discomfort users and serve as a conversation starter to explore the potential consequences of new technology.​

Some of the methods used: ​​InterviewsBrainstorm Brainwriting Secondary research Microsoft reaction cards UX-curves

My role

I did everything from research and workshops to prototyping and test

Timeline

6 days

Client

None, Exam

Team

Just me

Process overview

Sep 2022
1
2
3
4
5
6
🔍
Data Collection
discover
define
🗃️
Analyzing data
develop
📝
Workshop
📝
Test
📱
Wireframes
⭐️
Video & pitch
prototyping
For my exam, I also created a video just to take advantage of UX in sound and try. I presented all in a pitch presentation.
💪 If I redid this whole exam I would spend my time on one product instead of a prototype and video.

From the
prototype

The goal

To create a dystopian and speculative design that would discomfort users and serve as a conversation starter to explore the potential consequences of new technology.

The start

I wanted to discover the idea of using dreams for something and see what people thought, so I created a storyboard. I sent the storyboard digitally and then had the users answer via Microsoft reaction Cards. this is something I later came to regret, I'll talk more about that later. 

Workshop

I wanted some help with the ideation and decided to have a workshop regarding the theme "dreams". The methods we used during the workshop were: 

Brainstorm
Affinity Diagram
Brainwriting Circulating Sketch

The workshop was conducted by four people and generated a lot of new ideas and thoughts. The participants of the workshop also discussed what they find unpleasant about dreams so I had a lot to move forward with.

Define

At this stage, I had a lot of research and data from the workshop that I needed to extract insights from.

Insights: 

The thought of being able to control your dreams is thrilling 
People are generally positive towards manually changing their dreams, less so if anything is inserted into the body 
They're a bit worried about dreams and their real purpose, what happens if they're removed? 
Would be cool if it's like an everyday experience just like listening to audiobooks before bed
Want a mobile-first application

Story about Anders

I also needed to gather information from other people so I created a Story Board that I sent out digitally with information and a form with Microsoft Reaction Cards. I wanted to know if they're initially positive towards the idea of Deep Sleep. I sent this out to 5 new people.  

Anders works full-time at an office.
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He works intensely and he constantly tries to live up to his boss's expectations of him.
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Anders sleeps but gets no further recovery from his sleep. He feels that he will never truly recover.
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He starts a new, stressful work day.
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Anders is so exhausted that he can hardly stand anything at all. He just gets more and more tired.
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He works, eats, sleeps, and then the cycle starts again. When will he have time for other things in life and rest?
Anders discovers Deep sleep, which allows him to recover when he sleeps. They use technology that will enable you to decide for yourself what to dream about.
Anders dreams peaceful dreams and gets real rest. He finds it meditative to be out in nature and therefore dreams of hiking.
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Through his sleep and relaxing dreams, Anders has more energy at his workplace. He feels more at peace.
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Prototype

I started with low-fi wireframes creating frames inspired by ordinary health apps and streaming services. ​

Test

I explained this new technology and gave the user the phone to look around in the app. I had also given the test person a timeline to do some UX curves. As I said in the beginning. I wanted the user to feel good initially and then feel uneasy. I did this test on 2 people.​It was an overall good experience, I had to make it worse.​​​​​​

I added horrible categories to point at misuse with a technology like this. I hid the category a bit further down the page to not make it too obvious.

New test

I tested the new "worse" version with 4 new people. Resulting in 4 new UX-Curves.

Before the change
After the change

Results

This resulted in an app that pulls users in, but then, the longer they stay the more uneasy they feel. Overall I'm happy with my design, it serves its purpose and is considered hi-fi. If I could do this project again I would plan for more time for the design.

Learnings

This project was a particularly valuable experience for me, as it allowed me to work independently and explore new methods and techniques, it was really fun. 
One of the things I enjoyed was using UX curves to determine what matters most to users. This helped me focus my efforts and prioritize my prototype's most important features and functions. 

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