Problem Area
COVID-19 has forced practices typically conducted in-person to transition online. One such practice has been university education, and a particular aspect of this practice affected is group work. Students must now meet online to conduct group work, and they're not taking breaks.
As a result, students feel more isolated and lonely because they're missing out on the social life that university usually provides. Therefore, this project aimed to design a solution that uses embodied interaction to improve the social connectedness of pairs in online group work.
The Breathing Lamp
The Breathing Lamp is a lamp design inspired by somaesthetics and uses the pairs' breathing to power the lamp and socially connect the users, despite them being apart.
Each user has one lamp, which is split in two to visualise each users' breathing. The side-by-side comparison allows the users to compare and synchronise their breathing. Testing used Wizard of Oz Prototyping, one lamp light pre-programmed and the other lamp's light controlled by an Arduino slider sensor.
The Breathing Lamp is successful because it allows the user to focus on something other than the work or task at hand. Controlling the light using breath is an example of somaesthetic appreciation design because the user must focus their attention on their body and breathing. The focus on breath is also relaxing and could calm the user and support their productivity.
The Breathing Lamp contributes to social connectedness because it is an activity that the pair must do together. Through breathing together, the users should feel connected and sense the presence of their partner. They can see their partner's breathing and know their partner is there and engaged with them. The Breathing Lamp has the potential to spark conversation. During testing, one participant said they would check in with their partner if they had noticed that their partner's breathing was strange.
Process
A review of relevant literature and related work helped understand the problem area and research field.
Observations and semi-structured interviews with two pairs of university students doing online group work formed the user research. Conducting these interviews and observations with physical prototypes was difficult due to COVID restrictions. However, to overcome this, the participants used multiple cameras on Zoom, and the prototypes were either dropped off ahead of testing or created using materials the participants had at home.
The project used a research-through-design approach with four iterations of design and development. Ideation was supported by a bodystorming session with a group of university students.
The first iteration investigated the concepts of an active yet social break (the pair followed a yoga tutorial, followed by a conversation) and a social break (a conversation).
The second iteration developed the active yet social break into Shadow Yoga (the pair followed a yoga tutorial in the dark with their shadows displayed and observed on Zoom). The other idea was a breathing lamp (the pair breathed in time with a breathing pattern visualised by a lamp's increasing and decreasing intensity).
The third iteration developed the breathing lamp into three different breathing lamps.
The Partner Breathing Lamp allowed each user to see the other user's breathing. Testing used Wizard of Oz prototyping - the lamp's light, power and schedule provided by an Arduino with a pre-programmed routine.
The Aggregated Breathing Lamp combined the users' breathing which controlled the lamp's light intensity. The users' shared a single lamp, but each user provided 50% of the light intensity. Testing used Wizard of Oz prototyping - 50% of the light pre-programmed, 50% of the light controlled by an Arduino slider sensor.
The Dual Breathing Lamps used two lamps. One lamp represented each user and their breathing. Testing used Wizard of Oz prototyping, one lamp light pre-programmed and the other lamp's light controlled by an Arduino slider sensor.
The final iteration merged The Partner Breathing Lamp with The Dual Breathing Lamps design to create The Breathing Lamp.
