The goal of this project was to create a product that would help people overcome social anxiety.

Technical Requirements 

• The design of the product must help to reduce the cognitive load upon the user
• The product must make the user feel a sense of calmness
• The product should be able to give the user control of adjusting the vibration settings between 90-120bpm
• The icons used on the app should be designed to aid the overall usability
• The app must facilitate good visual acuity and contrast sensitivity to increase accessibility
• The product should be inviting and be comfortable for the user to use
• The product should allow for adequate means of reducing the immediate effect of an anxiety attack
• The product should be able to help the user in the long term for overcoming their social anxiety
• The product must be able to fit a wide range of users wrists
• The wearable device should have an easy way of activating and deactivating the vibrating motor

The product should be able to give the user control of adjusting the vibration settings between 90-120bpm

When the user is facing a panic attack or an increase in heart rate, it is important to have the vibrations coming off the device to be matching a resting heart rate in order to lower their own.

Using vibrations follow a similar theory of how the structure of music can affect different physiological measures (e.g. heart rate) and the level of arousal in a person. A study has found that “Tempo, accentuation, and rhythmic articulation were the features that most strongly correlated with physiological measures”. Implying a piece of music with a slower tempo would make an individual feel more calm and pleasant, which would in turn lead to a calmer heart rate.

Using the theory but as music would be distracting and sometimes be impractical in a social situation as it could cause more attention to be drawn to the user. Therefore, instead of applying a sensor and vibrating motor to the device to send a calm resting heartbeat type vibration through to the user. Every user is different a would have different resting heart rates, so by giving the user the option to customise the vibration setting to their own preference it can be more effective. As the recommended resting heart rate should lie between 60-100 bpm, the app will allow the user the choose the vibration setting between 60-110bpm to be more accommodating, as only once the heart rate has gone above 120 bpm does it become an increased heart rate.

The device will have a heart rate sensor to be able to monitor the users’ heart rate as long as the device is worn on the user. The sensor uses Bluetooth communication to give feedback to the app. The user can select a trigger bpm where once the heart rate monitors a heart rate above the set trigger bpm it can begin to activate the vibrating motor which will give off vibrations at the same rate of the resting bpm which also set by the user. The matching heart rate vibration will help lower the user’s anxiety levels and feel calmer.

The design of the product must help to reduce the cognitive load upon the user

In order to reduce the cognitive load on the user, it was important to understand the general mental processing limits of the user and use different techniques to attain a design that would allow for a minimised processing effort. There are multiple ways which contribute to the cognitive load on the user, such as; unnecessary actions, overstimulation, too many options, too much content, and ambiguous interface

In order to reduce the cognitive load on the user while using the “Wing-App”, I have implemented a minimalistic design interface. To avoid having to much content and overstimulating the user, I have eliminated any unnecessary tasks and elements as well as used chunking. I have used Miller’s theory of chunking information into 7(+/-2) digestible chunks. By limiting the number of options, the user can view at one given time.

Throughout the app, it follows the same intention of reducing the number of stimuli on any given page to agree with Hick’s Law. This allows the user to make quicker decisions without feeling overwhelmed by the number of choices. On the different screens of the app, all the different choices are clearly laid out and any unnecessary tasks were eliminated.

The wearable device should have an easy way of activating and deactivating the vibrating motor

It was important to consider that even though anxiety is one of the causes of an increase in heart rate, there could be other reasons the user is experiencing a faster bpm such as them doing exercise. Hence why as the wearable device can not differentiate whether the increase in heart rate is because of the anxiety attack or simply the user going on a run, there should be a quick way to avoid any misunderstanding between the user and device. Therefore when the device detects an increase in heart rate it will immediately give off two quick vibrations to warn the user that the heartbeat-like vibrations are about to begin. If the device is simply left alone after the 2 warning vibrations, after 10 seconds the device will go on to activate the heartbeat-like vibrations as that would be confirming to the device that the user is suffering from a panic attack or is getting anxious. But if the user is not suffering from an anxiety attack and has an increased heart rate for a nonalarming reason, then there is a button on the edge of the device pendant which acts as a kill switch. The user would have to press down and hold the button for 2 seconds to stop the vibrating motor from working, however also if the user has suffered a panic attack and is feeling better before the device automatically stops, then they can again hold the button down for 2 seconds to deactivate the vibrating motor.

Wing-App Portfolio Link

^The portfolio goes through my PDS and what development I’ve made to my product in order to meet the specification points. Due to the pandemic, there were difficulties reaching the full development potential of the product due to the limitations but some features were able to be developed as seen by clicking the link to the portfolio

Prototyping

Due to the constraints of working from home and going through a pandemic, I was unable to create physical prototyping for the wearable device. The device is an add on product and the app is the main result of this project.

However, to validate the feature of the wearable device, I have looked into the Fitbit as it is a similar product and can help outline the function of the designed wearable device I have done.

Much like the Fitbit, one of the most important functions of the designed wearable device is to be able to track the user’s heart rate, as this is needed to allow the automatic heartbeat-like vibrations to switch on in order to relieve the user of a panic attack.

The Fitbit is able to measure the heart rate of the user on their watch by using a technology called PurePulse. PurePulse was inspired by photoplethysmography where a tiny sensor was clipped to the finger to measure the heart rate, but it went through much refinement in order to track the heart rate on the wrist. Photoplethysmography is simply using light to measure blood flow.

When there is an increase in heart rate, the capillaries expand as the blood volume increase as well. Blood is able to absorb green light, hence if the blood volume is higher the more green light that is absorbed.

The Fitbit uses an optical heart rate sensor that can detect a range of 30-220bpm to then flash its green LED numerous times per second to the use of light-sensitive photodiodes to sense any volume changes in the capillaries located on your wrist. Once this is registered the Fitbit then calculates the beats per minute (bpm) of the user’s heart. In addition to this, the optical heart rate sensor used infrared light to determine whether or not the device is being worn on the wrist which also improves the accuracy of the data being fed back.

Another relation from the Fitbit to my device is that they both need to sync the information on the device to the app. Syncing is what allows for the data collected on the wearable device to be transferred and displayed on the app. The Fitbit devices use Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology to sync their devices to phones, tablets, and computers.

BLE has a much lower power consumption in comparison to normal Bluetooth. Due to the low power consumption of BLE, the allows any applications using it, to run on a small battery for up to four to five years. This can be advantageous to applications that only need to exchange small amounts of data periodically. Can be used for applications such as blood pressure monitors, industrial monitoring sensors. public transport apps and Fit-bit like devices including my wearable device. Utilizing a BLE as one of the components in my design will allow the device to transfer small amounts of data back to the app on lasting battery power at a more affordable cost.