This project was about building a physical object that supports specific people in a particular type of relationship toward a specific goal or need. Along with that, the project also aimed to develop an interface that supports the object. We also created unique user journeys aligning with the product and the interface.
We noticed that humans often fail to understand or confess genuine emotions with their closest relationships. Especially now, when most of our communication is online. Rooh is a product and an interface that allows loved ones to communicate their genuine emotions effortlessly.
Tinu Thomas,
Raunak Jangid
User Research,
Product Design,
User Interface Design
Adobe Photoshop,
Adobe Illustrator,
Adobe XD,
Cinema 4D
January, 2021 to May, 2021
Initially, we sent out a survey to users asking about their emotional needs. Multiple people from various backgrounds and age groups filled out this survey. As we analyzed the collected data, we found some interesting insights. We also did a 1:1 interview with our participants to understand their thoughts and the reasoning behind their answers even better.
"Most of the time, I cannot understand what my partner wants to say to me. Maybe he says something and means something else, which altogether comes across as a wrong thing."
- One of the participant
What we learned -
There is no way to understand the genuine emotions of not only our closest relationships but ourselves too! Especially now, when most of the communication is online.
The first part of the user research h asks users questions about how often they communicate with their loved ones, and how often they express their emotions. The second part of the user research was more about getting to know the user's needs and requirements. This section covered questions such as expressing emotions, and being aware of emotional well-being. This user research helped us to gain information about users and their needs.
James is a data engineer based in New York City and is the father of Emily. James is always there for his daughter and tries to have conversations daily. Since Emily has moved to Amsterdam for her studies, James has had difficulty having daily conversations.
Emily is the only daughter of James Miller, and she recently moved to Amsterdam for her studies. Emily considers her father to be her best friend, mentor, leader, and teacher. Moving to Amsterdam has affected her communication with her father. This communication gap has led to many misunderstandings between them.
After the user research, there were a lot of opportunities we saw that could work. These possibilities majorly focused on emotional well-being and maintaining healthy relationships through conversation. We grouped these opportunities and worked together on one product that could solve them all.
Through our insights, we learned that how communication is a vital part of any relationship. It inspired us to move in a direction that can help people have healthier relationships by communicating genuine emotions. But before we could move forward with designs, we looked at some inspiration and references. Along with competitors and existing similar products, we also built a mood board that could guide us in our design. These inspirations and references were very helpful for us to understand the market and the potential of our product.
Expereal
Expereal allows users to capture snapshots of their lives and tag the moment with an emotional rating, location, description, and photos. Users can then share these moments with others or use the analytics engine to visualize their emotions over the past weeks and months.
Empath
Empath is the world’s first emotional social network. Through a unique model of anonymous sharing, Empath allows people to be vulnerable and “put it all out there.” This innovative solution enables people to authentically share their full range of feelings in a safe environment.
We designed a product and an interface called Rooh(meaning soul). Rooh is a product that conveys human emotion by detecting and recording one's heartbeat. It uses the recorded heartbeat to create sand patterns on the Rooh that users can hold while feeling the heartbeat. Users can connect Rooh with their smartwatch and smartphone, through which they can record or send heart-sense to their loved ones. Rooh encourages and supports people to share their true feelings with their loved ones.
Allow loved ones to communicate their genuine emotions with each other.
To better understand the product's full functionality, we built a storyboard. Leia and Luke are siblings who live far away from each other. This story is about them and how Rooh is helpful for their relationship.
It's Leia's 8th birthday, and she's waiting for her big brother Luke who is coming to visit her.
She hears the doorbell, and she runs to open the door. It is her brother, Luke, with a birthday present for her!
Leia opens the present and sees a bowl-like device with sand covered by a thin layer of glass. She's never seen something like this before. As soon as she turns it on, Leia sees beautiful sand patterns start to create on the surface of the bowl.
While Leia is playing with the drawing feature on Rooh, Luke clicks a button on his watch. Leia realizes that Rooh starts to vibrate, and the vibration is none other than her brother's heartbeat.
Leia also notices the light around Rooh changing color, and she got to know that each color represented a different emotion of her brother. So when Luke is sad, the Rooh displays a red light, and when Luke is happy, the Rooh displays a blue light.
Luke informs his sister that if she connects her smartwatch and smartphone with Rooh, she would also be able to share her emotions with him.
It's time for Luke to go back home. Luke assures Leia that he will always be there with her and send her his heart-sense every day through Rooh.
Since then, Leia wakes up every morning anticipating a heart-sense from her brother. Through Rooh, Leia's bond with her brother is stronger than ever, and she's excited to meet him again for Christmas.
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Rooh will enable users to engage in activities with their closest relationships and build a stronger bond. Such is the function of Sending sand patterns. Primarily Rooh will create the sand patterns through heart-sense, but users can also generate them manually.
While sending sand patterns manually, users will have the option to draw the right half. Once the user completes their half, Rooh will send the sand pattern to their closest relationship and inform them to complete the left half. This function is unique, as no sand patterns will be the same as the last time!
Users will be able to send their heart-sense to their loved ones through Rooh. To feel the heartbeat of a person, users will have to lift the Rooh in their hand, and they could feel the vibration in sync with the heartbeat. Rooh will also create a sand pattern on the product as per the heartbeat.
When users receive a heart-sense from their loved ones, the Rooh will light up and notify the users about it. Users can either play the heart-sense right away or save for later. If users tap and hold the notification, they will feel the heartbeat of their loved ones, and the sand pattern will start creating on the Rooh.
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When users connect their Rooh with their smartwatch and smartphone, they will be able to send heart-sense to their closest relationship. Heart-sense is nothing but the heartbeat of an individual. Sand patterns and color on Rooh also support the heart sense.
While sending a heart-sense through a smartwatch, users will need to inform about their emotions, and the application will analyze the heartbeat and send it to the preferred individual. If given permission, the application will automatically track users' heartbeats throughout the day and keep a record to check the progress.
Rooh is helpful for individual purposes too. For individuals, Rooh can track emotions, aim towards well-being, and be creative with sand patterns. Rooh will be a support system for all those individuals who are seeking to do better emotionally.
By using a smartwatch, users will be able to log their emotions from time to time. If given permission, the application will automatically log emotions, but the users also have the option to do it manually. Through the applications, users will set goals, look at their progress, and log their emotions.
This project was great learning and an opportunity to experiment with my creative boundaries. The challenges faced throughout the project were new to me, and through them, I discovered many new things. I learned new ways to do user research and educated myself about user experience's emotional side. Along with an interface, I was also able to develop a physical product.
For the following steps, I would like to push the functionality of this product even further. If possible, I would like to get feedback from users. This feedback will help me to improve the product and interface. What if we have portable Rooh that you can carry around in your pockets. This project and taking the Emotional Design class at Pratt Institute have opened many new doors and opportunities for me.
Enhancing the user experience and user interface of the news website for Pratt Institute and making the website responsive across all devices.
Extending the functionality of Mural Map of Canada to mobile devices and suggesting recommendations to improve the website's user-friendliness.