How might we design an experience that enables students to maintain physical distancing in shared spaces?
We used expressive lights to convey the message of physical distancing in shared student spaces. The design was non-authoritative, non-invasive, subtle, and made students aware of their physical distance from others.
MY ROLE
Researcher
Designer
Maker
TOOLS & METHODS
Surveys
Secondary Research
Product Design
Adobe XD
Rhino 3D
Arduino Nano
Video Editing
TEAM
Tashfeen Ahmed
Tamara Lottering
Chloe Lei
DURATION
3 months
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed people’s daily lives in various ways. Physical (or social) distancing is a preventative measure taken to control the spread of coronavirus. By understanding crowd psychology in study spaces and students’ perception of colours, we worked on a contemporary design that can help reduce the spread of coronavirus.
The expressive light lamp is designed for shared student spaces where it is likely that people will struggle to keep a safe physical distance from one another. Indoor spaces can be an ideal environment for viruses to spread, and this is only worsened when the room is a shared identity space.
Our aim was to design a physical distancing lamp that incorporates a balance of interior design in a study space and sensing technology. To achieve this, we looked at smart lamp designs and considered other products that could be re-designed into a lamp. We also conducted an informal survey to understand how students perceive colours.
The final design was non-authoritative, non-invasive, subtle, and made students aware of their physical distance from others. A limitation of the expressive lamp design is that people may habituate to the lamp over time, and fail to register its colour changes. Furthermore, people could choose to sit at tables where there are no lamps, therefore avoiding being tracked and possibly increasing the risk of spreading the virus.
This was a group project for one of the courses in the Design Informatics programme.