Introduction
Synchro
Using Nanotech + affective computing to ensure safety and social responsibility in the party culture.
Design challenge
In what ways could design enhance people's experiences with personal data?
Research
Questionnaire + contextual inquiry
To start answering our design challenge, we needed to come up with the problem. Through questionnaires and interviews on campus, we found out that many people were interested in the health awareness. With that, we narrowed our scope to personal alcohol consumption. 
Research
Research methods
Photo diaries
Collected photos of people at a party
Fly on the wall
Observed party goers at a house party
Cognitive walkthrough
Inquired about alcohol tracking
These methods allowed us to observe and analyze how real college students deal with alcohol tracking at parties. Ultimately these findings lead us to formulating three “How might we’s” and design principles.
HMW...
Integrate
personal data to improve drinking habits?
Ensure
safety and social responsibility as part of the party culture?
Equip
intoxicated peers with the information necessary to help look out for each other and thus prevent consequential accidents?
Design principles
Indicative
For both the user and the surroundings
Personal
Provides personal understanding for users
Inclusive
Adaptable across diverse user groups
Always ready
Always ready to provide value
Ideation
Sketches to ideas
To start answering our design challenge, we needed to come up with the problem. Through questionnaires and interviews on campus, we found out that many people were interested in the health awareness. With that, we narrowed our scope to personal alcohol consumption. 
After narrowing down our topic to alcohol tracking for college students, it was time to ideate. Each team member came up with 15 -20 ideas to add up to over 60 potential solutions. We grouped our ideas into categories to funnel our ideas.
Ideation
Concept 1: Designate
Designate is a car service for those who are too intoxicated to drive but need their car the next day. The customer passes the wheel to the designate driver and shares their location to friends. The designate driver drops customer off at home and gets picked up by Designate’s pick up/drop off car to start new ride.
Ideation
Concept 2: Smart ring
Smart ring uses sensors to detect blood alcohol levels and moderates drinking habits according the the data it collects.
Why this idea?
In our research we found out that people want a method to track the number of drinks throughout an event. However, it was also important that the tracking method was discrete.
Ideation
Concept 3: Safe key
Safe key prevents you from driving when you reach high levels of toxicity.
Why this idea?
In our research we found out that people want a decide that was more seamless and automatic. Therefore, the safe key was purposely designed to be incorporated with one’s life.
Ideation
Participatory design workshop
To better understand the needs of college students during a party, we invited non-design background participants into our design process. We asked them to enact scenarios and create designs of their own. The main objectives with this progress were:
Seek potential problems with our main ideas
Find insights through our experts in our research
Find new ways of tackling the design challenge
The PIVOT!
The participatory workshop allowed us to recognize the flaws of our previous ideas. Therefore, we decided to go a new direction after new issues were brought to our attention.
Students don’t know how to identify when a person needs help
Identifying if someone is coherent is subjective and inconsistent
People can be doing more harm, even with the best intentions.
How might there be a way to accurately identify when an intoxicated person needs attention?
Pivot
Designing with gesture
We decided to change directions and focus on a new experience that allowed the communication of data to occur as seamlessly as possible. We revisited an older idea from ideation which was a wrist-bumping gesture. The gesture would be natural and discrete, blending in with other gestural interactions in the context of the environment.
Considerations
Integrated
A gesture is natural and discrete, blending in with other gestural interactions in the context of the environment.
Helpful
The gesture will trigger the syncing of drinking data.
Inclusive
Not everyone owns a smartwatch so we need to come up with alternatives.
Prototype
Prototyping with modular design
We knew we wanted an experience that encouraged group usage so we created a modular packaging design in the form of a hexagon, consisting six triangular modules within. Each nanotech adhesive would be individually wrapped in a module. Initially, our package design held the form of a large triangular prism. However, our form did not seem feasible in the context of the party environment as it could barely fit into a pant pocket. For the adhesive tab, we iterated different forms from squares to hexagons. We tested a myriad of materials including bandages, adhesive film, and flexible plastic sheets to find the perfect material for the nanotech device. To ensure water resistance, we opted for adhesive paper fused with a layer of film.
Prototype
Synchro App UI
Homepage
The homepage is minimal and features only necessary information such as number of drinks consumed and risk level. The range of emoticons allows the person using it to get the perfect amount of information at a quick glance. Our UI follows our principle of non intrusive design, providing the best experience for party goers.
Visuals
After sketching wireframes on paper, we concluded that emotive symbols would be easier to identify at a [drunken] glance of the phone. We deliberately created a large emotive icon that users would relate to and help gauge their level of intoxicity before they glanced at more complex data visualizations. Our interface aesthetic was largely driven by the natural conditions of the environment the design would be utilized in. The dimly lit environment inspired a dark color scheme that would be less glaring and obtrusive in the space.
Final thoughts
Learnings
Pivots are natural
It is important to embrace complexity and reiterate.
Be critical
Do not become attached to ideas too soon because it is necessary to improve after criticism and experience throughout the process. 
Design with the participant
Participants are experts in the problem and are helpful resources for the design process. 
Final thoughts
What I would do differently
Less time on preliminary research
Although preliminary research helped us narrow down on a single topic, it gave us less time at the end to focus on research needed for our problem. I would have done more extensive research on alcohol usage.
Learn to let go
At first we we were married to the idea of Designate which distracted us from its flaws. Next time I would be more cautious and critical.
Thank you for reading!