Poster & Promotional Materials
- The concept
What is “HUG PILLOW”?
Hug Pillow is a specially design shape pillow light blue in colour with cotton texture. It aims to help female victims who suffered from physical sexual harassment in entertainment places. In order to comfort users psychologically, our pillow has to be hug by users and a heartbeat detector is connected by wind-up to his hand waist. Heartbeat would be categorised into three levels - low heartbeat, normal heartbeat, and high heartbeat. Then appropriate vibration pattern would be produced according to the heartbeat level to calm down users. Our “Hug Pillow” is specially designed into a “J” shape where it is based on the preference of our human body, the warm colour and its soft texture are used to aid the technological feature to produce a cozy experience for users.
- Problem Space
Sexual harassment is one of the most serious social phenomenon worldwide.
It covers incidence exposure to rape, unwanted sexual actions or comments, direct humiliation by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting and any places.
To deal with sexual harassment there are three stages, before which is to prevent; on the spot of sexual harassment which is to encounter and deal with the situation; lastly, after, it is how do we help victims to cope with the negative effect brought by experiencing sexual harassment.
Research have been focus a lot on the first two but helping victims to cope with their bad experience are often ignored while the psychological and physical impairment are hard to be resolved.
Reports and papers have revealed that most cases of sexual harassment are happening to young females in public places, particularly with a high rate in entertainment places. Interviews have suggested that heir feelings are usually being ignored as most of the people are expecting physical sexual harassment to happen in those places. More than half of the victims often tend to close upon themselves rather than turn to someone for help as they are afraid of social judgement. Hence there is a need to support victims unconditionally in fulfilling their physical and psychological need.
- Strength
Reasonable - The design decisions are all based on the previous researches and statistics, while the latter changes refer to the results of user testings.
Acceptable - The appearance of the pillow, including “J” shape, light blue color and soft cotton, has a high level acceptance from the testings.
Functional - The heartbeat detector and the vibrations are both technological usage that may attract users.
- Design Process
Prototype 1
Heart Beat Detection is our first step in diagnosing the heartbeat level of users. We aim to find out the relation between the heartbeat level and users real emotional states. Fortunately, we are able to conclude that in general, the higher the heartbeat level, the higher the severity of negative impact they think they were facing, thus, more impairment to them.
Prototype 2
According to the different heartbeat level, different vibration pattern are produced to comfort their emotions. We wanted to find out if their is a particular preference for victims in each heartbeat level. Interviews and testing results have suggested us that:
Low heartbeat prefers High frequency, long vibration length - Vibration pattern 3 Normal heartbeat prefers High frequency, short vibration length - Vibration pattern 4 High heartbeat prefers Low frequency, long vibration length - Vibration pattern 1
Pressure preference are consistent with victims across all three levels of heartbeat. All of them prefer the strongest pressure produced by vibration.
Prototype 3
In accompany with the technological feature, non technological feature are also being considered to produce more comfort. A few basic features were considered, and tests were conducted to find out the particular preference on colour, size, shape and texture.
Light Blue colour is warm and and gentle provides companionship; cotton is tender and soft, less likely to be tore and sweat absorbent; it come with a “J” shape to produce reliance and comfort while hugging.
- The Concept
What is Hug Pillow ?
Hug Pillow is a specially design shape pillow, light blue with cotton texture. It aims to help female victims who suffered from physical sexual harassment in entertainment places.
In order to comfort users psychologically, our pillow has to be hug by users and a heartbeat detector is connected by wind- up to his hand waist. Then appropriate vibration pattern would be produced according to the heartbeat level to calm down users.
Our “Hug Pillow” is specially designed into a “J” shape, based on the preference of human body. The warm colour and its soft texture are used to aid the technological feature to produce a cozy experience for users.
- Guide to Use
1/ Put on the Hug Pillow with curved edge on your neck. The pillow needs to be hugged so it produces dependency and reliament.
2/ Wind-up the heartbeat detector (the small chip outside of the Hug Pillow) to any wrist. Then checking it is already intertwining stoutly on your wrist.
3/ Stay calm and steady about one minute, until the heartbeat number is stable (±2 difference) as displayed on the screen
4/ Wait for several seconds, the vibration will be triggered and users can be felt at the back of their neck.
- Problem Space
Sexual harassment is one of the most serious social phenomenon worldwide. It covers unwanted sexual actions/comments, direct humiliation by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting and any places.To deal with sexual harassment there are three stages divided by times, before; on the spot; after; but the researches have been focus a lot on first two. Helping victims to cope with their bad experience is often ignored while the psychological and physical impairment
is hard to be resolved. Reports and papers have revealed that most cases of sexual harassment are happening to young females in public places, particularly with a high rate in entertainment places. Interviews had suggested that their feelings are usually being ignored as most people acquiesce physical sexual harassment happening in those places. More than half of the victims often tend to close upon themselves rather than turn to someone for help as they are afraid of social judgement. Hence there is a need to support victims unconditionally in fulfilling their physical and psychological need.
- Design Process
Prototype 1
Heart Beat Detection is our first step in diagnosing the heartbeat level of users. We aim to find out the relation between the heart- beat level and users real emotional states. Fortunately, we are able to conclude that in general, the higher the heartbeat level, the higher the severity of negative impact they think they were facing, thus, more impairment to them.
Prototype 2
According to different heartbeat levels, different vibration patterns are produced to comfort their emotions. A particular preferences for victims in each heartbeat level will be found out. Interviews and testing have suggested us that: low heartbeat prefers high frequency, long vibration length; normal heartbeat prefers high frequency, short vibration length; high heartbeat prefers low frequency, long vibration length. Also, the pressure preference is consistent within all levels of heartbeat, which is the strongest pressure of vibration.
Prototype 3
In accompany with technological features, non technological features are also considered to produce more comfort in this prototype. The tests were conducted to find out the particular preferences on colour, size, shape and texture. Light Blue colour is warm and and gentle provides companionship; cotton is tender and soft, less likely to be tore and sweat absorbent; a “J” shape to produce reliance and comfort while hugging.
- Strength and Limitations
Strength
Reasonable - The design decisions are all based on previous researches and statistics, while the latter changes refer to the results of user testings.
Acceptable - The appearance of the pillow, including “J” shape, light blue color and soft cotton, has a high level acceptance from the testings.
Functional - The heartbeat detector and the vibrations are both technological usage that may attract users.
Limitations
Bias - The size of sample is small that some bias is possible to exist. It is representative but not comprehensive.
Subjective - The heartbeat rate may not match the correct heartbeat levels due to the personalities.
Perception of Sexual Harassment - Each individual has unique ideas of the sexual harassment. For a specific case, some victims felt a bit impactful, while some victims felt it disaster.
