An ecosystem that utilizes IoT to learn and adapt to provides individuals with the best sleep routine and enhances their daily mental well-being.
Sleep is the time for the brain to evaluate and remember thoughts and memories, but even getting enough sleep is slowly becoming a problem for many of us in this busy world. Therefore, we want to help individuals achieve an ideal sleep routine that should consist of a 30 to an hour relax time before sleep, a dark, quiet, and cool room during sleep, and finally, a gentle awakening at the end of a sleep cycle. With this in mind, we designed a product that learns from our users and utilizes the change of brightness, projection, and sound to create the best environment and assist our users in getting an ideal sleep.
To tackle the large percentage of people suffering from sleep problems. We aim to create a long-term solution for them to have a quality sleep routine to help create a good foundation for entering their later lives.
We designed Nebula to learn and use the information gathered from its user over time to adapt and provide the ideal sleep solution for our users to have a good night’s sleep. This innovation can help separate Nebula from the other sleeping assisting products, as the longer you use it, the better personalized the product will be. In the end, it can successfully help people to have a good sleep quality.
The app allows Nebula to interact with information from the user’s calendar and track the person’s sleep quality overnight through the phone. With the gathered data, the app will present the best bedtime and calculate the wake-up time at the end of a sleep cycle in the morning to reduce the intensity of morning fog and avoid a day feeling dreadful and tired.
Nebula’s core concept is to utilize the change of brightness, projection, sounds, and other paired devices to create a controlled environment that can better assist our users throughout their sleep routine. The placement of the visuals is also measured to create a more comfortable viewing experience but can always be modified based on the user’s preference.
While the app collects information and learns from the user, the product creates the best environmental experiences. The control of the environment will change to guide our user to enter different phases of the sleep routine, such as meditation before sleep, waking up in the morning, etc.
To solve a high-level design problem of mental hygiene, we start by finding moments in people’s lives that have a strong impact on mental health. We believe pinpointing users’ needs and pain points is the foundation of good design. As a result, we choose to sleep to be the top candidate and begin to explore the different solutions and effects on people’s lives.
We designed a scenario and presented the concept to a group of users by using models and wireframes to narrate. During the discussion, we ask about their first impression and their desire of the product. We receive positive impressions and desires with feedback such as “I think it will be very beneficial to add to my current life.”
To create an extraordinary experience, we began to explore the possibility of combining the advantage of software and hardware. We explore different methods of connecting the ecosystem and analyze the benefits and limitations of each variation.
We constantly present our product to our users throughout the development process, discuss the design choices, and ask for feedback. Over time, we explore various mounting and placement methods (ceiling to ground surface) and different form languages (cylinder to a sphere).
We believe that Nebula will be a life-changing product that can expand into a broader demographic in the near future. Over time, Nebula plans to expand its market with new features such as expanding the coverage from just one room to the whole house, becoming adaptable to a fast-changing environment for people who need to travel a lot, and expanding beyond just sleep.