The objective was to join light and sound technologies in order to offer a disconnected product which uses simple mechanisms to help palliate sleeping difficulties.
Recent studies have shown that white noise and red light can help people with their sleep. Our modern lives force us to be exposed to blue LED light emitted by the screens of our electronic devices, which can seriously interfere with our sleep cycles.
These negative effects can be avoided by exploring the therapeutic benefits of red light. Our research seeks to use the natural effect of light science coupled with white noise sounds found in nature to improve the quality of our sleep.
We thus propose a product which effortlessly uses natural processes to help the user relax into a healthier and deeper sleep cycle.
With this one objective, we've explored various propositions to propose two concepts for different audiences.
Our first design targets an audience ready to invest more in a high end product. As much as the thematic is strong and evident, it never comes at expense of the artifact's practicality and functionality. The experience was thus developed with the use context in mind, offering simple, intuitive, and coherent interactions along the way.
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Our story is:
Inhale deeply, and imagine yourself in the desert, effortlessly walking among the colossal dunes as you contemplate the sunset. Close your eyes and picture the burning sun slowly melting into the horizon, reflecting its bright warm colors onto the golden sand.
Before settling in to sleep, it's time to program Odyssé.
The user is invited to flip the product upside down to access the programming interface. Even in complete darkness, the user can easily locate and intuitively manipulate the ON/OFF button as-well as the volume knob. Odyssé offers a pleasing and reassuring tactile experience: by sensing the dune's elevations, the user can naturally find the interaction interfaces.
The goal is to create a comforting routine before going to sleep which involves the same repetitive simple manipulations. These were designed to be easily accessible in an obscure environment with reduce visibility.
Our second proposition, ILIAD, reminds us of the mesmerizing shapes observed when sunlight trickles through the clouds at dusk.
ILIAD invites the user to live in the present moment, closing one's eyes and taking in all the warm and bright colors. This metaphor is materialized by letting the red light pass through the superior dome housing made of translucent glass.
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The sound grid is meticulously concealed in the slit in between the bottom metal plate and the housing. The programming interfaces can be intuitively found underneath to guarantee a cohesive discreet look that can swiftly integrate into every household. On the side, ILIAD have easily recognizable buttons, one attributed to volume and the other to power. Similar to the other concept, the buttons are design to be usable while having limited visibility in dark environments where lights are out.
At our design studio Punctuate, we always focus on strategy and results.
We are persistently searching for new ways to improve the modern user's quality of life and wellbeing. Design enables us to intervene at the smallest and oftentimes most impactful level: the human scale.
An important phase in our process is learning about you: your client, your enterprise, your values, your market, and your needs and expectations.