Tag Archives: design

Temple of Self: A QS Masters Design Thesis

Posted on August 11, 2012 by Alexandra Carmichael

Aarti Vashisht has done some interesting QS-related work for her MFA at Art Center College Design.

She designed some prototype sensors that could be worn on our bodies in the future, and interviewed people to learn their thoughts on how these integrated sensors might impact their lives.

This is an image of the sensors she designed, to be worn across the shoulders and on the wrist, among other places. Take a look at her report here, called Temple of Self.

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Sarah Lewington and Michelle Hughes on Empathic Design

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Alexandra Carmichael

Sarah Lewington and Michelle Hughes study and teach fashion communication at Nottingham Trent University. In the 5-minute Ignite talk below, they talk about designing with empathy for a project they’re doing with Unilever, with more questions than answers, such as: what is the relative importance of data and functionality vs. emotional attachment to a device? What do you think? (Filmed at the QS Europe conference in Amsterdam.)

The impact of self-tracking on empathic design and market research by Sarah Lewington & Michelle Huges from Quantified Self Amsterdam on Vimeo.

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Randy Sargent on Tomatoes and Irritability

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Alexandra Carmichael

Randy Sargent has an hypothesis that eating certain foods, like tomatoes, makes him irritable and anxious. He asked himself, “How can I structure an experiment on myself so that I don’t know whether I’m eating tomatoes or not?” and “How would I go about quantifying my irritability?” In the video below, he explores ways to go about designing the experiment, with some fun input from the audience. (Filmed by the Pittsburgh QS Show&Tell meetup group.)

Randy Sargent – Discussing experimental design from Quantified Self Pittsburgh on Vimeo.

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Announcing: the Quantified Self Forum

Posted on July 18, 2011 by Alexandra Carmichael

By popular request, we have just launched a global QS forum at: http://forum.quantifiedself.com/

Gary, Dan Dascalescu, and I took some exciting topics from the conference and turned them into forum discussions, with expert moderators to help explore ideas and answer questions. You’ll find discussions on:

- Apps & Tools, moderated by Dan Dascalescu

- Data Ownership & Privacy, moderated by Ryan Calo

- Design, moderated by Steve Dean

- Habit Change, moderated by Ernesto Ramirez and Gary Isaac Wolf

- Fitness, moderated by Alexandra Carmichael and Dan Dascalescu

- Learning & Cognition, moderated by Nick Winter

- Medical tests, moderated by Dave Asprey

- Mood, moderated by Margie Morris

- Nutrition, moderated by Alexandra Carmichael and Dan Dascalescu

- Sleep, moderated by Alexandra Carmichael and Gary Isaac Wolf

- Self Experimentation, moderated by Seth Roberts

- QS Startups, moderated by Eri Gentry and Ernesto Ramirez

- QS Research & Media, moderated by Rajiv Mehta

- QS Open Forum for any Quantified Self topic not covered above, moderated by Alexandra Carmichael and Gary Isaac Wolf

Please join in the conversations, ask questions, share what you’ve learned, and come play with us!

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User Generated Health

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Alexandra Carmichael

This is a guest post from QS regular Chris Hogg. Thanks Chris!

–

Last week I had the great opportunity to see a series of demos of Lifelogging apps from students from Stanford’s CS247 Computer Human Interaction Design Studio.  I would really recommend checking out the demos here.  These are some great creative minds and future QSers (I hope).  It was pretty incredible to see what they were able to build in just 4-6 weeks.

Embedded below are slides from a guest lecture I gave to this class a few weeks ago entitled “User Generated Health”.  The theme of this talk was the value of user-generated data and its ability to reconnect us to our bodies and our health.  Those of you who have seen Gary Wolf’s TED talk will recognize that I completely ripped off his intro (flattery, right?), but i thought it was a really engaging way to ask the question of why we know more data about our cars than our bodies.  In the talk I also touch on a few companies who are proving that new data can be more valuable than a new drug, that Citizen Scientists have the power to disrupt the current clinical trial system and that the ultimate goal of personal data collection is self knowledge.

Stanford cs247 lecture 2 21-11 final v ss

View more presentations from Chris Hogg
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Stanford Students Design for Lifelogging

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Alexandra Carmichael

Next Monday, Stanford students will show off their designs around lifelogging and mobile sensing. Here is the announcement from Jeff Heer, Stanford professor and Quantified Self advisory board member:

We’re having an action-packed year in the Stanford HCI program — in addition to celebrating the program’s 20th anniversary, we’re presenting a number of exciting new research projects at CHI 2011 and HCI courses are hitting record enrollments. Check out http://hci.stanford.edu for the latest.

Continuing the tradition, on Monday 3/14, 15 student teams in CS247 HCI Design Studio will be presenting their design explorations around the theme of “Lifelogging: mobile and online sensing for public or private good”. Come experience a variety of applications seeking to enhance our everyday lives – and meet top graduating students passionate about interaction design.

We will begin with food and socializing at 6pm at the d.school; short student presentations will commence promptly at 6:30pm, followed by a demo & poster session.

For more information and directions, visit:
http://cs247.stanford.edu/2011/show

Hope to see you there!
Jeff & the CS247 Staff

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Matt Cottam on Designing QS Projects

Posted on December 19, 2010 by Alexandra Carmichael

From the Amsterdam QS Show&Tell group: Matt Cottam talks about many of the cool personal informatics and biosensing projects designed by his company, Tellart. Some prototype projects include creative ways to encourage people to take breaks at work, remote teddy bears to connect the elderly with their families, a breath alcohol sensor for the iPhone, and online gaming to combat childhood obesity. Matt has expertise in industrial, experience, and web design, with a detour in emergency medicine. Watch the video below to hear see a whirlwind tour of his inspiring projects over the past few years.

Matt Cottam – Designing QS projects from Quantified Self Amsterdam on Vimeo.

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Robert Rabinovitz on Mapping the Design Process of a Brain Seizure

Posted on November 18, 2010 by Alexandra Carmichael

From the New York QS Show&Tell group: Robert Rabinovitz, a design teacher at the Parsons New School of Design and a designer himself, mapped the 40-minute period on January 19, 2007 when he experienced his first brain seizure. He takes us through his gripping story, moment by moment, with images of what he saw that day. Robert is also writing a play, writing a research report and planning a film about his experience of survival. Watch the video below to see how the design process saved his life.

Robert Rabinovitz – Mapping the Design Process of a Brain Seizure from Steve Dean on Vimeo.

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How to Design for Behavior Change

Posted on July 17, 2010 by Alexandra Carmichael

How do I quit smoking, or start a running program? Drink tea instead of coffee, or eat more vegetables and less sugar? What about focusing on one task at a time instead of checking my RSS reader every 20 minutes?

If you are facing questions like this in your life or as part of your company, self-tracking can help bring awareness to patterns that you want to change. But what happens if awareness on its own is not enough to alter your behavior?

That’s where this guy comes in.

Continue reading →

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What’s your idea to BodyShock the Future?

Posted on July 2, 2010 by Alexandra Carmichael

I’m working on this project with Institute for the Future – calling on voices everywhere for ideas to improve the future of global health. It would be great to get some Quantified Self ideas entered!

IFTF BodyShock the Future entry idea:
Shock Your Body from Institute for
the Future on Vimeo.

INSTITUTE FOR THE FUTURE ANNOUNCES
BODYSHOCK:
CALL FOR ENTRIES ON IDEAS TO TRANSFORM LIFESTYLES AND THE
HUMAN BODY TO IMPROVE HEALTH IN THE NEXT DECADE

“What can YOU
envision to improve and reinvent health and well-being for the future?”
Anyone can enter, anyone can vote, anyone can change the future of
global health.

With obesity,
diabetes, and chronic disease rampaging populations around the world,
Institute for the Future (IFTF) is turning up the volume on global
well-being. Launching today, IFTF’s BodyShock is the first annual
competition with an urgent challenge to recruit crowdsourced designs and
solutions for better health–to remake the future by rebooting the
present.

See more info after the jump…

Continue reading →

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