Viewphoria
Enabling Long-term and palliative care patients to benefit from mindfulness in the comfort of their own home or hospice.
Team
Myself
Duration
6 Months
My Role
Design, Research, Development, User Testing
Tools
Figma, Unreal Engine, AFrame.js, Mural, Zoom
OVERVIEW
Let's get you up to speed
Forest bathing is the practice of immersing oneself in nature to reduce stress levels, boost mood, and improve overall health and well-being.
Viewphoria provides an immersive experience that stimulates all five senses, allowing long-term care and palliative care patients to experience mindfulness from the comfort of their room.
Problem
Mental health beyond medical care
Although patients' physical health may be well-attended to, the challenges they face in their daily lives can take a toll on their mental health.
Research
Studies have indicated that patients encounter various challenges and recognize the potential benefits virtual reality holds in healthcare.
Obstacles lead to reduced travel
Patients admitted they could no longer travel due to health complications, insurance or financial restrictions, companion concerns or mobility issues. (Fiocco et al.)
Patients encounter comparable challenges
Primary challenges for long-term and palliative care patients consist of pain, depression, difficulty coping, a loss of dignity, and lack of independence. (Woo et al.)
VR eases pain in trauma treatment
VR studies have shown to alleviate pain when used individually or alongside traditional methods in the treatment of traumatic experiences.
VR alleviates discomforts
VR therapy showed reductions in pain, fatigue, depression, anxiety, and improved well-being.
opportunity
What can we do about it?
When a patients mental health is not maintained, it can result in a decline in overall physical well-being, create additional health concerns, and increase recovery times.
HMW
How might we enable patients to feel in control of their mental health?
PERSONAS
Understanding who we're designing for
To better understand my users, I created three personas based on both qualitative and quantitative data from studies, including their potential health conditions and mobility issues.
User Journey
Build empathy before you build anything
Using research and personas, I mapped out the journey users take to go outside while considering mobility limitations. This helped me identify pain points and opportunities.
User flow
Goin with the flow
I simplified the process of navigating VR Menus by introducing a companion app, recognizing that digital interfaces can be challenging for some users.
I developed a three-step user flow for onboarding, pairing devices, and publishing settings to the appropriate devices.
Competitive Analysis
Comparing the competition
I looked into and tested similar existing apps primarily targeted towards meditation. I found that an overwhelming majority of currently existing wellness VR apps only offer experiences that involve sight and sound.
Design Principles
Designing with principle!
Biophilia Effect
Nature-rich environments decrease stress and improve focus and concentration.
How did it impact the project?
I focused on presenting nature rich environments because of their ability to promote concentration, comfort and trust, making users feel more connected to the product.
Immersion
A focused state that brings joy and satisfaction by disconnecting from reality.
How did it impact the project?
Immersion directly influenced my decision to bring additional senses into the experience as to minimize the ‘uncanny valley’ feeling of an out of body experience.
Mimicry
Copying familiar objects or environments to benefit from their inherent properties.
How did it impact the project?
By mimicking existing patterns, environments, or experiences it meant users could spend less time learning ‘how to walk’ and more time and focus on ‘running’
COMMUNICATING IDEAS
Building out the experience
I chose not to make paper versions of my design and instead made a prototype that people could interact with in a virtual reality environment. I also created models for physical parts that I couldn't test using Cinema4D.
user interview & TestING
Testing and validating
I tested my prototypes with four different participants, concluding each session with a semi-structured interview to verify assumptions I had made beforehand.
These quotes had the biggest impact on the project:
“I want to get more of my senses going, like if I could like, hear sounds or like feel the temperatures or something.”
How did it impact the project?
Since there was a strong desire to involve more of the senses I understood that they were very valuable to the experience so I designed additional components to accommodate this desire.
“It brings nostalgia of seeing familiar places in your life, and it actually does feel like your in an environment.”
How did it impact the project?
While everyone has unique memories, by using familiar environments it helped users connect with them. Basically, nostalgia is one helluva drug.
“I want to be able to just, you know, use it. I think it’s inconvenient for me to learn how to use it.”
How did it impact the project?
People value their time (and have short attention spans) for this reason I took consideration to minimize the setup time and maximize their experience time.
“I think to something that could be cool as adding like changing lighting effects like maybe not being able to move myself, but changing the environment, or like moving the environment, in a way, if possible.”
How did it impact the project?
Unfortunately, there is no one size fits all experience. However, if you give them the tools to build it becomes a more personal experience. Think IKEA, or Minecraft.
“I like that there’s no like seams, I can look around and it’s just like how it would look if I were actually there.”
How did it impact the project?
It doesn’t take much to disrupt the experience and the uncanny valley to set in. This meant considering what could be done to minimize the feeling of being in a dystopian “The matrix’ experience. (in a fake world hooked up to machines)
Solution
Enabling patients to escape the physical confines of their living space - from the safety of their living space.
Final product
Setting Up Your Experience
Users can make their selections, get a quick overview of their devices and view relevant information for each device all at once.
Final product
Free to explore
Look through hundreds of environments to find your happy place, wherever it may be.
reflection
Learning from doing
The best motivation to solve a problem is to find a personal connection to it. Your solutions will be more meaningful and you’ll have a deeper sense of empathy for those you are solving for. If you lack a personal connection your solutions can feel empty and lack any real substance.
This was the first time I had been responsible for all aspects and phases of a project. It was an extremely enlightening opportunity, and allowed me to wear many hats and view the project from various different perspectives - Not simply as a designer, but as a developer, engineer and researcher.
