DRINK SMART,
STAY SAFE.
Original photo by John Rogers Laboratory
Opportunity
1,519 deaths
696,000 assaults
97,000 sexual assaults & date rape reports
These were all incidents related to alcohol misuse.
College students feel more actively responsible and accountable for taking care of the friends than themselves when going out drinking together.
How might we leverage John Rogers' biosensor wearable tech to empower young adults in making informed decisions with alcohol?
A Discreet and Informed
Intoxication Wearable Monitor
Young adults exploring their tolerance with alcohol most often learn by trial and error. The errors however, can lead to life-threatening situations.
Intox is a concept solution for the smallest, most discrete and most informed alcohol consumption monitor in the form of a wearable sticker that tackles this problem head-on by providing real-time, actionable data and predictive analytics that can be used to better inform decisions while drinking.
NUvention Networked Bodies, Northwestern University, Spring 2019
Using technology from John Roger’s Lab at Northwestern University, I helped conceptualize and design Intox to measure alcohol content through sweat by correlating to BAC, taking into consideration a drinker's physique and blood sugar levels.
Intox provides understanding of intoxication through a qualitative scale ranging from sober through danger levels. With each level and understanding of the user's specific blood content, Intox is able to provide recommendations to mitigate intoxication such as staying hydrated and maintaining blood sugar levels.
BLOOD ALCOHOL CONTENT DETECTION
REAL-TIME SWEAT ANALYSIS
NETWORKED RESPONSIBILITY
LAYERED ALERT SYSTEM
Encourage young adults to wear devices and responsibly act to information by Intox.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE
Protect the data of young adult drinkers who don't want their drinking habits riskily shared.
PRIVACY
Prevent users from abusive competition in using Intox to gamify alcohol consumption.
PRODUCT MISUSE
CHALLENGES
SOLUTION
MINIMAL
INTERACTION
Intox is small and discreet when compared to competitive products (breathalyzers).
The app only alerts users when actions need to be taken, lowering barrier of behavior change.
DATA
OWNERSHIP
QUALITATIVE RESULTS
Users can choose who nearby
has access to their Intox data and friends will only have access during the session of use.
Intox data is encrypted and will never be shared with outside parties without consent.
Intox uses a qualitative scale instead of numerical points to allow for simple and relative identification of intoxication level.
Intox's unique scale discourages users from attempting competition by comparison.
DESIGN STRATEGY
Presented with challenges of guiding user behavior and adoption, I conducted and synthesized design research into actionable insights to understand true user needs, identify and dissect potential risks, and find simple solutions that addressed the opportunity.
BUSINESS INNOVATION
Utilizing the business model canvas and taking into account competitive research, I worked with my team to translate our human-centered design insights into creating a viable business case to frame the value of our product in the market.
USER EXPERIENCE
With the goal of minimal simplicity in mind, I designed a user interface that would engage young adult users through visualized information regarding their biometric levels. Given the high risk use case of the product, I designed for protection of safety and privacy.
MUlti-medium
prototyping
Keeping young adult users in mind, I explored leveraging feasible touch points with an integrated device and mobile app to engage users in new behaviors. I prototyped with different materials and use cases to find the best fit for an intuitive adoption by our target users.
HOW TO USE
The disposable Intox stickers are small enough to be discreetly applied to areas that generally produce more sweat and provide continuous samples to read BAC.
Neck
Back
Foot
Intox Recommendations
Users can check what their personal intoxication levels are at any point in time.
Based on their levels, Intox presents recommendations on simple actions to take to be safe such as staying hydrated.
KEY FEATURES
Friends can connect their apps with each other and select who has access to their data only for the night - just for the session they’re wearing their current Intox stickers.
Users can review their data from a drinking session and view their history of changes in their BAC through different points of the night. They are no longer able to see their friends' data at this point to maintain privacy.
COMPETITIve benchmarking
PROCESS
USER & MARKET RESEARCH
As a team we spoke with multiple alcohol consumers, particularly in the college-age range, to understand how young adults view and manage their drinking habits. We also conducted a competitive analysis of direct and indirect existing solutions.
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
With the research we gathered and translated into consumer insights, we explored various concepts of leveraging John Rogers' wearable biosensor tech to effectively inform alcohol consumers on safe drinking habits.
RAPID PROTOTYPING
Using a sample John Rogers' stick-on biosensor, we iterated on multiple variations of wearable intox sensors by exploring body placements and designed a supporting user experience for a mobile app interface through wireframes and interactive digital mockups.
PITCH PRESENTATION
We presented an entrepreneurial pitch by demonstrating a target use case and projecting a financial simulation of product development costs and anticipated consumer sales.
TEAM
ALYSSA BROWN
Design Research
NEHA KODI
User Experience & Strategy
CHRISTY ZHANG
Product Design
MICHAEL MARASCO
ROOZBEH GHAFFARI
JOHN ROGERS
Faculty Advisor
Faculty Advisor
Faculty Advisor
