Air Bear

Description

Air Bear is a smart air quality monitor for children that notifies parents of harmful air quality, uses AI to nudge positive behavioural changes and prompts climate action. It was designed under the brief "Apply AI" for the 2023/24 RSA Design Awards.

Duration: Oct 2023 - Dec 2023

Role: Solo Designer

Air Bear sitting in the back seat of a car surrounded by smoke, with the Air Bear app floating beside it showing poor air quality.
Problem

Children are highly vulnerable to poor air quality related heath issues. Parents often overlook air quality's impact on children's health, risking future problems such as asthma, hay fever and cancer.

Proposal

Air Bear uses a network of bears collecting air particle data to create a comprehension of air quality around children in a localised area. The app prompts community engagements and participation through the use of community groups

The Air Bear App notifies parents of predicted harmful air scenarios, recommending tailored behavioural changes to protect their child.

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Research

From interviews with parents and guardians who have participated in climate activism to improve air quality issues in their area, I gained insight into the need for accessible predictive, current, and past air quality data to inform parent’s decisions around children’s exposure to air pollutants.

Through co-design and feedback sessions, the necessity to nudge parents and others to participate in a collective effort to improve air quality in any manner was apparent.

Concepting

During the concept phase, ideas were generated through ideation sessions with parents using ‘How Might We’ statements. Sticky-note brainstorming and Crazy Eights sessions were conducted in support of the idea generation.

Desk Research Interviews #
'How Might We' Brain-Storming
Co-Design Sessions #Feedback Sessions
SWOT Analysis Crazy-Eights #Lo-Fi
Hi-Fi Cultural Probes Body-Storming
User Flows #Usability Studies Presentations #

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Prototyping

3 physical teddy bear prototypes were created for testing to evaluate the functionality of the electronics (air quality sensors), and to establish how children would react and interact with the teddy bears as Air Bear’s intent was to fit into children’s daily routine seamlessly.

Three Air Bear teddy prototypes made using Arduino
Evaluation

Observations from cultural probes established that children had no issue with the teddy bears being part of their routines, validating the idea.

Parent’s expressed the opinion that it would not grab their child’s attention and would possibly not be played with. This was a non-issue as there would be less interference with the internal electronics and therefore less outlying air quality data.

The Air Bear app was observably usable, and parents had no issue understanding the navigation through the app.

Feedback on a visual redesign was received. Given testing was conducted with a first-iteration high-fidelity prototype, this was foreseeable.