Zēno
Zēno
UI/UX Product Design
"Relieving stress in the palm of your hand."
"Relief at the Palm of your hands."
Zēno, the smart fidget toy and app, gives users the ability to manage and relieve stress through fidgeting, to build better mental state through mindfulness exercises.
Team
Jay Lintag, Rachel Cheng, Zhen Li
Timeline
November–December 2017 (2 Months)
Role
Research, Ideation, Design, Visualization
Problem
Many young adults, like myself, are struggling between schooling and adulating. When stress accumulates, it could easily lead young people to negative feelings like anger, anxiety and disappointment. Pressure situations make people feel difficult to focus on tasks.
Solution
With Zēno, users can track their stress through fidgeting. Zēno app suggests relieving exercises based on current emotions and usage. Zēno helps users to better manage their stress and emotions, at the same time encourage to focus.
So we are asking ...
Is fidgeting proven to help relieve stress?
How do people interact with different fidgets/fidgeting modes?
Research
Exploring the realm of fidgeting objects such as stress balls, fidget spinners, and fidget cubes, we wanted to understand the correlation between fidgeting and stress relieving.
How might we...
provide user comfort in order to help them concentration and self-manage emotions through out fidgeting?
Ideation
PHYSICAL OBJECT
Portable — easy to carry for the pocket and provides comfort in hand.
Adjustable Sensitivity — Scenario dependent sound and pressure adjustments.
Versatility — playfulness interactions that not limited to the thumb.
MOBILE APP
Personalized Suggestions — emotions-focused exercise are suggested based on usage and duration from fidgeting.
Distraction Alarm — notifies the user when they have been fidgeting for too long and might become a distraction.
Sketches of physical objects done by team members; Physical prototype created by Jay Lintag; 3D Modeling created by Michelle Vu.
Visual Style
Overall, the colour scheme of Zēno has a calm light blue as theme colour and a strawberry pink for visual emphasis, accompany with a selection of friendly colours and icons to deliver cheerful feelings. Card style are categorized and colour coded by emotion preferences. "Heart it" feature keeps the user's avourite activities on the top.
Product Outcome
On Boarding
Going through highlighted features on app, on boarding flow helps first time users to explore Zēno quickly.
Emotions-based Suggestions
Drowning in feelings?
Zēno suggests stress-relief exercises by filtering users' current mood and favourite preferences.
Tracking and Action
Instantly track and display data of fidgeting (pressure, frequency and usage).
Visualizing collected-data to help understand the user’s stress level. Suggesting stress relief activities bases on the fidgeting results and the user's preference.
Reflection
I focused on the visual aspects of the app, in terms of colour and styles. I took charge of the Emotion Filtering feature. Rachel and I collaborated closely exploring functionality of the app, establishing the userflows and rough prototyping of the overall app.
Jay Lintag took over the overall branding direction, initial user research on shapes and texture, and physical prototype.
Rachel Cheng took the lead position with design thinking exercises and final prototype. She focused on Tracking and Suggesting features.
It’s been a great pleasure to work with two of my amazing peer designers. I learned an incredible amount during the making of Zēno. Without contributions of any team member, Zēno couldn’t become the product we see today.
Selected Works
I Can’t Sit Sadly by Your SideEditorial Design, Typography
Data KnowsMotion Editorial
“Racial Quotas are Weird”Motion Design
ZēnoDigital Poduct Design
YSDN ToolboxWeb System