Copy of BOBY | chwang

BOBY

Raising the likelihood of getting conception for couples with infertility complications.

CLIENT | COLLABORATOR

Microsoft

BRIEF

Microsoft

DURATION

2015

COLLABORATION

Group of 4

WHAT MAKE THIS PROJECT UNIQUE

This project Received 4 awards, reported by 6 media, and landed a spot in the 2015 Microsoft Imagine Cup World Citizenship worldwide finals and exhibited in Tokyo design fairs.

ROLES | RESPONSIBILITIES

UX Researcher | Product Designer

Origine

In 2015, the birth rate of my homeland, Taiwan, is the third-last in the world. In fact, getting pregnancy is a significant problem around us. One of my teammate’s sister finally gave birth to a baby after 10 years of trying. For her, It was a tough journey. For us, it was the motivation of this one year project in order to shorten couples’ desperate waiting and bring them the happiness.

My Role

This project took place between July 2014 and August 2015. Moreover it landed a spot in the 2015 Microsoft Imagine Cup World Citizenship worldwide finals and exhibited in Tokyo design fairs. I was the team leader of this senior product design projects alongside with two advisers Dr. Yu-Hsiu Hung and Dr. Tien-Hao Cheng.

Conducted User study works, including medical research, Interview couples, and professionals
Presented in the Demo section of 2015 Imagine Cup World Citizenship finals in Microsoft , Seattle.
Co-Developed Mobile and product solution, Dealing with the gap between technology & design
Produced the functional demonstration video of product 'Boby', including animation making, filming, and post-producing.

Challegne

Project Overview

1.Average marriage age of women > 34 yrs old.

3.Over 80 million people spare no effort to have babies over years but end up getting nothing.

2.The whole world’s fertility rate is declining by years

4.many countries having birth rates under 2.0 (Less than 2 newborns / 1000 women per year)

Goals

Life is priceless. People eager to have babies would strive for it no matter how much it costs.

Our goal is to increase the odds of conceiving, make it possible to monitor pregnancy status, and improve the chance of getting pregnant. Having a new baby means a lot to desperate couples!

Research

1. Menstrual cycle

With the knowledge that body temperature rises by 0.5 degree after ovulation, females tend to obtain their daily temperatures every single day to keep track on it.

In addition, the body temperature has to be measured at the moment one just wakes up and hasn’t done anything yet to ensure it’s not influenced.

The only existing ways to record the temperatures are not convenient enough.(ex. keeping the record on paper, in a smartphone via a Bluetooth thermometer, or an NFC thermometer, etc.)

2. Current solutions

The data typed in the app by user themselves are not precise enough.

Lots of apps have various functions like sharing pictures, instructions, community, and alarm clocks

3. Interviewing & Medical Research

I conducted qualitative interviews with 6 couples who aged 30-40, and had tried over half an year but still haven’t got pregnant.

I interviewed doctors from different department such as gynecology, obstetrics birth clinic and traditional Chinese medicine.

Besides interviews, I also studied more than 10 thesis to understand the basic knowledge and find technologies and methods that can reference when designing the product.

4. Breakdowns

One may forget to measure the body temperature when waking up.
It’s inconvenient to clean the thermometer after measuring.
Documenting the temperature everyday by hand is unreliable.
Users usually fall asleep while measuring.

Process

Design and Modification

1. Design Guideline

I. Males should be involved

Based on the essay, a couple keeping track of body temperatures together helps correct the measurement error caused by environmental factor.Also, it makes males play more important role in the process than before.

II. Improve users’ sleeping quality

Nowadays, most people measure the temperature in the morning. In our design, we measure the lowest temperature during deep sleep instead.

III. Inform the couple of best conceiving timing

We expect to make the experience of tracking temperature better. And we want to simplify the App interface.

2. Brainstorming & prototype

We created a great amount of prototypes to decide the final form.

Aside from having precise size, its shape resembles a stork. One of the two stickers represents the beak and the other the tail. Moreover, the base template symbolizes the body of a stork.

“We hope Boby brings you an adorable baby.”

3. Testing

Clinical try out

Boby was clinically tested by 6 couples through cooperating with the director of Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in NCKU hospital. During this one month test, we collected the data as a strong foundation to better Boby and build up our theory.

Jelly stickers testing

In order to make Boby perfectly attach to the user's’ armpits, we cooperated with 3M, who gave us different kinds of reusable jelly stickers to conduct experiment with.

“Boby is not simply a prototype, it's workable.”

3.2 Construction

The tangible part of Boby is constructed of a cap made of silicon and ABS, a chip combined with a battery and a thermistor, an ABS bottom which can be easily opened by rotating, and a reusable jelly sticker made by 3M.