Project Beyond

The challenge

Care workers on a sleep shift sleep on site, but get called awake whenever someone needs help. On top of that, light and noise keep them up. How do you still help them get a better sleep rhythm?

My role

This was a group project. I took part in the user research with interviews, user journeys and context maps, and together we developed the Trustmask concept. My own focus was the Arduino prototype with sensors and micro-interactions.

The approach

We spoke with five (former) care workers. It turned out that a sleep shift on site often brings no rest at all, because of the noise around you and a room that never gets truly dark.

Using a morphological chart, we chose a sleep mask with built-in headphones and a wake-up function that vibrates and plays sound.

To really test those interactions, such as being woken up by an emergency call, I programmed a working Arduino setup with a distance sensor, an MP3 player, a vibration motor and an LED strip.

The result

The Trustmask: a comfortable fabric mask that blocks out light and dampens sound with noise cancelling. The shape evolved through iterations, from cardboard via EVA foam to textile.

For the care manager we designed a dashboard that shows the heart rate, battery life and calls of all active masks on a floor plan, without compromising the privacy of the staff.

What I learned

Building an Arduino into something soft that you wear forces you to look very critically at ergonomics. Technology should never come at the expense of sleep comfort.