Mood tracking for Self-Reflection

Insomnia is the regular occurrence of the inability to sleep. 33% to 50% of the adult population experience insomnia. Insomnia symptoms include: sleepiness during the day, increased stress levels and emotional instability, reduced creativity and memory, concentration problems and fatigue. All these symptoms lead to a set of moods caused by insomnia. These moods, in turn, contribute to rumination during the night which can lead to insomnia. In this way, an uninterrupted cycle is started. Where insomnia leads to moods during the day and moods lead to insomnia during the night.

Suru is a mood tracking device that lets the user release the energy of their mood by creating cracks in the Suru stone. The cracks of the stone will slowly start to heal after an interaction. If the mood is still not gone the user can reinforce the cracks. The more severe the mood is the user can release this mood by creating more cracks. More cracks means also a longer healing time.

Insomnia; Interaction metaphors; Kintsugi; Tangible Interaction; Data collection; Mood Tracking.

Sleep disorders , 2016

A bottle of water to be managed with one hand

While sitting on a café terrace place, a mother with a baby on her arms struggles to open and drink from a bottle of water. On the other hand, the same mother was easily managing the baby bottle with milk while feeding her son. Several of our everyday objects aren't designed to be manage with one hand only. With this in mind,  and throughout some research was noticed that must of current designs of water bottles required the users to either use both hands or their teeth when pulling out the cap of the bottle. Therefore, this water bottle was design with a specific mechanism that allows for ease of use. In this way, people who are either single hand or sometimes have one of their hands occupied, will struggle less with the simple task of drinking water from a bottle.

Drink water; Design for inclusion; Ease-of-use; Ergonomics.

Graduation project, 2014

Drive, collect, create, repeat.

This project consisted in creating an educational toy that engaged children (3-6 age) learning while  having fun. The concept was inspired through the world wide renowned sneak game in old mobile phones. Here, the concept is similar, children take the car and go around collecting cards that can build a sequence of numbers, a word or even an illustration (like building puzzles).

Toy; Wood; Carpentry; Children; Car; Puzzle; Ergonomics; Form follows Function.

Toy design, 2011

Adding flavour to one's lives who struggle with cooking

This project challenged students to look to the best that their home-towns offered on industry-focus and create a product for that industry that could be sold on a global level.

Being from Barcelos, capital of arts and crafts of ceramics in Portugal, I personally decided to built a product made with this material. Furthermore, it also provided me with all the knowledge on how this industry works.

Regarding the problem, a look to spices containers was taken. It was observed that current designs did not help visual impaired people when they where using them since they did not provided feedback other than visual. Furthermore, students, who live by themselves for the first time when going to university, face with challenges such as cooking. 33% of students report having struggles cooking, pointing to problems such as temper the food. Its either to salty or to bland. Therefore, the challenge was to design a spices container that could help both target groups while making use of local industries

Design for All; Ceramics; Spices; Cooking; Students; Visual Impaired; Design for Inclusion.

From local to Global, 2012