GE Aura is a service design scenario that facilitates the expression of a child's implicit emotions to the parents including multichannel experiences for the future of healthy living within the context of the 2020 home with GE's Appliance products. GE Aura was awarded first prize scholarship after the evaluation of GE Appliances design team.
My responsibilities: Secondary & Primary Research, Analysis & Strategy, Persona Creation, User Journey Mapping, User flows and wireframes, Prototypes
Duration: 2017 [3 months ~ group project with Gissou Doroudian]

RESEARCH
In the context of the future home with GE's Appliances products, the focus of this sponsored project requested us to analyze and study what health and wellbeing means for North American users and how to achieve a healthier lifestyle in their daily living. During our research, we combined secondary and primary research methods including a specific survey to have a deep understanding about health and wellbeing of Americans.
Only 13% of Health Care Professionals predict that US health would be very good or excellent in ten years, and half of HCPs said they have patients who think they know a lot about healthy living, but actually do not. Moreover, in the next decade three key forces will inform and influence people health care and wellbeing:
1. Access to healthcare will change from provider-centered to person-centered.
2. A better integrative system of health care will include the external factors that will be well beyond the walls of the clinic or hospital, such us housing, family support, food, wealth and education.
3. A shift in technology, from assistive to empowering devices, will rely heavily on the people/patient’s willingness to take a proactive role in managing their health (2016 First Future Health Index Research in US).
WELLBEING OF AMERICANS

SURVEY
During the primary research "health and wellbeing" survey is conducted to 104 people in America through Survey Monkey. The main purpose of this survey is to understand some of the demographics of the GE users as well as their perception and expectation about "health" and "wellbeing".



TARGET GROUP
Value Proposition of GE is described as reliable partner that supports family life. GE has three segmented target group for this concept which includes organized, traditional and practical users. According to GE's feedback, consumer insights and demographics from research, we have specified our target group to "American young generation families with kids".


INTERVIEWS

RESEARCH FINDINGS

PERSONA
Based on surveys and interviews we have created our personas to help the design process and user stories.


A DAY IN THE LIFE
The Johnsons family has GE appliances in their kitchen. Motion sensors detect when each member of the family enters the kitchen area. When they are all around the kitchen, Aura is created with welcoming sounds and calm lighting to prompt the Johnsons to have quality time together. Ben grabs his mood kit and runs towards to GE surface on the dishwasher to create his mood of the day. Jack and Anne did not notice him while they were talking about their next week's plan.

MOOD EXPRESSION
When he gets closer to dish washer, the smart surface turns on and welcomes him. His smart magnets are designed to create a whole story with different emojis including emotions, personas, locations, and desires. Ben starts to create his mood board. He had fought with his friend in kindergarten and he had a bad mood all day. He needs a big hug from his parents but they have not even realized the situation yet.

USER JOURNEY
When Ben is done with his mood board Jack and Anne are notified by sound and they realized that Ben created something on the smart surface. Anne wants to ask why he put a sad emoji on his mood board. Ben told them about what happened today at kindergarten. Jack offers to play his favorite card game together. Ben feels relieved and happy when they spend time altogether. Jack and Anne track Ben's mood and compare with his previous charts. They also track their family's internet disconnection data & try to create more quality time together. The Johnsons family became the 'GE Family of the Year' according to the duration of their internet disconnection. They won a vacation where Ben desired most to see.

MOBILE APPLICATION

EXPRESSION KIT with SMART MAGNETS



INTELLIGENT SURFACE

USER FEEDBACK

TOUCHPOINTS

PARTNERS

BENEFITS

NEXT STEPS
During the user feedback process we didnot have a chance to directly communicate with kids. Next step could be to 3D prototype expression kit and demonstrate the sensorial experience in families real environment.
