Float

This project was a collaborative assignment between 4 students, where we got to explore an emotion and make an installation around it. After the exposition of our installations, we received the news that we now had to make a product that envoked this emotion within the users and with that motivated them into performing a certain action.

We chose to tackle relief, and tried to use relief to motivate users to complete their tasks, by taking away the overwhelm of starting them.

My main tasks besides doing my part in collective research, ideation and testing, were directing/editing the video and making the illustrations and animations for the final product.

1. Process of Emotional Installstion

For this project, we received the assignment to deep-dive into an emotion with a group of four people, and we started out with an exploration dossier.

To figure out what emotion would be interesting to dive into, we chose to analyze an emotional situation.
Our emotional situation was "Finding a home in the Netherlands". The reason for this choice is that we all had to find a place to stay in The Netherlands, and each of us had to deal with the huge emotional rollercoaster that it was. It's an interesting situation to explore, as it includes strong and opposing emotions during its complex journey.

Using chronological sticky notes, each present group member mapped out their journey of relocating to The Hague, tracking the highs and lows, moments of uncertainty, frustration, and ultimately, the overwhelming sense of relief when finally finding suitable housing. Each step of the process was pinned with a distinct emotional response, highlighting the complex relation between the good, bad, or neutral emotions that were so persistent throughout the journey.

By analyzing our collective journey, we were able to pinpoint the moments of each person's experience and decided to explore the emotion that was collectively stood out the most - the sense of relief once it's all over and done with. While there are some areas that could improve the depth of understanding within all members of the group, such as providing more detailed descriptions of events within the first brainstorming phase; the exercise provided a clear and concise way to expand on shared experiences and decide on an emotion to pursue.

Relief is a positive emotion triggered by the absence of an expected threat (Deutch et al., 2015). It is felt either when an unpleasant episode is over, or upon realizing that an outcome could have been worse.

First emotional exploration: Touch box

Touch plays an important role in emotion perception. The associations between textures and emotions can partly be explained by the role of softness/roughness in pleasure. Concerning roughness, studies showed that soft and gentle touch sensations are associated with pleasantness, while roughness is correlated with unpleasantness. Indeed, our soft materials, such as fur, velvet, silk and leather, are associated with the positive emotion of happiness; rough materials such as sandpaper, an acupressure mat and a wire sponge are associated with negative emotions (fear, anger and disgust).
(Iosifyan, M., & Korolkova, O. (2019). Emotions associated with different textures during touch. Consciousness and cognition, 71, 79–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2019.03.012)

Since the emotion of relief is sparked by a transition from an unpleasant sensation to a pleasant one, we decided to replicate this shift through the sense of touch.

The touchbox has two holes where you can insert your hand; the first one contains rough elements (abrasive sponges), while the second contains a nice soft fabric.

The participant has to keep on touching the left objects for 10 seconds and only then can go to the right side.

Feedback and reflections after the testing with coursemates:

• The first hole really builds up an unpleasant feeling; it's nice to touch the soft fabric afterwards.

• We could've built different holes with different materials, in order to trigger some kind of emotional journey.

• The box has an explanatory label on top of it, which tends to bias the participant's perception. Removing it could encourage a more explorative approach.

• We can also work with building more negative expectations, and break them afterwards to evoke a relief sensation.

Second exploration: emotional artwork

The third exploration is based on artworks that represent chaos (picture 1) and relief or calmness (picture 2). In the artwork "The Scream" you can see colors, unexplainable patterns, and a face reacting with panic creating a chaotic view. In the second picture, blue and white colors are used to represent visual symphony and serenity. Various shades of blue represent spaciousness.

"Blue: 35% linked blue to feelings of relief" - https://www.verywellmind.com/color-psychology-2795824

The goal of this exploration is first to make users feel the anxiety or chaos in the first picture and then to enable them to feel a more relaxed and calm feeling, which is a representation of relief. The story behind this concept is to explain that "behind every serenity, there is some form of chaos".

Below you can find the Figma prototype for the experience:

Feedback and reflections after the studio:

• The Ambient music in combination with relaxing visuals created for a pleasant experience when compared to the nature of the orange art piece.
• An Increased sense of disorder causes more negative reactions.
• Visual imagery is important in crafting a narrative for the brain to use and gauge emotions from.

Execution:

We set A-testers up to walk in the room with their eyes open, fully being able to witness what was going on around them. In the meantime, while they were seated, we would play scary sounds, walk around them and knock on the walls beside them.

Feedback:

• Lights on created no visible or internal shift in testers qualities of suspense, fear, or uneasiness- lack of immersion.

• Testers were able to watch and anticipate what action, noise, or visual was about to occur.

• Limited sense of mystery

• Very low or nonexistent levels of discomfort.

• Ranking range from the participants: (0-2 out of ten)

• The open space setup might have contributed to a sense of predictability and reduced the potential for testers to feel enclosed or isolated, which could have heightened feelings of suspense or uneasiness.

• Overshadowed music due to lack of impact that was within testing environment

• Make it dark!

• Experiment with other types of music, maybe multiple at a time

• Considering the balance between providing a safe testing environment and creating an atmosphere conducive to causing emotions such as suspense and fear is essential for optimizing the effectiveness of the UX testing process. In compliance with our third exploration, "Visual Artwork", the emotions felt from viewing a relaxing piece of art versus one that is more chaotic and jarring were significantly different. In this sense when relating comfort to vision, being able to see is a biological solace mechanism that when removed or tampered with can create the same internal response as the example of imagery seen in the exploration.

Execution
We set B-testers up to walk in the room blindfolded, not able to witness what was going on around them. In the meantime, while they were seated, we would play scary sounds, walk around them and knock on the walls beside them.

Feedback

• The use of blindfolds resulted in a noticeable shift in testers' qualities of suspense, fear, and uneasiness, enhancing immersion in the experience.

• Physical stimuli like light blowing when blindfolds were on is unexpected, and causes a heightened reaction.
• Blindfolds instrumental in disorientating testers and building their other senses to be on edge for the loud noises, and music present within the testing environment
• Blindfolds must cover eye area fully so all light is blocked out

• Much higher levels of discomfort present

• Ranking range from the participants: (5-8 out of 10)

• Added suspense, nervousness, and mystery to have testers be interacted with

• Loud noises

• Eerie background sounds

• Confusing sounds

• The B test was a leap forward in setting the stage for an emotional response, all while ensuring the safety of the testing environment. By strategically adding in blindfolds thick enough to obscure vision, paired with subtle lighting adjustments and intentional music choices, testers were significantly more immersed in an emotionally charged experience. Moreover, implementing aspects of physical stimulation as relayed within the second exploration, "Touch Box", were critical in elevating the thrill of experience, and furthering the discomfort within the testers by not being able to anticipate what is about to happen, and what it might feel or sound like- creating for an experience with emotional highs and lows that more closely resembles our first exploration, "Emotional Journey", and how we felt finding a new home in the Netherlands.

Findings from Explorations

1. People also experienced relief when the expectations of how bad the experience was going to be weren't met. (second exploration)

2. The anticipation of something bad happening caused more negative emotions than the experience itself. (second exploration)

3. The feeling of relief was a biased feeling because of the instruction already mentioning the exact emotion. (second exploration)

4. The contrast from going from a bad experience to a delightful one causes relief. (second and third exploration)

5. People mentioning that it wasn't as bad as they thought reduced the intensity of the emotional experience for the following participants. (second exploration).

6. The feeling of relief is signified through emotional transition, often times experiences are accompanied with a sigh, laugh, or change of demeanor (second and third exploration)

7. Color blue mostly represents relaxation, calmness, peace, secureness - low-energy emotions. (MSEd, 2024) (third exploration)

8. Taking away sight intensified the anticipation of something bad happening, making the whole experience scarier. (second exploration and additional exploration)

Final insights from explorations

1. Use anticipation to strengthen an emotional experience. (from finding 1 and 2)

2. Let people go through the experience on their own without communicating to get the most authentic results out of the experience (from finding 3, 5 and 6)

3. Colors can affect human's physiological functions (finding 7)

4. Relief can't be felt without a contrasting feeling before (finding 1, 2, 3 and 6)

5. Removing one sense, can strengthen others (finding 8)

Emotional installation

Ideas that we generated from our findings and insights, plus what we ended up doing:

• Blindfold

• We ended up using blindfolds

• Panic

• We tried to at least make people somewhat stressed.

• Adrenaline

• We did end up creating some sort of highly emotional experience, but not in a way that was too heavy.

• Work with anticipation

• We ended up using instructions to create anticipation.

• Relief through threat avoidance

• By making people think that they were going to see something scary and then meeting the opposite, we did use this idea as well

• Unpleasant audio

• We used haunted house sounds and scary music.

• Unfamiliar spaces

• We decided to disorientate people by making them walk around without being able to feel anything around them.

• Lack of information

• All they knew was that it might be uncomfortable or scary, making the anticipation bigger.

• Accentuated relief (More than absence of a bad experience)

• We used sensory videos, stuffed animals and cookies.

• Random physical obstacles

• Didn't end up doing that to intensify the feeling of being lost in the dark

• Expressing emotions/experiences on paper while blindfolded

• Didn't end up using this, since we just wanted to let people sit with their feelings for a bit.

• Texture identification

• We used a slimy stress ball for an unknown textural and auditory sensation.

Anticipation idea:
We create an experience where people find relief through meeting the opposite of their expectations. There will be loads of anticipation waiting for something bad through spoken ominous instructions, sounds that make you feel tense and sensory deprivation through blindfolding. We will try to make the participants believe that they will be met with something horrific when they take off the blindfold. (exploration insight 1)
The restriction of communication will prevent the participants from searching for comfort in one another and spoiling the experience. (insight 2)
Finally, we will take the blindfold off and the experience won't be half as bad as we were making the participants believe, maybe even funny, resulting in a sense of relief.

Instructions that could make one feel stressed/tense:

• We will blindfold you now and lead you into the room to sit down. If anything that we do makes you feel uncomfortable, you can always tap out. There will be a point where we will remove your blindfold. This can be scary and/or startling, so if you need to continue to close your eyes after, you are allowed to do so. We do not want to traumatize you by the things you're going to see and experience after we've taken the blindfold off, so make sure to communicate clearly with us.

• We will not harm you in this experience, so don't worry TOO much.

• Are you ready? If you need a second to prepare, that's okay.

Upon entering the room:

• The participant is blindfolded

• There are eerie sounds coming from all corners of the room

• The participant can hear us walking around them, not knowing what we are going to do.

• We drop a slime stress ball in their hand, or touch them with it

• "Okay we will now take of your blindfold, close your eyes if it's too much"

• As soon as the blindfold comes off, there will be lighthearted music and a funny image, some cookies on the table etc.

Parts of the emotional experience

Part 1: Being blindfolded by masked people, led into the room and receiving the instructions (building emotional tension).

Part 2: Scary music, scary sounds, being led through the room while still being blindfolded. (causing confusion and a feeling of being lost)

Part 3: The blindfold gets taken off, happy surprise! (part that is intended to cause relief)

Feedback from the Participants

Interview questions:

1. Can you walk me through how you felt at the start of the experience, during and after hearing the instructions?

2. What was it like being blindfolded? How do you feel it affected your emotions?

3. What was going through you when we were about to take off the blindfold, and then how did that change when you opened your eyes?

4. Can you name the three strongest emotions you felt during the experience (the start of the instructions until you completely left the room to come to the interview)?

5. Would you say you experienced a sense of relief anywhere in this experience? If so, when was this feeling the strongest?

We voice recorded the interviews and these were our main takeaways:

First duo:

1. The speaker "whispering" in your ear was scary.

2. Eerie experience

3. Was expecting a jumpscare at the end, but felt relieved instead.

4. Three strongest emotions were: anxiety - curiosity - relief

5. The blindfolding was surprising, and it makes you experience your other senses much more.

6. They started feeling relief when the blindfold was finally being taken off.

Second duo:

Person 1:

1. Instructions felt like someone was whispering from the back.
   It felt secure to be led through the experience.

2. You had to get adjusted to the noises and feelings, but after you get used to it the feelings subside.
   The end felt nice.

3. "Blindfolding made me nervous, had a huge impact and made it feel nerve wrecking and more intense."

4. Saw the lights and felt like "Oh, this is the end, like a feeling of relief."

5. Was relieved when being able to see again.

Person 2:

1. I was scared because I didn't know what to expect.
   Secure because of the guidance, but got the shivers due to the touching and the effects of the voiceover.

2. The blindfold made everything more intense.

3. "In the end the fruits were funny, but I sighed as well"

4. Felt relief after I processed everything.

Third duo:

Person 1:

1. She was super nervous because she didn't know what was going to happen.

2. Instructions through speakers created immersion that made her feel like someone was actually whispering.

3. She was not ready to open her eyes after taking off the blindfold because she was kind of expecting a jumpscare.

4. She felt scared when she was blindfolded because she needed to trust someone else.

5. Instructions made her feel more scared.

Person 2:

1. In the beginning, it was scary because she didn't know what was going to happen.

2. She was happy to see this ending.

3. She felt amazing in the end, because from the start of the experience until taking off the blindfold she was feeling negative emotions and quick changes in her feelings, but after taking the blindfold off it made her feel more positive than she would have when she would have seen this ending without the negative experience before.

Fourth duo:

Person 1:

1. He felt the masks at the beginning were terrifying and and a great addition into the suspense built up around the experience

2. Confessed to feeling extremely disoriented due to the use of blindfolds

• "After losing my sight everything become way more amplified"
• Its like i noticed every little thing"

1. The unsettling instructions at the beginning along with the shoulder speakers used did an instrumental job in creating for a distressed environment

2. He felt that there was a very stark contrast between the roller coaster of emotions that were set in place from the beginning, and reached when the blindfolds were taken off only to reveal a teddy bear and some cookies

3. Three emotions felt throughout were confusion, discomfort, and relief

Person 2:

1. Curious/anxiety/relief

2. He really was made to feel distressed when we started making unusual noises with objects, and harmlessly blowing on his hair

3. Felt that senses were on overdrive while walking around the room.
   "I just felt so sensitive the whole time"

4. There was definite and clear happiness to be done with the initial part of the experience and let out an auditory change of emotional state

5. Felt a bit embarrassed once the blindfold was off and he was able to see it was nothing

Findings and Insights

New findings:

1. As expected, a sense of relief was felt by most participants for two main reasons:
   The uncomfortable blindfolding experience was finally coming to an end.
   They were expecting to see something scary, but found a pleasing and happy setup in front of them as well. In other words: Relief coming from the end of an unpleasant situation / Relief coming from bad expectations becoming unfulfilled
2. Negative emotions sometimes lingered in the participants' minds more than the eventual relief, giving them a delayed sense of relief.
3. When a new situation of discomfort is introduced, a prolonged experience can both make the feeling worse and overwhelming or allow the person to get used to it, making the feeling less intense. (Feedback 2.1.2 and 4.2.3)
4. Unexpected situations create higher sensitivity in manifesting certain emotions. (Feedback 3.2.3)

New insights:

• You have to be intentional with your timeframe when creating an emotional experience. (finding 3)

• Losing sight intensifies other senses and can be scary. (additional exploration and confirmed by feedback 1.5, 2.1.3, 4.1.2, 2.2.2, 3.1.3 and 3.1.4)

• Emotions can change rapidly depending on the situation and/or context. (finding 4)

• Negative emotions can overshadow positive emotions (finding 2)

People's reactions to the installations:

As they were blindfolded, people felt scared and fully immersed by surrounding sounds, blown air, and soft material touching them (picture 1 and 2). Some users expressed their emotions out loud by reacting "Oh S*it!", "Getta f*ck outta here!", but after taking the blindfold off their reactions consisted of yelling things like: "Let's go!!", "Yay!!","OMG", or physical reactions like sighs, dropping their shoulders or nervous/excited laughter. Some people also reacted by mentioning that "It was the best idea" because they were fully immersed in the experience by feeling scared and stressed, and in the end, all the sweat turned into happiness.

2. Process of final product

The problem we're addressing with our Emotional Design is being overwhelmed by the amount of tasks and not being able to manage duties and time efficiently.

Context:

The main character (Santiago) is working on his tasks and his coworker brings more documents that he needs to finish in a few days. Later he receives a message from his mother, saying that his parents are going to be there soon. This news stresses him out because of the amount of workload he still has. Then he goes back home and remembers that he had a party last night and his house is a mess. He checks the fridge and even the fridge is empty which is the final drop that makes him extremely stressed and overwhelmed. He automatically starts to spend some time on TikTok to get a feeling of relief, but a short break turns into multiple hours. While scrolling he comes across one advertisement regarding time and task management. He thinks it is a good idea to try it out as he is already in trouble and this could be an opportunity for him to manage everything on time. He downloads the app to his iPad and starts to explore. First, he finds an option to relax before starting to work on his assignments. He chooses the music option to listen to some calming music to push him away from his stressed mindset. Later he starts to manage his tasks with the help of AI. Then Santiago starts with cleaning his room. The next day Santiago goes to the grocery store to buy food. Afterward, he starts to work on one of his school projects. When he opens his notebook he gets stressed out, but after checking how it is broken down through the app (Float) he thinks it is not as much as he expected. Then he works on his tasks and after he finishes he feels relief. He opens the app to see if anything else is left to do and he sees that he successfully completed everything. Later, his mom enters the room with a doubtful face but she sees that everything looks nice, cozy, and clean and then she's happy. That is when Santiago feels real relief and finally, he could lay down and relax.

User group:

The target audience for our app consists of individuals that are looking for guidance within their process of dealing with overwhelming tasks through support and guidance.

At its core, our app addresses the universal need for effective time management, stress reduction techniques, and task orientation. Promoting a sense of calm amidst chaos, the platform aims to empower users to regain control over their daily lives and experience relief from overwhelm - providing features of stress reduction, including tools to encourage relief of tension, and guidance for mental ease.

The connection between our design choices:

The emotion of Relief, as we discovered during our previous explorations, originates from either the avoidance or the termination of a negative feeling. Thus, we decided to bring a clear visualization of an overwhelmed, stressed and unorganized typical user, and showcase the emotional journey that, thanks to our platform, will bring him from a state of distress to a calm feeling of relief. We are confident that this specific transition properly communicates the intention of our design.

Emotional Design - its features

Introduction screen:

A soothing and encouraging message of welcome to the user.

The user can click on "Mental Support" first if needed in that moment, so Float will help by setting the right mood before getting to the action. Otherwise, the user can go straight to "Task Buddy" and start organizing their tasks.

Inspiring insights gained from emotional explorations:

• Colors can affect human's physiological functions. The color blue mostly represents relaxation, calmness, peace, secureness and low-energy emotions. (MSEd, 2024) (Third exploration)
  This is the reason why we picked a blue palette for Float.

• The contrast from going from a bad experience to a delightful one causes relief. (second and third exploration)
  Relief is a positive emotion triggered by the absence of an expected threat (Deutch et al., 2015). It is felt either when an unpleasant episode is over, or upon realizing that an outcome could have been worse. (from the Scientific definition of the emotion)
  This is why we decided to clearly showcase our character's journey from distress to relief.

• The feeling of relief is signified through emotional transition, oftentimes experiences are accompanied by a sigh, laugh, or change of demeanor (second and third exploration).
  This is why during the video, our actor (Santi) emphasized these facial expressions to best convey the intended feeling.

Why Float represents a meaningful solution:

Float is a practical, meaningful digital solution to a common task-management problem. In today's digital age, many people find it more convenient to seek and rely on digital help, especially those individuals that tend to procrastinate and escape from their duties through endless scrolling. This provides short dopamine boosts, but no long term solutions. Our app aims to uplift users' moods initially, offering options such as music, meditation, or motivational speeches, giving valuable mental support during periods of stress, overwhelm, hopelessness, or lack of motivation. It follows by allowing users to effectively organize their tasks by either breaking them down or grouping them together, facilitating a clearer and easier overview of their to-do list. This approach not only saves time and effort, but provides users with a sense of relief before and after they do their tasks.