Background

Essential oils can be utilized to help treat and provide relief to numerous aliments. To name a few: the common cold, insomnia, headaches, anxiety, indigestion, muscle aches, and much more. With such a broad spectrum of benefits it became clear essential oils would be at the core of our design.

We proposed to create a wearable and discrete essential oil patch that will monitor heart rate, sleep schedule, nutrition, and activity levels. Each patch will collect data with a state of the art sensor and sync to your personalized Healing Sense profile that can be accessed via smart-phone or desktop.

Project Brief

The Stanford Center on Longevity Design Challenge is a global design competition offered to students to bring awareness to multi-generational health and wellness. The challenge being to design a product and service that improves quality of life at any age.

Duration

September 2018 – December 2018, 13 weeks

Design Solution & Strategy

Our team wanted a minimal interface for simple and intuitive navigation, paired with Arial, an easily legible sans serif font. We relied on illustrations paired with cohesive taxonomy to create a simple and straightforward application.

We were adamant to include a social profile and messaging aspect to encourage users of all ages to communicate and share their health successes and failures. It was important for us to create a genuine sense of camaraderie where people can connect and learn from each other.

Challenges

Some challenges we faced as a group was keeping consistency with digital prototypes and design collateral, but overall we were truly passionate about our concept and the design of a thoughtful intergenerational product.

Process & Materials

Illustrator, Photoshop, AfterEffects, AdobeSpark, InVision

When it came to designing our ‘healing patch’ we knew discretion was our main priority. We conceptualized a wearable patch easily hidden under clothing, with a minimal aroma to pair discretion with efficiency.

Research

We began by brainstorming/researching what the key to a long and fruitful life was. Some takeaways being; social connections, feeding the spirit, brain health, and good nutrition. Feeding the spirit is something that struck a chord with me and my teammates. In today’s day and age, it is a commonly overlooked and neglected health practice. One key element highlighted in the Stanford Design Challenge is to encourage a new generation of students to become knowledgeable about issues associated with well-being.

Looking back at the history of essential oils, we learned they have been leveraged in wellness practices for millenniums. Frankincense and Pine were even burned in the streets during the Bubonic Plague, and it was noted there were fewer casualties in those towns.

We also researched current market trends, and although this was only a product proposal, we thought it was important to know our market. We noticed there is an increase in consumer preferences for natural and organic solutions, with the global essential oil market reaching an estimated $27.49 billion by 2022.