LOFI
With the rapid growth of smartphones and AI, information becomes faster and requires less person-to-person engagement. While we benefit from an abundance of information at our fingertips, the devices we use to access it have also become addictive and distracting.
Lofi is a smart home system designed to detach people from the chaos created by screen devices. Guided by calm technology, it allows people to relax, distress, and have more time to focus on themselves while enjoying their communication.
Category
Product Design
UX
Year
2023
Step 1
Dock the phone, Detoxify
Upon arriving home, the user removes their accessories such as keys, watches, jackets, and air pods. The phone dock is placed in the entryway cabinet to give the phone home, just like a human.
When the phone is docked, Lofi Mode is activated, and only the most essential contents of messages find their way to you through unintrusive panels around your house.
Design Proposal
Break the addiction to the smartphone at home by filtering out information and focusing on more meaningful activities. Create calm, meaningful, and emotional communication.
Step 2
Receive calm notifications
anywhere without Interruption
Lofi’s AI filtering system only sends users messages they customize to see. Using Real Time Tracking Projection-Mapping, Lofi tracks you in your home and sends ambient messages and sound notifications to keep you connected without being overwhelming.
Step 3
Calm, Emotional and
Meaningful Communication
The Lofi system calls on nostalgic and meaningful methods of communication – calling and writing letters - to slow down and foster meaningful, emotional communication.
The Ritual of Writing
Writing a letter is a forgotten ritual. It’s romantic, calming, and meaningful. When one writes, the user is forced to slow down and think about what to say instead of just mindless rapid-fire texting. Lofi encourages users to connect with a tactile, mindful way of reaching out.
Problem
Digital information and screen technology can be overwhelming. Screen devices were designed to be addictive and thus have become vacuums for time. The waves of information can overstimulate and distress users.
Home is a safe space for one to deeply relax, recharge and reconnect
The Lofi pen allows the user to write on any table surface using embedded sensor. This paperless approach emphasizes a connection with your surroundings by breaking down even the paper barrier between a person and the letter.
Write on any Surface
The letter set device design uses an OLED screen to display only texts from others, with the pen sitting in a jade-stone-like charging port. The design is also a manifesto of an Asian sense of zen and tranquility.
Strategy
According to interview insights with Julian Scaff, professor of Interaction Design at ArtCenter College of Design, “Screen is not human-centered design. It’s a cheap and easy solution.” My proposed strategy is to design UX and objects following the user's natural behavior to create more interaction with the surrounding environment, instead of limiting everything on a touch screen.
Use the dial phone to make a call. A phone call is made simply by the action of picking up and putting down the phone. A call can be initiated with voice activation.
The New Dial Phone
The wall-mounted solution aims to remind people of the nostalgic telebooth experience, making calling clearly separated from texting to allow people to do only one thing at a time.
Design Process
I collected beauty and form inspirations from nature and life that create a sense of calm, to design a soothing, meditative experience with objects and CMF that feel natural and comfortable to hold and touch.
