Kursat.

In our project, we specifically looked at the pre-teens and teenagers who recently diagnosed or who are in transition to take care of their own diabetes treatment. Yes, every road is to transitions! I got the chance to practice my framework in another transition issue, and came up with a good set of design concepts investigating the idea of modes in transitions. Here is a glimpse of the concept, and if you are more interested in we also have a blog.

System diagram

* Do you have an idea for an innovative new diabetes device or web application?

“in the same way that we metabolize food, we metabolize experience. Experience becomes our character, as we have seen earlier, just as food becomes the cellular makeup of our bodies. You are your experience, in certain ways. It shapes you and forms you, metabolically. You take  food in, then break it down into what is usable, and what is not. Your body takes the good part of the experience and keeps that to make new cells, energy and the like. ..in metabolizing experience, the process can break down in the same way. Taking in the good parts of a losing experience means that we learn what we can from the experience and take that forward as new “cells” of our character, meaning wisdom. Also, through persevering and continuing  to go forward and reengaging life, we develop strength, patience, hope, optimism, and a host of other important character traits that we will need to make things succeed.” -integrity: the courage to meet the demands of reality, henry cloud, page 163

“Thank goodness. I don’t know what I would do without ritual, whether in my friendships, my community, or my attempts to fill my space and time on earth with sacredness and meaning. The older, I get, the more I appreciate ritual performances and forms. Of course, these run the risk of decline into habit, mere routine. That is the occupational hazard of ritual, so to speak. But without the motion that ritual imposes and prescribes, I would not know moments of fulfillment that I reassure almost as much as love and life itself…. how can we join in community with strangers, or people well known to us, act in concert with them for the good, or go deeper into life together if we do not gather around same table at a specific time move to the same rhythms , respond to the same image and symbols and take for granted-so as to challenge- the same rules and expectations?”

One of the things that puzzles me in  ritual products is their symbolic power which is hard to deal with in a design context, and most of the times results in mimicry and facelifting of their normative forms. To overcome shallowness of facelifting, it is critically important to focus on the actions (movements, actions, interactions, and participations) of rituals rather than the physical forms. Here are two examples from the book that achieve that leap from physical to actional. First one is netilat yadayim (Dov Ganchrow), a hand cleansing vessel that provides a self-cleansing ritual; and frontier-vest (Azra Aksamija), a transformable wearable that provides praying ritual for both Muslims and Jewish. Both products are inventive yet carrying their ritualistic values and symbolic meanings..

once they finished their education, they are assigned to veterans who have returned from military service(mostly iraq) with some traumatic-disorders or phobias like claustrophobia. These soldiers probably had terrible experiences in uncanny corners or crowds in the battle field, and lost their trust to their environment. Puppies intervene into this type of loss and become friends or care-givers, checking corners or closed spaces and let their partner know it is ok to move on.

It does sound  a little bit teddy bear – the utmost cliche transition object- when you first heard, however, it is much more elaborate, elegant, and experiential; it also hints at the education topic as a strong companion and variation for transition topic…

Biofeedback is any technology that non-invasively monitors your body’s functions – such asblood pressure, heart rate, skin temperature, or muscle tension – and conveys that information to you in real-time. Biofeedback has been clinically proven over 30 years of research to help people learn to use their body’s voluntary functions – such as breathing, focusing, or contracting muscles – to have an immediate and positive impact on their well being. By communicating your body function in real-time, a biofeedback machine increases your awareness of a particular bodily function and allows you to exert greater control over these functions.

what makes this product tempting for me is its transitional strength. it  may be one of primitive yet efficient transitional products, which aims to increase quality-of-life by its simplest means, intervening in people’s breathing rhythm. It is perceptive rather than socially interactive, trying to reach at habitual through behavioral means. Company suggests using the product before going to bed, trying to intervene into bedtime rituals-if people have any. I would cast this product as a perfect ritual product, emulating eastern traditions of meditation and awareness…I’ve discovered a similar product called emwave, i will think a loud more may be next time with emwave…