The Challenge

Design a tool that tracks, measures, visualizes or quantifies an aspect of human sensory experience. Within the tool, provide the ability to detect, enhance, or manipulate those same sensory inputs.

Context

The "quantified self" movement has transformed how we understand our bodies and behaviors. From step counters to sleep trackers to mood apps, we're only scratching the surface. Think about designers working on the first generation of fitness trackers in the early 2000s: they had to imagine interfaces for heart rate monitoring, GPS tracking, and continuous health sensing long before the sensors, batteries, or processing power existed to make it real. They designed for a future where tiny, powerful sensors would be embedded in everyday objects—a future that seemed fantastical at the time but is now our reality. Just as those early designers had to speculate about technological possibilities, your task is to imagine the next frontier of self-knowledge and design for capabilities that don't yet exist.

Your Mission

Identify something intangible, invisible, or previously unmeasurable about the human sensory experience and design a speculative tool to track and influence it. This tool should be designed to support a wellness goal or behavioral change for an individual or a group.

Design Requirements

Your solution should feel novel and future forward, not a remix of an existing app and not something you generate on the first go. This is a speculative design challenge rooted in human need.

Your project should clearly address:

1. Who is this for?

1. Define your target audience and user group (age, context, needs).

2. What can they perceive now that they couldn’t before?

1. Identify the sensory experience you're addressing. Keep in mind that humans possess significantly more than the traditional five senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch), with emerging science identifying anywhere from 22 to over 33 distinct senses.

2. Explain the new or heightened “sense” and why it matters. 

3. What is the target wellness goal or behavioral change with this tool?

1. Clearly define the wellness goal or behavior change your project is addressing.

1. Consider: Which dimension of wellness it relates to, such as emotional, mental, physical, social, financial, or environmental wellbeing.

4. How does the tool work in everyday life?

1. Show 3 concrete use cases or stories demonstrating how the tool can be used.

5. How do users manage the new information via the tool?

1. Design the interface for data collection and visualization, as well as the sensory perception/enhancement interface.

1. Consider: Information overload, relevance and prioritization, when and how the app surfaces insights.

6. What safeguards are in place? 

1. Extra perception comes with responsibility. Address potential negative consequences and edge cases of your design.

1. Consider: Privacy and consent, protection from misuse or abuse, emergency protocols or fail-safes, safeguards that protect both the user and others.

Considerations

• Your idea can be fantastical or grounded in reality. We’re not judging on feasibility. Instead, we care most about critical thinking, problem definition, and the quality of the user experience.

• Strong submissions will show intentional design decisions, thoughtful interaction models, and a clear understanding of the problem being solved. 

• Consider thinking beyond the constraints of a website or a mobile application. Consider how various surfaces and touchpoints may become interfaces.

• Your app should enable users to access a heightened or new sense, such as:

• Emotional or comfort states of people nearby

• Distinguishing AI-generated content from human-made content

• Environmental, social, or cognitive signals we currently may not be consciously aware of.

Submission Requirements

Final submission should consist of two deliverables:

• Demo video (3-5 minutes maximum)

• Figma Slides demonstrating your work (required)

• Must embed your Figma Make(s) and/or Figma prototype(s) demoing the core or novel functionality of your solution.