A nature-inspired noise machine that aids in sleep.

A nature-inspired noise machine that allows the person to play a tune or podcast, and adjust the level of background white noise.

This project was an exercise in human-object interaction, discovering the audio world, and chasing beauty through patterns in nature.

Duration: Fall 2023, 5 weeks

Tools: SolidWorks, Keyshot, Adobe Illustrator

How do you use it?

The speaker is meant to live on the nightstand, allowing for easy access from the bed.

There are three main interactions: on/off, volume, and white noise.
For white noise, the pebble is to be moved away from the center to add more 'texture' to the sound produced. As more white noise is added, the user feels more texture as well.

Why a sleep-aid speaker?

After a round of user interviews involving sleeping habits, I found that students prefer sleeping to light music, a podcast, white noise, Youtube videos, etc. One of the biggest reasons was to offer a distraction for sleep - neighbors may be too loud or phone too distracting.
Personally, I wanted this project to be a bit more experimental, so I opted for a less commercial design.

Moodboarding + Inspiration

With personal intuition and a user survey, I found that sleep and sound are associated with marine forms and patterns

I created many moodboards, drew inspiration from John Edmark's work, and from the brand Kinto. From that, I focused both on form and interaction.

Leading design with interaction.

I first defined the core interactions involved (on/off, volume, noise), then settled on motions for them.

I allowed these interactions to dictate the form: what suggests an action? Should it be difficult to decipher to allow some play?If the user wants to hear more white noise, they'll also feel more 'noise'.

Sketching, ideating, thinking about shells.

Again, this was a fun, exploratory project, so I looked into less-conventional speaker shapes.
Here, I was debating between abstract interactions vs. known, canon ones (button).

Switching between CAD and sketching.

Finding that CAD informs my sketching, and vice versa. I played with patterns, orthos, and amount of parts to find a balanced form.
I also want to add that this was an absolute nightmare to CAD and I'm very proud.

Printing the urchin out!

The pattern has a mesmerizing effect (like looking at a corn field) which I enjoyed. I experimented with the golden angle, but found that the pattern was too graphic to be a in-the-background object for sleep. It was still a fun exploration in logrithmic vs. linear pattern.

How much should it to stand out?

Not much, to be honest. I had to be careful with the color/material being too much - it can't overpower the pattern.

In the end, I opted for a bone-white, which allows for the pattern to breathe. The pebble is also a different color to emphasize that it's an interactible component.

Aftermath...

A very rewarding project. I tend to worry about creating a commercially-viable product, so this was a fun exploration into a recent interest: patterns in nature.

Due to time constraints, I was not able to create an umbilical model (regrettably only got to the 'mapping out the circuit' stage), but the core of the project was human-object interaction for me. Eitherway, fav one so far :)