Tangible User
Interface:
Power Posing & Self-Affirmations
Project Overview
For my ‘Tangible User Interface’ class at UC Berkeley, my team and I were responsible for creating a project that reflects a memorable experience during a user interaction. After iterating and receiving feedback, our team decided to focus on encouraging confidence and evoking feelings of strength through a tangible user interface. Over the course of 4 weeks, we ideated, received feedback, prototyped, presented our project at an exhibition, and submitted a CHI formatted report on our project.
My Role
The Problem
Our Solution
Power Posing
The power pose we've chosen to focus on embodies a psychological concept that influences the user’s sense of empowerment. The pose depicts the user placing their hands palms-down following yellow guidelines on a desk with a sensor. They stand with feet planted apart, one foot in front of the other. The user faces a mirror, which is covered with an opaque film. The sensor detects the user’s hands and triggers the film to transform. The film on the mirror becomes transparent and the user is able to face themselves whilst in a high power stance.
Self-Affirmations
Power posing complements verbalizing affirmations in front of a mirror. As the user stands in the suggested power pose, they are encouraged to vocalize positive affirmations about themselves. These statements can consist of “I” statements such as “I am powerful”, “I am successful”, “I am capable”, and “I am valuable.” A microphone installed on or near the mirror will record the user’s input and compare it to its program. Once the user completes an affirmation, the flowers on the mirror light up in different LED colors as a form of encouraging ambient media.
Role
Designer
Team
Anita Guo, Sharon Hu, Amarah Williams, Zoya Abdullah, Corrin Morgan
Timeline
4 weeks (November - December 2023)
Tools
Ideating — Figjam, Google Docs, iPad/paper & pencil Programming — Arduino Uno, Processing
Brainstorming idea generation: suggested the original idea of power posing in front of the mirror for increased confidence.
assisted in building the prototype which consisted of a mirror, tissue paper flowers for light diffusing, paint guidelines on the foil, and more.
gathered feedback from user testing at the TUI exhibition.
wrote the CHI formatted report about the final project.
How might we create a tangible user interface that fosters empowerment and enhances self-perception?
Our Design Process
What’s next?
Ideation
Feedback & Meeting
Our team quickly drew a couple of sketches and storyboards for us to better understand the project and become familiar with components needed for the design.
Building the Prototype
Components
Exhibition & Feedback
Most found the power pose empowering but wondered about doing different poses such as standing straight with hands on the hips.
Patience and Perseverence
Our team was at a roadblock in terms finding a project we were all passionate about (and it’s okay to not always have the most passion for any project!). However, we continued to hold brainstorming meetings, talked to our professor often, bounced ideas off of each other, and finally came across a project idea we were all excited to work on! 🤩
Reflections
Affirmations can be uncomfortable!
While training our prototype to recognize words, my team and I also felt awkward saying such cheesy but empowering lines. But after a while, it was not as uncomfortable and we realized that users may also learn to overcome awkwardness for the benefit of improved self-perception and increased confidence.
Sketches
Before arriving at our final project idea, my team and I struggled with other initial tangible user interface concepts. We wanted a strong interaction loop — something that encouraged the user to come back for further interaction.
From a Memory Tree to a Screaming Pillow, our team went through iterative designs before finally landing on our Power Posing & Self-Affirmations Mirror. We came about this idea during a meeting with our professor and agreed that facing a mirror is an interesting opportunity. Displayed here are the notes I took during the meeting.
Diffusing Flowers
As part of ambient media, we decided to construct tissue paper flowers to diffuse the harsh LEDs. Diffused light provides a sense of calm which may encourage the user to repeatedly power pose and verbalize affirmations.
Capacitive-sensing Hands
These hands outlined in yellow serve as guidelines and encourage users to place their hands palms-down onto the capacitive sensor mat. The capacitive sensor would trigger the servo motor to press the button of the smart film battery pack which in turn turns the smart film from opaque to transparent and vice versa. The yellow color is meant to convey happiness.
Linkage Mechanism
A simple mechanism of a linkage was constructed out of balsa wood and nails. A servo motor serves as the main root of movement which moves the link and in turn moves the stick forward to press the button on the battery pack.
Smart Film Transformation
We figured out how to turn the Polymer-Dispersed Liquid Crystals (PDLC) smart film on and off (opaque to transparent and vice versa) through a battery pack which can be switched on/off by a servo motor connected through the Arduino Uno.
Auditory Input
Verbalizing self-affirmations is a little awkward to do in a public space.
We used a Voice Recognition Module V3, high sensitivity microphone sensors, a variety of LEDs, another Arduino Uno, and tissue paper. When the microphone detects audio input, the Voice Recognition Module V3 will trigger and light up the LEDs.
In order for the Voice Recognition Module to recognize an affirmation, we trained it in Processing to recognize “I” when saying “I” affirmation statements such as “I am powerful” or “I am capable.”
We presented our prototype in the School of Information’s Tangible User Interfaces Class Exhibition, taught by Dr. Kimiko Ryokai, at the University of California at Berkeley. This event was open to students of all programs and faculty. After 10+ users interacted with our prototype, we asked for feedback and were left with several main takeaways:
Most appreciated the interaction with the mirror — the PDLC mirror changing from opaque to transparent was a unique and novel experience, while the bouquet of lit up flowers brought joy to users! 🌸
With the opportunity to expand on the project, I would take into consideration the identified user pain points such as embarrassment/awkwardness of verbalizing self-affirmations in a public space. I would also try to modify the ambient media so it would reflect the user’s growth such as slowly adding more color to the rest of the flower bouquet the more the users repeated their affirmations.