HelioClock
A digital clock and Bluetooth app that displays time through sun placement.
Solo Project
Skills Used: Product Design, UI/UX, Prototyping
Date: June 2021
PROBLEM
Time is a common motif in my life. The majority of my stress is rooted in timelines, deadlines, and timed exams. The constant need to have a phone nearby and to know the hours, minutes, and seconds left in the day has been normalized within my own life and the lives of my fellow college students. The pandemic has heightened my previous college experience, where I stay home or in a dorm coding or studying without end. The typical college dorm room lacks windows and decent square footage. I sought to address these design holes with this project.
THE CHALLENGE
For an experience and interaction design class, I was instructed to design an artifact that addresses design holes in my daily life. The only constraint was a time constraint of two weeks and our class was entirely remote.
THE PRODUCT
HelioClock is a dynamic light-based clock that displays time by portraying the sun's position and sky color. The physical device is a clock containing numerous mechanical and digital elements, and it connects via Bluetooth to a mobile app. The app includes a range of settings, including sunrise time, sunset time, location, static sun position, sky gradients, etc.
HelioClock’s design targets a specific user. However, I would clarify that the object addresses users that experience specific problems or life detriments, rather than a type of person. While the problems of time-induced stress, dark rooms, and feelings of being stuck in a room are relevant for college students, adults, high school students, and every person that is experiencing COVID and quarantine are potential users. HelioClock is designed to address these issues in a variety of ways and through numerous experiences. The concept of time as a contributor to stress is addressed by the alteration of the perception of time by forcing the user to detach from the need to constantly check the exact time. The portrayal of time through the display of the sun’s position and the sky’s color, causes the sense of time to be relaxed and the user to take a step back.
In daily life, this change could make a drastic difference in the user’s psychological experiences throughout the day. Ideally, these improved experiences would result in a decrease of time-induced anxiety and an increase in the appreciation of the day and the outdoors. The use of full-spectrum LEDs and the imitation of the natural sky should also alter psychological experiences, as outdoor environments and exposure to natural light can cause improvements in mental health. This potential improvement in mental health and psychological experiences would be useful for users that live without large quantities of natural light, that lack time to have sufficient time outdoors, that live in environments with limited sunlight (i.e. Northern Lapland in the winter can get 0 hours of sunlight). As a social experience, I would anticipate the act of showing or sharing HelioClock with friends. This is why I added the ability to edit the sunrise and sunset time, or set HelioClock at a static position. These settings allow the user to show how the sun and moon rise and set and the sky’s colors change (without having to stare at the clock all day). HelioClock functions as a clock, a window, and an interventional tool that disrupts the normalized stressful way of life.
THE PHYSICAL DEVICE
The physical clock is comprised of six layers.
1. "The Frame" - a circular matte, white-painted wood frame.
2. "The Sky" - a transparent full-spectrum LED screen, meaning they mimic natural light without harmful UV rays.
3. "The Sun and Moon" - two small discs of the same transparent LEDs.
4. "The Rotation" - a rotating disc that connects the sun and moon (which are placed in opposition to the disc) to the fifth layer. This disc rotates according to the time of day.
5. "The Base" - the base or back of the clock.
6. "The Box" - a Bluetooth electrical box that operates both the LEDs and the rotation of the disc. This box is powered by a rechargeable battery. The HelioClock would be sold with two rechargeable batteries and a chagrin cord for those batteries. The HelioClock is approximately 25 inches in diameter and around 2-3 inches in depth. The electrical box that operates the HelioClock connects to the HelioClock app, via Bluetooth.
DISPLAY MOCKUP
The following mockups visualize the HelioClock on a dorm room wall.
MoMA MOCKUP
The following image is a mock product for the HelioClock on MoMA's online shop.
BLUETOOTH MOBILE APP
The HelioClock mobile app pairs with the HelioClock via Bluetooth. On the app's home screen, the user views the sun's position and sky color as it is on. the HelioClock. The user then opens the settings through the icon in the home screen's top right corner. On the settings page, the user can edit the HelioClock's brightness, adjust the sunrise and sunset time, set a fixed sun position, select a color palette, set moon visibility, and disconnect or connect to Bluetooth HelioClocks.
CLICKABLE FIGMA PROTOTYPE
Below you can click through the Figma prototype. I recommend entering fullscreen.