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Industrial Design

Alex Friend

Industrial Design

Final year project

Improving The Experience of Working From Home in Urban Areas. [Read more]

Lü

Lü is a system of products created to work in tangent through regular app-based interventions to improve work/life balance. A wearable device analyses emotion, focus and fatigue levels throughout the working day, intuitively altering the temperature or hue of lighting in the environment, increasing wellbeing and promoting productivity.

Lü - Wearable Device

The wristband constantly analyses emotion, focus, and fatigue through an Optical Heart Rate monitor and a Galvanic Skin Response sensor.  Outside of the home, UV data is collected and translated into comprehensible vitamin D data.

Lü - SAD Light

When working from home, less time is spent outside for reasons including a lack of commuting time, and potentially the lack of a designated lunch break. Lü integrates a portable Seasonal Affective Disorder Light, an artificial sunlight simulation of 10,000 Lux, used to trigger the brain into releasing serotonin and to lower the production of melatonin. Just one hour of use can raise mood, motivation and alertness, aiding productivity.

Lü - Application

The app gives the user complete control over the system, including access to all data that has been collected via the wearable device, allowing the user to identify peak performance. Following synchronisation with a work calendar, Lü can help organise the users day, sending recommended break notifications and identifying the end of work hours through a change of environmental lighting.

Educating and Encouraging a Change in Travel Behaviour.

When worn outside, the wearable monitor will, through a weaved electroactive polymer, tighten and loosen in response to local air quality.  Degrees of comfort will communicate potential health implications of sustained exposure, and the app will direct to an alternate, greener route when appropriate.

Providing Users With Reliable, Actionable Information.

Within the application, the user is presented with: (1) cleaner alternative routes via a live interactive map showcasing local air quality (2) a database of information relating to current and past journeys (3) an augmented reality experience assessing maps across public transport to highlight highly polluted routes (4) the ability to pre-plan a journey (5) an educational hub consisting of personalised health information with actionable responses.

Enhancing Home Fitness Through Connectivity.

The device will provide haptic and visual feedback between the user and a partner or group. In live fitness activity, it will help motivate and engage, and a global network may be leveraged to access a wider community, introducing new and unique cultures within home fitness.

Blending in With the Home.

The device incorporates a versatile set of weights, designed for High-Intensity Interval Training and adaptable to other fitness activities. A charging case may be concealed or exposed, subtly blending into the home environment.

Alex Friend

I am an organised and precise designer with motivation to create high quality outcomes. Design projects allow a consistent, lasting development of my skillset with each unique brief.

We have all had to adapt to new ways of working over the past year, and these challenges formed a proposition for my final year project. Lü expresses an understanding formed through primary and secondary research and seeks to enhance the experience of working from home by focusing on achieving a healthy work/life balance.



I have sought to showcase my skills throughout my final year at Loughborough by building on knowledge gained from industry experience and previous teaching. Projects have included CleanAir, a collaborative team-based task, and a 10 day live individual enterprise, completed simultaneously to my final year major. My work seeks to focus on the user experience of a product or system by assessing potential improvements, before delivering a physical or digital outcome. 



App UI has been a relatively new discipline for me but has quickly evolved into my core interest. I have an eye for detail and precision which can be applied and appreciated within user experience design.

Final year project

Improving The Experience of Working From Home in Urban Areas.

Awards

'21 RSA Design Awards, Design School Nominee
'21 Diploma in Professional Studies

Work Experience

June '19 - Aug '20 - Creative Designer at theUp.co (formerly ChargedUp)

My placement at ChargedUp brought an opportunity to work in an innovative technology start-up in Central London, joining a close-knit and dynamic design team. The placement was engaging and rewarding, involving collaboration across a number of departments where I led or assisted projects including the creation of promotional material and social media assets, hardware design, and app user interface proposals.

Over the course of the year, I saw the business not only grow its existing market within mobile phone charging solutions but also successfully reposition as CleanedUp, a new sister company tackling the unique challenges of Covid. Throughout my time I aided the development and direction of both aspects of theUp.co brand by maintaining relationships with external partners and prospective clients through detailed, high-quality proposals. The experience allowed me to develop my design, professional and personal skills, every day offering different, welcome challenges.