Rachael Costello
Industrial Design
Final year project
Empowering women through the relief of vasomotor menopausal symptoms [Read more]
AYR
Ayr is a personal cooling system, designed to provide relief from heat-related menopausal symptoms. The wearable is designed to be a discrete cooling device placed on the lower back due to the high thermal sensitivity of this area; whilst the bedroom unit aims to tackle night sweats and also provides a charging dock for the wearable.
AYR - Personal cooling device
The wearable is designed to be inclusive and suitable for all users. Ayr is customisable to user needs with the choice of colour for the waistband and adjustability. The wearable automatically provides cooling shots when a rise in temperature is detected; however, the user can choose to be in control by using the buttons on the device to start and stop cooling shots, as well as increase and decrease cooling output.
AYR - Bedroom unit
The bedroom unit aims to combat night sweats by providing automatic cooling. The brightly coloured monitoring clip attaches to the bed linen in order to track the user's sleep. As night sweats predominantly occur in Stage 2 NREM sleep, the clip detects any rise in temperature from the user during this stage of sleep. In response to this rise in temperature, the unit will provide cooling shots, with the aim of reducing sleep disruption.
AYR - Copper cooling plate
The copper cooling plate is in contact with the user’s skin to provide the cooling shots. The excellent thermal conductivity of this material results in optimum cooling.
AYR - Wearable exploded view
Thermoelectric cooling is the technology behind the wearable device, with the use of a Peltier cooling element. A heat sink is used to dissipate the heat whilst the copper plate cools the user. The aesthetic form of both products has been designed to work as a product family. The blue ribbed button detail is matched across both products to be both aesthetic and intuitive.
AYR - Prototype development
An ergonomic and interaction prototype for evaluative purposes.
AYR - Early ideation
Early ideation for the bedroom unit.
Live Project 2021 - SABE
Sabe is a public safety beacon designed to be positioned at regular intervals in public urban and rural settings. Its purpose is to make people feel more comfortable and safe when out and about, especially women at night. When someone feels unsafe, they can press one of the three hexagons; small for apprehension, medium for unsafe and large for at risk. If the user is unsure, the medium button can be pressed in hurried situations. The local police are informed when a Sabe beacon has been activated. The series of beacons allows a ‘timeline of events to be created if a user has pressed more than one button, this feature is specifically designed to aid missing person investigations.
Rachael Costello
I am forward-thinking and meticulous in my work, striving to deliver insightful and effective solutions. I approach a design task aiming to build an empathic understanding of user needs by extracting key research insights and ideating design opportunities from this.
In every design project, I start with a user-centred approach; defining the problem and identifying the user need. This drive is what led me to the User Experience Research field. My placement year was a valuable insight into the industry, building on my previous experience in the exhibition and events field. It enabled me to learn the theory behind research and usability testing methods, as well as putting them into practice through at-show research and interview workshops. Throughout the design process, my strengths lie in ideation built upon a grounded problem and strong research insights, UX wireframes and mock-ups, prototyping and 3D CAD modelling.
Final year project
Empowering women through the relief of vasomotor menopausal symptoms
Awards
‘20 Diploma in Professional Studies
Work Experience
August 2019 - August 2020
User Experience Researcher - Reed Exhibitions
A valuable and engaging role as a User Experience Researcher at Reed Exhibitions as part of my placement year. I worked as part of the Global Customer Insights team carrying out research for exhibitions across the world. This involved planning, facilitating and carrying out interview workshops as well as at-show research, followed by data processing and analysis. I also worked closely with UX designers on Guerilla research methods, InVision prototype testing, website analysis and turning insights into design opportunities.
September 2018
Intern - DesignJunction
A week-long internship with DesignJunction as part of the London Design Festival 2018. This was a really valuable experience working within the exhibition and events industry. I was responsible for helping withstand and structural setup, manning the front of house registration and signposting amongst other key roles.