Speculative Future is a design practice exploring the consequences of a scenario set in the future with the goal to spark conversation about whether the future shown is desirable or not.

QuickCare was created as a speculative future project with the goal of exploring the consequences of the rapid integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI recommendation tools in the health monitoring sphere.

What would our future look like if health insurance premium rates were based on AI recommendations pulling data from our fitness apps?

Project Details

Capstone project (ENGN2172 Integrate and Implement )

Individual

3 months (March 2024 - May 2024)

Figma

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Premiere Pro

Tools

Fusion 360

Autodesk Maya

Substance Painter

Arduino Uno Rev 3

Basic code to test out sensor and screen capabilities

Main landing page

Personalised ad #1

Initial print to test scale and design

Components

Final modell without any processing (sanding or spray painting) with electronics mounted

Electronics and Code

Process

Propose

The feedback at this point in my process was that I was designing in the realm of science fiction. By postulating these highly fantastical developments in medicine and AI, I was failing to bring in a sense of eventuality through my design. The future I was proposing through the sketches and models felt too removed from our present and unable to spark meaningful conversation.

Make

Propose

Make

Exterior Form

Exhibit at the RISD grad show 2024

3D printed PLA and spray painted. Photo taken at Rhode Island School of Design Graduate Show 2024

Exhibit

QuickCare began by looking into the following:

  • AI recommendation systems like Spotify, Instagram, Grammarly

  • Health and fitness monitoring applications

  • Amazon and OneMedical merger in 2023

Proposed Future

Artificial Intelligence powered health monitoring apps are being used to determine health insurance premiums, a monitary consequence is tied to giving up deeply personal information.

I started sketching out products from this proposed future. Leaning into the futuristic theme I explored cyberpunk inspired imagery in terms of an aesthetic for these products and moved on to exploring what forms could look like in 3D space by modeling shapes using foamcore.

Creating a successful speculative future product comes from creating a believable experience. The first step is creating an object representing the proposed reality.

Instructor feedback from midterm review

In this phase, I started working on turning the proposed future into a believable product that people can “see” being sold at an electronics store. The idea was to make something so real that people bought into the narrative I was weaving and when the illusion is broken are able to reckon with the notion of whether this product (by extension the future it foreshadows) is something desireable or not.

Final adjustment for internal electronics

Logo icon

Reprint to reduce size and adjust design

To ground my design in reality, I started looking at consumer electronic designs and identified common trends and aesthetic choices the designers were making.

Revised Sketches

Final Form

Arduino Uno Rev 3

Adafruit TFT 2.8” LCD

PulseSensor (Heart Rate Sensor)

Momentary Push LED Button

The code was developed in stages. Having very limited coding experince I chose to work with a heart rate sensor and designed an experience where your heart rate determined your insurance premium rates.

I started with connecting the sensor to turn off an LED based off the beats per minute (BPM) value collected by the sensor. Once that was working I added the LCD screen to display a message based on a threshold value of the BPM collected. The button was added to turn the sensor on and off.

Testing out graphics on the Adafruit 2.8 TFT

Developing the QuickCare Brand

Final code in enclosure displayed at RISD 2024 Grad Show

Final code and electronics mounted in form

Pushing the believability of the project I developed a brand, logo and UI design for my speculative future device. I drew inspiration from the Apple, Google and Samsung fitness health app UIs to create the look for QuickCare. Additionally, to sell the idea of breach of personal space and data, I created a set of personalised ad graphics that would flash across the screen as the sensor is pulling your heart rate data.

Class presentation of QuickCare as a CEO pitching to potential investors

Initial sketch exploration of logos and lock-ups. I moved forward with a stylised fingerprint design to call upon the finger heart rate sensor.

Logo lock-up with tagline

Logo lock-up

Logo stacked

Developing the QuickCare Product Page, UI & Ads

For the exhibit at the Rhode Island School of Design 2024 Grad Show, I created a mobile product page that viewers accessed by scannign a QR code. This mobile web-page had tongue-in-cheek comments about data scraping and enticing features that asked users to give up more of their personal data for monetary benefits. In this webpage, visitors upon clicking the learn more or buy tabs were taken to a page explaining how the product was a speculative futures project and were asked to share their thoughts on how they feel about this presented future becomming a possible eventuality.

Sensor heart beats per minute page

Personalised ad #3

The project was exhibited at the 2024 Rhode Island School of Design graduate show as well as a capstone project in the ENGN 2172 Integrate and Implement course. The gallery exhibit was designed to look similar to product displays in electronic stores with a representative guiding you through the product experience. During the class presentation, QuickCare was presented by me as a product CEO pitching the idea to potential investors.

52 of visits to the mobile product page.

2 minutes and 30 seconds was the average time spent on product page.

The statistics are reported from Squarespace’s analytics tabs which logs webpage visits and time spent on a page.

Still screen grabs of the webpage

The QuickCare UI that is displayed on the screen when the people place their hands on the sensor was designed keeping current trends in health application UI in mind. The ads that flash across the screen were designed after pop-up ads you get in the middle of various service applications. They use coded language indicating that each time you use the application more and more of your data is scraped.

Sensor reading page

Personalised ad #2

Exhibit

QuickCare live product demonstration