aware
Keep urban runners safe and motivated
About aware
‘aware’ is designed for urban runners to be aware of their surroundings regarding safety and motivation from listening to music while running. Sound signals from earphones warn runners about fast-approaching objects without compromising the music-listening experience.
It’s a combination of digital and physical products, including optional earphones, a detector to wear anywhere on your back and a Spotify software plugin. The sensor can detect whether a bike or scooter is coming close to you.
Team project with Erik Ivarson, Nils Achenbach and Yuan Tian
ROLE
UX, UI animation, wireframing, sound design
TIMELINE
3 weeks
LOCATION
Sweden
challenge
“I want to feel safe while running at night. So I don’t listen to music even if I want to, and need to be aware of what is coming behind me.”
Lisa, urban runner
“I love to run with music and follow the tempo, however if I am in the zone of listening to music, I am not aware of what is coming behind me.”
James at Runner’s club
Process
We started with ourselves first, some of our team members are marathon runners, and then we started interviewing runners who live in the center of the city, we experience it ourselves as well and became empathetic with what urban runners experience as well. We spoke with subject matter experts in engineering to see if what we envision is possible with our design.
Reflection
We want to consider sustainability. The earphones are optional so that we are not adding unnecessarily products to the planet. We will produce ensuring fair labor, we want to use aluminum materials that can be recycled unlimited times. The packaging will be minimal, using as less as possible. The social impact is to save people from getting injured so that less hospital visits and save resources on healthcare. People do not need to take sick leave because of injuries. We also try to design a Spotify plugin instead of a whole new app, the reason being that it is not necessary to waste resources, e.g. hosting data in data center somewhere, it will use less power for the users on their phone by having one less app to install.
