Sunni

User Experience and Interactive Design Studio Concept

Sunni was conceptualized from my own experiences with light affecting my mental and physical health, focus, and overall comfort. Sunni's mission is to bring outdoor lighting into your home so that you feel more connected to natural sun patterns.

Sunni won Best in Undergrad Research 2022 awarded by the Department of Visualization.

THE GOAL:

Connecting to natural sun patterns to create a positive impact on our mental health and quality of living.

THE CHALLENGE:

Designing a user-centric product and platform that prioritizes users well-being in their everyday mental health practices. The design process involved extensive research, incorporating user research to create a calming experience on the platform, and scientific inquiries that connected hormone levels, biophilia, and natural sun patterns to the design of Sunni.

My senior studio was my first time being a Project Manager. I worked with my team, Lauren as User Interface Lead and Cole as the Developer, to create an experience that taught us, as a team, how to design with empathy to help others.

THREE KEY PROBLEMS: User Connection, Personalization, Ease of Use

Interactive Lamp

We used color theory and scientific research on the brain to create a lamp that balances the light in your life.

Arduino, Processing

Companion App

We created a companion app to control lamp settings, set to default light settings, with a customizable light schedule and other features.

Figma

Featured Screens

The home page is designed to change color throughout the day, depending on the time of day or current light settings.

The light is easily customizable to your schedule.

How can light help?

"Human-centric lighting is envisioned to encourage a person’s well-being, mood, and health by adjusting directions, color temperatures, and illuminance."

Morning: Warm Lighting

30 minutes before you wake up, Sunni gradually increases the brightness in your room with a warm hue.

Red: Revitalizing, Orange: Energizing, Yellow: Cleansing

Daytime: Natural Lighting

Suppresses levels of melatonin, exposure to bright light for at least 20 minutes will stimulate the release of cortisol, which perks you up for the rest of the day

White: Productivity

Night: Dimmed Lighting

Two to three hours before bed, reduce your bright light exposure, red light increases levels of melatonin, helping our bodies get ready for bed

Blue: Calming, Purple: Purifying

Our Study Results

Survey done through Google Forms, responses from people age 12-25

30% always work and study from home 48% sometimes work and study at home.

A shocking 67% only got 1-4 hours of natural light throughout the day and spend most hours of the day indoors. 13% spent all day at home.

54% spend 1-3 hours before bed on a screen and 25% spend 4-6 hours on a screen before bed.