TOUCH
Developed in collaboration with NASA, together with Lund University of Industrial Design,
during the fall of 2019.
The brief from NASA and was about developing a human centered design project. My inspiration was about the psychological health of the astronauts and the conclusion from my research is that humans suffer from the lack of physical contact. My assumption is that they lack intimacy especially on long duration flights. TOUCH is a set of products designed to be used by oneself to stimulate the sense of touch and release oxytocin - "the happy hormone".
An important feature of this set is the base for the objects. When using the set, the user should close their eyes and pick up an object without knowing what it looks like underneath, in order to not know what to expect when stroking the object against the skin.
The element of surprise is an important factor of the whole experience, and is inspired by the fact that when humans receive touch from someone we are often cought by surprise and the effect is stronger than when we touch ourselves.
