Designing Products for
Social Systems

Spring 2024
Individual

KOSMO

Designed a thermochromic (changes with body heat) soft rubber ring for people with dermatillomania, excoriation disorder, or simply people that pick at their skin to help them change this habit with an intuitive and discrete intervention. 

Key Features

Before KOSMO

After KOSMO

Problem:

People with Body Focused Repetitive Behaviors (BFRB) pick at their bodies and struggle to stop, impacting their physical and mental well-being.

Specific BFRB: Excoriation Disorder

US Statistics: Affects between %1.4 to %5.4 of American adults and it’s more prevalent amongst women.

Research Goals

● To better understand people’s skin-picking habits.
● Learn about the causes of skin-picking habits, attempts to stop or reduce them, and consequences.

General Research Questions

● How can we stop people from picking at their skin?
● Do people want to stop picking at their skin?
● What are the common triggers and causes for skin-picking behaviors?

Key Literary Search Findings

Types of Behavior:

• Impulsive: Automatic, Frequent, Brief.
  
• Compulsive: Deliberate, Purposeful, Focused.

Comprehensive Behavioral Treatment: 

1. Building Your Awareness: Self-monitoring forms.
   
2. Planning and Preparation: Identify useful interventions
   
3. Putting your Plan into Action: Action-Plan Form.
   

SCAMP model ( The five domains of body-focused repetitive behavior) :

1. Sensory Domain (influence or stimuli to your senses)
2. Cognitive Domain (what we think, thoughts and beliefs)
3. Affective Domain (what we internally feel; emotions and internal states)
4. Motor Domain (physical movements, habits, body positions)
5. Place Domain (environment and setting)

Current “solutions”:

HabitAware:  Bracelet that vibrates when people are doing a repetitive behavior. $150-$350

Targets the “Build Awareness Part” of the Comprehensive Behavioral Treatment, but the actual intervention part is through videos and chats with physicians.

Fidget Toys: Tangle Therapy, Fidget Rings, Squish balls, Mobius rings, bike chains, etc. 

Provide an intervention that is not directly related to automatic behaviors or what drives people to pick at their skin. 

Primary Research

Interviews:

I interviewed five people that had BFRBs and one clinical psychologist that specialized in BFRBs because I wanted to include a field expert into my design process.

• "Well, it's because of anxiety and it also makes me more anxious. So it doesn't help. It's like a double negative.”
• “Trying to be aware when I pick at myself and stopping the behaviour. I haven't really tried anything else. Being aware doesn't really help because I can't stop myself from doing it.”
• “I feel like rude. If I unconsciously do it and I realize there's other people watching, it makes me embarrassed.”

• Face and hands are the most common places people pick.
• People with BFRB pick at their skin constantly in an automatic way.
• Anxiety, stress, boredom and focusing issues are the most common triggers/causes.
• Appearance concerns and markings are the most common negative consequences.
• Coping mechanism and stress relief are the most common positive consequences, confirming the common triggers.
• Self-care/grooming and detail oriented activities and fidget toys were the most common effective solutions.
• People don’t tend to seek for help or advice but are open to try strategies if they seem actually helpful.

Generative Research

Stress and Anxiety
Most people reported stress and anxiety as the main causes and triggers for their picking behavior.

Boredom and Focus
For many people, their picking behavior occurred in spaces where they were more likely to get bored or lose focus.

Appearance
People care about how they look, and their behavior affected not only their appearance but also their confidence.

Automatic
Most people don’t realize they’re picking at their skin, and some, even if they do, have a hard time stopping.

Gratification
People reported picking at their skin to seek a feeling of gratification or because it was satisfying.

Negative Cycle
Often, the cause and consequences are almost the same, contributing to a negative behavioral cycle that is extremely hard to stop.

Product Criteria

Intuitive	Convenient, does not require much thinking to use, while building your awareness.
Gratifying	Includes an element of satisfaction to encourage its use.
Hand-Focused	Geared towards skin-picking in the hand/finger area.
Unobtrusive	Makes the person feel confident wearing it and does not contribute to stigmas.
Compelling	Visually appealing and effective.

Initial Concepts/Ideas

Concept Ideation

I started doing material and product exploration and came across some interesting findings:

• Chromogenic Materials

- Thermochromic paint: Changes the surface color through temperature variation.
a. Cold activated colorants.
b. Body or Touch activated colorants.
c. High temperature activated colorants.

• Tangle Therapy (Fidget Toy)

- Medical Fidgeting device.

• Color-changing putty and silly putty.

- Elastomers.

These findings influenced my overall product idea:

A thermochromic soft textured ring

Some important things I took into consideration were:

• Pattern variation
• Texture variation
• Versatility
• Aesthetically pleasing