Research | Industrial Design | UX Design

Sole Soothe- Step into Wellness

Crafted mobile reflexology therapy shoes to help chronic pain patients to manage pain at home with help of an app-enabled device.

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Dominix Global Design is a Innovation company reshaping industries through holistic services in Brand+Business, Industrial Design & Manufacturing, Space Design & Development, and Digital Design & Software. Committed to pushing boundaries, Dominix redefines the global landscape of design and innovation.

Project Summary

The Challenge

Design customizable pain relief devices for specific body areas, integrated into wearables like shoes, wristbands, and headbands to reduce pain through stimulation.

Solution

FootBrace with mobile application

A FootBrace with reflexology points and a mobile app offer personalized pain relief therapy, allowing users to manage reflexology at home. Users input pain details for customized therapy suggestions.

MY ROLE

Designer

Researcher

DURATION

5 Months

February, 23 - June 2023

MY TEAM

Solo

Individual Project

Anchor 1

Jump to these sections:

PLAN

How did we arrive to the solution?

I started with breaking down the brief and identifying key factors that I can focus on. I started with mind mapping and understanding basics about pain and answering questions like;

What is Pain?
Are there different types of Pains?
Can Pain be Controlled?
What are some most commonly occurring pains to humans?
What type of chronic pains are common?

UNDERSTANDING PROBLEM SPACE

Define PAIN

Definition- General sense

Pain is an unpleasant sensation that your body experiences when something is wrong or is potentially harmful, often causing discomfort or distress.

Definition- Medical sense

An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage.

PRIMARY RESEARCH

What are some Pain Control Methods?

After a thorough research and deep understanding of various methods here is a chart of all the available methods for pain control:

Different types of pains and categorisation

PRIMARY RESEARCH

Understanding Users

Given the problem statement to help chronic pain management, I decided to conduct a User Survey to understand and learn how people cope with chronic pain and also what the common pain areas are.

Exploratory Survey and Personal Interviews

The survey got 35 responses from age groups ranging from 19- 72.

I further interviewed people with Chronic pain to understand their current situation and pain control methods. I have interviewed 12 different people from different age groups suffering from pain. I took three people from each of the following age groups from 19-40, 40-60, 60+ years.

Research questions:

1. What are some common chronic pain areas?

2. How do people cope with it? What solutions do they use currently?

3. How often do they feel pain?- constant pain or in waves?

GATHERING RESEARCH

Key Insights

Based on the insights gathered from the aforementioned interviews and survey, several key points have emerged:

IDEATION

Brainstorming and Initial ideation

After discovering User needs, I came up with a list of possible ways/ solutions.

There are 2 categories:

Internal body functions- that can can be triggered by things and reduce pain
External Methods- Alternative therapy methods which are also based on internal function and they also have been proved.

CONCEPT DIRECTION

Final Concept - FOOT REFLEXOLOGY

After careful analysis and consideration of different concepts, we decided to ahead with reflexology due to it's versatility and minimally invasive properties and can be used ethically compared to other directions.

Reflexology can be used on many parts of our body to stimulate nerves but my further concepts will be focused on stimulating through the foot as the medium as it is a more viable way.

🔗 View Medical Explanation here

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

Existing Solutions

After understanding and finalising the concept, I wanted to understand existing solution so I identified the type of products and conducted a competitive analysis on them.

CONCEPT IDEATIONS

Concepts

After this I came with some product concept ideas- embedding reflexology, but also I wrote the possible advantages and disadvantages of each idea to understand them better.

CONCEPT EVALUATION

Final Concept- Shoes + Mobile Application

Now that the concept idea is finalized I wanted to work on ergonomics and aesthetic of the shoe. Here are some exploratory sketches I did on the form. I selected a couple of them keeping ergonomics and aesthetic in mind and then made CAD models based on it.

What reflexology points and zones are to highlighted?

This device will support and help the users with commonly occurring pains body.

Headaches: The reflex point for the head is located at the tips of the big toe and second toe, while the reflex point for the neck is located at the base of the big toe.
Back pain: The reflex points for the spine are located along the inside edge of the foot, from the heel to the big toe. The reflex point for the lower back is located just above the heel.
Neck and shoulder pain: The reflex points for the neck and shoulders are located along the outside edges of the feet, from the pinky toe to the heel.
Menstrual cramps: The reflex points for the reproductive system are located on the inside arch of the foot, near the heel.
Digestive issues: The reflex points for the digestive system are located on the bottom of the foot, from the heel to the ball of the foot. The reflex point for the stomach is located in the center of the foot, just below the ball of the foot.

CONCEPT REFINEMENT

Final Refinement

Reflexology Foot braces/ Shoes

This is final form and design of shoes- they are easy and comfortable to wear electric massage footraces/shoes.

Mobile Application

The application must help the user to help get the overall experience of a relaxing and pain relieving reflexology. These are the wireframes and the features of the application are:

Primary functions: