Blank-It was created for an assignment for the Interactive Lab
course that dealt with speculative design. The goal was to create
a language between a user and an object. My colleague, Lior
Manella, and I chose the most comforting object - a blanket! The
first phase was to explore our object. Where is the
blanket usually used? At what hours does the user use it? how can
we improve it? Following the research we did on how humans can
improve their sleeping habits, we decided on
the features of Blank-It: Control the temperature of the blanket,
the thickness of the blanket (loose or tight), vibration, and even
set an alarm clock. All of these are features that the user can
modify and change in order to experience the best quality sleep.
Once we designed the interface we started to think about the full
experience. We acted as the user and that made us realize that the
user interface must be on the ceiling, while lying in bed.