Somni
iPad & Industrial Design
Multi-Modal Design
Somni is a Multisensory System integrated in the sleeping quarters of the International Space Station to help Astronauts destress before sleep
I spearheaded the design end-to-end, focusing on interaction design, product prototypes, industrial design, research, prototyping and product story.
TEAM
1 Product Designer (me)
1 UX Designer
1 Visual Designer
1 Engineer
CONTRIBUTION
Ideation
Interaction Design
Prototyping
Industrial Design
Analog Research
Product Story
TOOLS
Figma
Photoshop
Illustrator
Adobe AfterEffects
Adobe Premier Pro
PLATFORM
iPad
Multi-Modal Device/System
TIMELINE
4 months
" Something that may seem trivial on Earth can be deeply meaningful in Space"
Problem Space
My team and I studied 25 resources including NASA research documents, journal reports and papers to understand sleep in space. Here is what we found-
Sleep-related problems remained one of the top 3 complaints among astronauts.
Sleep medicine is among the most frequently used drugs in Space!
Sleep disruptions can affect productivity, performance, safety of Astronauts.
How does Somni work?
Astronaut's journey
Somni is a portal back to Earth, helping Astronauts destress and spend quality pre-sleep time in their sleeping quarters. Somni is designed to fit into the Astronaut's regular routine, physical space, and training timeline, making the design a low-effort and seamless integration. Take a look at this curated breakdown of video snippets I made of an astronaut's journey with Somni.
01.
The Astronaut meets with a NASA sleep scientist as a regular protocol to talk about sleep routine.
02
NASA scientist typically records the infomation on paper. Design intervention- introducing the Somni discovery ipad application to record Astronaut's sleep preferences.
03.
The Astronaut is able to customise and choose scent swatches, lighting and sound preferences.
04.
The data from the Somni Discovery ipad App is then fed into the Visual Portal and Olfactory Scent Band.
05.
Astronaut is deployed into Space with their personal Visual Portal and Olfactory Band.
06 Connect Mode.
During the early days of deployment, the Astronaut is missing home and uses Somni to experience the view from their window back home.
07.
Somni activates 'Connect' mode releasing familiar scents and adjusting cabin lighting to simulate an earth sleeping experience instantly soothing the Astronaut.
08 Escape Mode.
The Astronaut uses Somni to support their pre-bed activity : in this case reading on their Kindle.
09
Somni activates 'Escape Mode' instantly transforming the sleeping quarters into the Astronaut's preferred reading atmosphere releasing the scent of firewood and adapting the cabin's lighting.
10 Biofeedback Mode
Somni detects high stress levels from the Astronaut's wearable and immediately assists the Astronaut with options to destress.
11
Somni helps the Astronaut breathe using binaural beats and the portal adapts to take the Astronaut back to their favourite beach on Earth, calming the Astronaut pre-sleep.
