Shiwon Angelica Jang
CareMode
Intervention for Digital Natives
Scott G Pobiner
John Sharp
Writing and ResearchLouisa Campbell
Barbara B. Morris
CareMode is a playful and adaptable system that is carefully designed to transform digital experience to tangible while subverting the presence of devices at home. With a unique combination of a building kit and a mobile application, it seeks to nurture healthy digital habits for young families by introducing heuristic activities, contents and products.
The building kit comes with handcrafted wooden pieces and supporting tools to assemble a 12-sided 3D shape, which can hold a smartphone inside. Once the structure is built, a user can launch the mobile application on a device and place it inside the product. The software provides tailored activities for all members in a family, while accessing hard wares built into smart devices such as screens, speakers, gyroscopes, and microphones. CareMode aims to foster meaningful interactions within a family and raise consciousness around technology.
You’ve seen them before. On morning commutes, in family restaurants, and even during a conversation across a dinner table, digital natives with their eyes fixated on screens exploring the world beyond. We know them well, because we are one of them.
In the 21st century, the premise of being social has taken another dimension. Our society is on a verge of social revolution, which responds to a new social reality with regard to digital and virtual interactions. Technology has had a profound impact on what it means to be social by providing us with new tools to communicate and especially since the birth of the Internet and smartphones, interacting with others has never been easier. However, how does it affect our social muscles, thinking processes and relationships with real people around us? While the immediate availability of devices have enabled us to have more virtual connections, not many people have given critical thought to the cost of new social realities created by technology and what it means for individuals and societies. It has predominantly shifted our attitude on how we communicate and perceive relationships, and often times the devices are in between us.
CareMode began with those questions in mind. In order to build healthier relationships with people that we care about, it introduces alternative activities that you can do without staring or thumbing down on screens while utilizing advanced technologies that are already built into your phones. With CareMode, your smart phone become an engine of an object that you build with a building kit. The kit comes with handcrafted wooden pieces and supporting tools to assemble a 12-sided 3D shape, which can hold a smartphone inside. Once the structure is built, a user can launch the mobile application on a device and place it inside the product. The software provides tailored activities for all members in a family, while accessing hard wares built into smart devices such as screens, speakers, gyroscopes, and microphones.
CareMode has been carefully designed to transform digital experience to tangible. The real power of this system comes from the fact that it can adapt and grow with a family. The idea is simple: one form with hundreds of activities. Now, smartphones can be utilized to nurture meaningful interactions with your loved ones at home.
