Luminescent Hand Warmer
Innovative product demo to activate the MIT campus in winter nights. Sole designer from ideation to hand crafting.
My Role
Sole Product Designer
Product Type
Physical Product Design
Academic Program
MIT Media Lab
01
THE GOAL
Activate a Deserted Place
Stratton Student Center on the MIT campus inherited the “Brutalism“ architecture style popular back in the 1950s. Due to its geometry and material, this building's entrance plaza is never an inviting place for students and faculty.
I measured the existing site lighting level, and talked with 8 MIT students who showed up on the site.
Major takeaway from the survey was that the lighting condition is too low to make people feel safe in the evenings. To activate the space in freezing winter nights of Cambridge, I integrated the warm feeling of hand warmers, subtle light to attract people, and historic patterns for the product as a conversation opener for the crowd.
02
THE DEMO
Final Prototype Demo Tour
I hand crafted everything, as my design concept evolved.
As a passionate sustainability believer and advocate, I only wanted to use recycled materials. I emailed the whole Graduate School of Design at Harvard, calling for a Starbucks Frappuccino bottle collection. My schoolmates were so nice to dump all their bottles on my studio desk, and that is where the project started. Lights and batteries were donated to MIT by Philips, and the heat source was a bag of grains that I microwaved.
I led a demo tour in the evening as a testing prototype while I collected user feedback. People love the touch, the nostalgic feelings, and the playfulness of discussing the patterns and exchanging the hand warmers. My design was well recognized by the faculty and recommended to the MIT 150 years celebration events list.
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