Riding public transportation can be irritating, noisy, crowded, and uncomfortable–but if you are someone who experiences anxiety triggered by crowded spaces, the sense of panic may be unbearable. Many people felt a decline in their mental health throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, amplifying the hesitation to ride public transportation, and increasing the need for someone to be able to regulate their heightened nervous system in a crowded place.

When a person begins to hyperventilate due to stress, they can take out the Ocean Drop and hold it in their hand. The Ocean Drop will learn the person’s current breathing pattern, analyze if they are breathing too shallow or too deep, and gently correct their breathing by inflating and deflating. 

The Design Process

Ocean Drop was the result of a week of defining and applying principles of interaction in design. By using the Verplank model, we identified the scope of the problem and used the metaphor of scuba diving to guide us in our design thinking. When a person scuba dives they can feel the roughness of the water when they are at the surface, but as soon as they go under–their senses are isolated and they can feel and hear their own breath in a more profound way. 

We prototyped the experience using a latex condom filled with water, and tested it by having someone hold the device while another person blew air into it in order to simulate the feeling of Ocean Drop breathing alongside you.