In this brief our team was asked to explore the future of interactions, where the boundaries between self and sensor erode, and where our products are active actors in our behaviour. Our team decided to focus on the are of ‘problem’ behaviours: nervous ticks and mannerism brought on by anxiety, stress and/or deep thought. We imagined ways of helping people change their behaviour through the design of deeply emotional products and systems (products that we live with and feel like friends). We decided to focus on the act of nail-biting in times of stress and/or deep thinking within the work place. We chose the unconscious habit of nail-biting as it can be damaging a act, impacting on ones health  in terms of bacterial ingestion. Notable nail-biting is not a serious health risk, but through research we found that many perpetrators wish to break the cycle of the habit.

Divert, was a product that our team developed in response to the brief and research. Divert is a desk-top product that monitors a willing users hand movements while working. Once the device detects that the hand of the user is approaching the mouth area, it grabs attention by displacing a stress ball from the top of the pyramid shape. Over the period of time the user gets feed up with having to collect the ball from the office floor and unconsciously reaches for the ball in times of stress and thought, rather then the nail-biting.