research motivation

Reverse alarm clock functions as an embodiment of two related design philosophies: designing for the self, and designing for transitional contexts.

Designing for the self describes a design opportunity around making products that help people become the person they desire to be through their interaction with a product. This approach operationalizes consumer behavior research on how people develop and evolve attachments to their material possessions through the process of identity construction. In designing for the self, the product becomes an explicit participant in the self-construction process. In terms of the reverse alarm clock, the product helps parents see past their immediate goal of getting sleep and to focus on their long-term goal of helping children learn to make good decisions. 

>Designing for transitional contexts:Today, people often experience a decrease in felt-life qualities, a lack of order, and stress due to the advances in communication technology that have broken down the barriers between the different contexts people enact and the places that trigger specific role enactments. Now people must enact all their roles everywhere, at any time. This has reduced the aesthetic qualities of experience and is related to the broken relation between transitional contexts and human nature. The design of the alarm clock has help deal with problematic situation and suggests that designers’ focus on products that help people become more fully present in their specific roles, which in return help them to have aesthetic experiences.