Loop is a directional haptic feedback accessory in the form of an adjustable armband. It has vibration points that guide the user right or left through rotating pulses. Loop pairs with a smartphone app that uses GPS and Bluetooth technology in order to network with other Loop users within a certain range. It can also connect with Google Maps and has an open API that allows the development of new uses. Through the use of technology, Loop offers directional animal instincts while providing a screen-less interaction, so the users can look up at their environment instead down at their phones.

The brief for this project was to design branded consumer goods for protesters. The challenge was a reaction to the recent prevalence of protests around the world. Whereas once protesting was an action taken by the oppressed or the youth, today it seems that everyone is protesting something. This is a result of the broadcast culture we live in. The internet offers us access to the sentiments of people from around the world, and welcomes us to contribute. We now have access to unadulterated content direct from the source, and a variety of perspectives on every issue. The challenge was to design for this contemporary protest culture. The work was completed through a 15-week course led by Rinat Aruh and Johan Liden, co-founders of Aruliden. The dichotomy of a subversive culture that surrounds protest and the mainstream culture of commercial branding creates a rich domain to explore, and even more so as the definition of protesting evolves. It raises questions about whether stores would carry products that abet political demonstration, and therefore provides the challenge to design a product for protesters that also has a mainstream application. It challenges us to think about products that can be useful in the most amenable conditions, but also in the most harsh. Technological devices, as a predominant example, come across very different limitations in those two environments, and therefore can only be developed with the utmost consideration for all possible circumstances.

Our research validated the feeling that many people who would likely go protest are scared off by the danger that is associated with demonstration. It’s not that protesters seek violence actively, in fact they generally go into protests with every intention to be peaceful. However, by virtue of the provocative nature of mass demonstrations, it often leads to violence. This insight is especially clear in protest marches where the strategy is to stay in formation. The mentality of "holding ground" can work against protesters, throwing them into harm’s way. By looking to nature for inspiration, protesters may benefit from the movements of natural swarm intelligence that rather states "you can't catch us all." Humans don't have the subtle instinct that allows us to move in spontaneous unison, such as a school of fish or flock of birds, but we do have technology. We designed the Loop app to use the bluetooth and GPS on protesters' smartphones, both available without a signal, to keep users within a certain flexible range from one another. This app is useful in keeping a group together in many situations, whether at an amusement park or at a mass demonstration. If one member of the group begins to stray to the edge of the bluetooth’s thirty-foot range, the app notifies the entire group to shift their movement to stay close. This ability allows protesters to have enough flexibility to avoid conflicts with authorities, without fear of losing their group.

We knew from the very beginning that we wanted to avoid using technology at all costs, and then we ended up making an app. Our early attempts to offer protesters animal-like instincts used analog tactics like light-up toys, or trails of sand. We drew from many examples of swarm mentality in the animal kingdom, but eventually resolved that we could in fact use the phone’s bluetooth and GPS to provide that kind of intuition. This allowed us to circumvent the challenge of poor signal, signal jammers, or lack of wi-fi, but it posed a new problem: we created a situation in which protesters were going to have to keep their eyes on their phones in a violent situation.

It became clear that we would have to design a product that could translate the phone’s capacity to offer directional-guidance in another way. We created many concepts using all the different senses, but concluded that the most elegant and intuitive way was to use the sense of touch. We explored all sorts of apparel that could be embed with vibrational motors. We designed a device that looked like earbuds and could be stuck anywhere on one’s left and right side, providing haptic directional guidance. Our next idea was a watch that would make the phone unneeded altogether, but it quickly became complex and expensive. Ultimately we concluded that the simplest answer was the best; a loop that could be placed around any limb. We branded ourselves “Loop” and drew inspiration for the color palette and logo from the vortex of fish that inspired us initially. Our initial hypothesis was that we could use rotational motion to indicate directionality (clockwise is right, counter-clockwise is left), and we tested our assumption by prototyping the product. We programmed the series of motors using an Arduino microprocessor, and began testing, making adjustments as we went.

Finally, we developed the packaging for Loop, saving material by making the package work as the device’s inductive charger and carrying-case. We 3D-modelled the designs and rendered them to evaluate which style best suited our brand. We went as far as designating the prices of the different tiers of Loop products and define where they should be sold. Naturally, the stores we were suggesting would sell them for their applicability in mainstream culture, and not so much in political demonstrations.

The biggest challenge with the app was that protesters would need to look at their phones to see which way to move, so we designed an intuitive interface using the sense of touch to allow for seamless directional communication between the user and the app. Although Loop is originally designed to accommodate even the most extreme conditions, we also designed it to be useful in everyday situations. Some examples of additional uses are preplanning a jogging route, walking around a new city as a tourist, and directing bike riders. Loop can connect with Google Maps to give turn-by-turn directions, and would have an open API for developers to dream up new uses for it. We also considered the packaging as an asset, rather than a throw-away. Loop's packaging acts as both a travel case and an induction charger. Ultimately, the goal of Loop is to allow users to intuitively utilize their digital technology to harness the awesome power of animal instinct.