For my ritual artifact I decided to expand on a preexisting ritual: birthdays. I know for a lot people, birthdays can be uncomfortable and somewhat of a nuisance because of unnecessary expectations. So, I designed an artifact that gives the birthday person something to look forward and helps them reflect on their past year. The form this artifact would take is a birthday present self care package sent to them in the mail. It would contain a birthday card in a red envelope (as homage to the Vietnamese tradition of li xi or "lucky money"), a journal with instructions on what to do, write, and read about during their birthday, birthday cake, and some other small gifts.
Observation:
The ritual would begin whenever you ordered your birthday package online because it would make your birthday something to look forward to instead something to stress over. The true start would be on your birthday whenever the package arrives, launching a day to treat your self and reflect .
I am hoping this artifact will impact people who hate their birthdays and often spend the day alone. Birthdays should be celebrated because they are sign of growing and survival and we should spend at least one day year reflecting and celebrating ourselves. Combining the low expectations of a self-care day and and high significance of birthday is the ultimate way of celebrating the passage of time.
Prototype:
Reflection:
By working through the design process, I was able to create a more impactful version of my ritual. In the beginning, I was stuck on trying to redesign an everyday activity, like brushing your teeth, but I fell short because I wasn't creating a significant distinction between habit and ritual. As I collected information and brainstormed about how to create a ritual artifact, I realized I was focusing purely on the looks without any deeper reflection on how to engage with the design. So, as I moved away from this limited view, I decided that the experience was better than actual product and the best way to present this idea was through a preexisting ritual, like birthdays.
My artifact is based around the idea that there is too much expectations tied around birthdays. They tend to fall short of what we pictured and this is exacerbated by social media. This isn't an issue for everybody, but many people see idealized versions of birthdays on Instagram and Facebook and are left feeling mediocre about how their birthdays went. My artifact tries to address this by encouraging the user to avoid social media and to keep perspective on their birthday; that it is more about growing as a person than it is partying. This artifact tries to create a future in which birthdays are not over hyped, they are a day to meditate and reflect on your progress.
Taking it Further:
If there was time to produce another iteration of this artifact I would want to flush out the interaction more; creating tactile pieces that you take along with you on your day out, like a portable paint station to bring to the park with you. I would also like to enhance the packaging some how. Maybe designing it in a way that the user has to pick up each item in specific order and every item has a clear definition as to why it is there. Creating a prototype of the quiz the user takes to get an individualized gift would have been very helpful, as well. This artifact has a lot of room to grow and it would be amazing to see it implemented in the real world.
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