Smoothing — A Biofeedback Pet for Everyday Emotional Regulation
Brand & campaign strategy
PROJECT TYPE
Technology startup · Founding team member
YEAR
AREA OF WORK
Brand & campaign strategy
FOCUS
Digital Wellbeing · Human–Computer Interaction · Health Technology
Overview
Smoothing (贴贴) is a live digital wellbeing mini-program for young people managing everyday stress. It uses a phone camera and flash to estimate heart-rate variability (HRV) from a fingertip reading and represents the signal through a digital pet. The experience brings measurement, short attention and breathing activities, and pet care into one journey.
As a founding team member since February 2026, I worked on user research and product direction. I interpreted qualitative feedback on students’ needs for science-informed emotion-regulation skills and translated it into product interactions and wording.
Smoothing (贴贴) is a live digital wellbeing mini-program for young people managing everyday stress. It uses a phone camera and flash to estimate heart-rate variability (HRV) from a fingertip reading and represents the signal through a digital pet. The experience brings measurement, short attention and breathing activities, and pet care into one journey.
As a founding team member since February 2026, I worked on user research and product direction. I interpreted qualitative feedback on students’ needs for science-informed emotion-regulation skills and translated it into product interactions and wording.
The challenge
Emotional strain is often difficult to notice, name or track until it becomes disruptive. Existing tools can feel clinical, costly or difficult to sustain, while entertainment-led products may offer comfort without helping users understand whether an intervention changed their state. The design challenge was to make physiological feedback understandable and motivating without presenting the product as diagnosis or treatment.
Emotional strain is often difficult to notice, name or track until it becomes disruptive. Existing tools can feel clinical, costly or difficult to sustain, while entertainment-led products may offer comfort without helping users understand whether an intervention changed their state. The design challenge was to make physiological feedback understandable and motivating without presenting the product as diagnosis or treatment.
Approach
Reframed the concept around a non-clinical use case: everyday emotional awareness and self-regulation for students and early-career adults.
Built the Measure → See → Play → Nurture journey. A 60-second fingertip reading produces an HRV-informed state; the pet makes the abstract signal visible; a short activity gives the user something concrete to do; progress then feeds back into pet care.
Connected five mini-interventions to distinct interaction goals, including mindful breathing for down-regulation, Stroop-style attention training to interrupt rumination, bilateral-eye-movement and focused-attention exercises, and an embodied maze concept that reconnects attention with bodily movement.
Developed the positioning, target-user logic, competitor framing and an early go-to-market pathway spanning campus communities, psychology educators and research partnerships. The boundary remained explicit: Smoothing is a wellbeing-support concept, not a medical diagnostic or replacement for professional care.
TESTING AND CURRENT STATUS
The functional mini-program is now live. I led three rounds of user testing with 166 participants and supported 14 refinements. One finding was that task-like interactions could add psychological burden; the team changed the interaction design and wording in response. These rounds tested usability and experience. They do not establish clinical effectiveness or measurement reliability across devices.
Reframed the concept around a non-clinical use case: everyday emotional awareness and self-regulation for students and early-career adults.
Built the Measure → See → Play → Nurture journey. A 60-second fingertip reading produces an HRV-informed state; the pet makes the abstract signal visible; a short activity gives the user something concrete to do; progress then feeds back into pet care.
Connected five mini-interventions to distinct interaction goals, including mindful breathing for down-regulation, Stroop-style attention training to interrupt rumination, bilateral-eye-movement and focused-attention exercises, and an embodied maze concept that reconnects attention with bodily movement.
Developed the positioning, target-user logic, competitor framing and an early go-to-market pathway spanning campus communities, psychology educators and research partnerships. The boundary remained explicit: Smoothing is a wellbeing-support concept, not a medical diagnostic or replacement for professional care.
TESTING AND CURRENT STATUS
The functional mini-program is now live. I led three rounds of user testing with 166 participants and supported 14 refinements. One finding was that task-like interactions could add psychological burden; the team changed the interaction design and wording in response. These rounds tested usability and experience. They do not establish clinical effectiveness or measurement reliability across devices.