After our ideation phase we narrowed our ideas down to three, all focused on pain in some form, be it preventing pain or responding to what causes pain. Concept 1 was a suit for emergency situations that responds to cuts and injuries that could lead to bleed out of the individual. Concept 2 was briefs designed as smart clothing with methods built in to soothe leg pain and possibly lower back pain indirectly, this concept was also expandable to other forms of clothing. Concept 3 was a jacket (also could have been trousers) that had built in inflatable pads and tubing that would be flooded with pressurised air to work as a temporary cast in an emergency, such as when out hiking, the jacket would respond instantly.

With three concepts to choose from and after discussion with our lecturer we went with concept 2 as it was more feasible and served a wider demographic as well as being closer to the type of project we wanted to work on.

The original concept was going to be designed into clothing, but after more narrowed research on what methods could be used to soothe pain, we settled on applied heat being the best one for both bruising and muscle pain. Cramps and pinched nerves were best served using cycling heat, where it would gradually heat up then cool down, because of this research we decided to alter the concept to be a solid device that would be attached to the body. We wanted to focus on aesthetics and simplicity of use, we wanted the end design to avoid the typical look of a medical aid device, our first step for that was to decide to avoid the colour white for the main product but have an array of colours available.

With the concept changed, we still decided to keep the main focus for the design towards the legs, like in the initial concept, though we kept in mind the possibility that the design was expandable to function on other areas of the body.

Aesthetics were our main focus, as well as comfort of wearing the device, we decided on a curved shell shape that would conform to the shape of the lower leg. Given that the device would be worn for long periods, we decided padding would be ideal to have as plastic on skin for extended periods can lead to sweating and on some individuals, rashes and sores.

We settled on a 3 material design, plastic outer shell, foam padding for comfort and a flexible rubber sheeting between the shell and padding that would allow elastic straps to attach. After everything was finalised, we moved onto using cad software to design a final shape for the concept as well as figure out controls and layout.