Noa

‘Noa’ is a training tool used to promote healthy working habits. It is designed to effect behavioural change among remote workers. The device mitigates negative working habits, such as crossing legs, bad posture and sedentary sitting. It improves the user’s overall health by encouraging the user to be active in movement throughout their working day and improves the user’s productivity by helping them manage their work effectively. My focus for this project was on the remote working user and their interactions during the work-day.

The aim of this project was to understand why so many people suffer from work-related health problems. The interest for this project stemmed from the insurmountable number of people who suffer from work-related back pain. From this interest, a common link was found between back pain and other leading health problems affected by working. Problems like nerve constrictions, lower cognitive function and digestive problems all occur due to a lack of movement throughout the working day. Further research into this topic revealed that simply moving could solve the majority of these problems. As humans, we are designed to move, yet, when we work we do the exact opposite—we remain motionless. This led to the aim of the project being about reintroducing movement into the working life of the user in a long-lasting way.