### Problem and Solution Overview Electronic cigarettes and vaporizers have become popularized among teenagers, youths, and people who replaced traditional smoking with e-cigarettes. In fact, they were marketed as an easy way to quit traditional cigarettes, however, they are not an effective tool to quit nicotine completely, and they became a new way of addiction to nicotine with higher demand. Also, vaping has caused an inessential significant expense for the user as well. We offer a beneficial solution called VapeWeight consisting of a smartphone application and a physical component. The physical component has the capability of both charging the vape device through a USB outlet and weighing the vape’s cartridge by a very sensitive scale sensor designated to keep track of the user’s daily nicotine intake. Every user can see their progress through the data collected on the VapeWeight application as well as joining the community forum on the app helping each other become vape free. ### Design Research Goals, Methods, and Participants The main focus of this project was to provide those who regularly vape a way to track the amount of nicotine vaped over time. Due to the increasing popularity of vaping in young adults, we focused our research participants among college students and young adults - both those who have used e-cigarettes exclusively as well as those who have switched from cigarettes to vaping as a means of quitting tobacco products. Other stakeholders we consider are high school-aged students. Although buying cigarettes and e-cigarettes are now limited to those 21 and over, research still shows vaping to be on the rise among this age group. Therefore, we conducted three different methods of interviews, diary studies, and surveys in order to better understand their needs and desire to quit vaping. We decided on semi-structured interviews to allow us to observe their behaviors while asking them detailed questions. On the other hand, diary studies of our participants gave us insight into their psychological, physical, and social factors at their peak times. A survey was also an effective way to collect useful data on a larger scale, such as what participants’ current mental state is on quitting, how they feel about tracking their vaping usage, and what kinds of designs they prefer to use for quitting. We conducted interviews and diary studies from a college student at the University of Washington who is also in the Greek community as vape usage in that community are high, an individual in the Seattle area between 25 - 40 years of age who replaced traditional cigarettes with e-cigarettes, and two different smoke shop owners. All other participants filled out the survey, and they were primarily college and high school students. ### Design Research Results and Themes According to the results of interviews, surveys, and diary studies that we conducted from all participants, we acquired a variety of information and key themes as follow: #### Social Motivation Those in a younger crowd are easily influenced by what their friends are doing, and all of our participants have indicated that they began and continue to vape due to social pressures, usually, their close friends are all regular vapers as well. When asked what might motivate participants to quit, some indicated that having others quit with them could help. #### Use of E-cigarettes as a Tool to Quit Tobacco Our participants over 25 years old were all previous smokers and initially began vaping because they 1) wanted to quit tobacco completely, or 2) wanted to switch without the intent of quitting because they thought it was a “healthier” alternative. #### No Current Effective Tool From our research, there is nothing currently on the market explicitly for the purposes of quitting/monitoring the use of e-cigarettes without manual tracking. Traditional methods, such as patches and gum, are effective for the physical aspect but do not account for the psychological and social aspects which have become so synonymous with vaping. There is a mobile app that describes itself as being “the only app specifically for quitting vaping/juuling”. However, the user is required to track with another friend who vapes, and both individuals must monitor each others progress. The app also does not account for the difficulties of manual tracking. Furthermore, this app is useless if individuals want to quit without friends. #### College-Aged Students Plan to Quit Before Graduating Our participants who began vaping when they were 18-21 years-old have all indicated that they hope to quit by the time they are 22. This is generally the age when students graduate from college. It is a fair assumption that these individuals might only consider vaping to be a “college habit” and do not believe this addiction could carry on beyond that. ### Identified Tasks Based on our key findings and the main themes that we concluded from our studies, we decided to choose the following six tasks as the most important factors to consider in designing our solution. Curbing cravings of nicotine is very hard for a person who tries to either quit or eliminate his intake. This person might have strong cravings but do not want to talk about it due to the stigma around addiction. Having access to tips from people who were in their same positions and a community to talk about craving symptoms might help him to have the motivation to continue in his journey to quitting. Learning about research on health risks of vaping can also be helpful to motivate vape users to think more about their physical and mental health as well as helping those who are trying to quit to keep up with their good works throughout this challenging journey. Connecting with friends and family to keep yourself accountable is another way of motivating people to keep doing their hard work because sharing their vape usage keeps them accountable to themselves as well as others. They suspect that the one person who decreases her usage the most would get “bragging rights”. This would deliver a psychological reward and help to continue decreasing use. Reducing vape usage / Gaining insights from tracked data is a better approach for people who do not want to quit at once. If they keep track of their use, they would know how much they have vaped during a certain time, and they would be able to decrease it gradually. Automatic tracking of how much nicotine/e-cigarette pods were vaped each day is very needed for a person who wants to quit since manual tracking of e-cig liquid or the number of puffs taken during the day is almost impossible. Thus, the automatic taking of nicotine intake is an important and necessary task to consider. Keeping track of money spent on buying E-liquids is an important task to think about since vaping has caused a significant financial expense for the user in daily life. It can also become a motivation to quit for those who care about their spendings. ### Proposed Design Sketches #### Design 1: Mobile App & Scaling Sensor This design incorporates a physical component as well as a mobile application. The physical component is meant to be a simple, user-friendly, frustration-free device for gathering data. The main feature of the component is a drop-in area located on the top of the component weighs the vape cartridge. There is an indicator light to communicate to the user if the scale is functioning correctly or not. An additional feature on the component is a USB outlet for convenient charging of the vape battery. We chose to incorporate a battery charger to help the user remember to weigh their cartridge while they charge their battery. The other component of this design is the mobile application that gains insights from the data gathered from the physical component via Bluetooth. The app contains trends and data of user’s vape usage, user’s profile, and a community forum the features we considered to be most important to the user: tracking vape usage, tracking spending, finding an online community of other users trying to quit, and learning about important health topics related to vape research.

#### Design 2: Smart Portable Device The second design is a sensor that operates with batteries and is attached to the vape button, so it will account for each time the user hits their device. When the user first gets the product they will have options on an app in their phone with equivalencies for cigarettes. Corresponding to each option, information about health risks is received. For instance, if the user vapes very little they will be given information about short term effects like anxiety, where someone who smokes about a pack per day will be given health risks about the long term including cancer. Based on the user’s choice, the device will alert how close they are to their daily limit with different lights. When they are not close to their daily limit the light will be green, then go to yellow, and red when they are at their limit. This can help the user pace themselves out as they go so they don’t have to wait to see where they are at.

#### Design 3: Smart Watch App & E-Cigarette The third design includes a rechargeable e-cig and a smartwatch. The e-cigarette has a similar shape to many popular vapes now but has a screen on the handle that designates the percentage of the pod vaped and/or how many puffs have been taken that day out of the desired puffs they have indicated. In fact, the e-cigarette itself has a sensor built inside that tracks the usage. The user has the option to buy pods that have different amounts of nicotine. The sensor in the e-cigarette will be able to distinguish the nicotine amount apart by barcodes on the pods. The smartwatch app is connected to the e-cigarette through Bluetooth and shows the data on the e-cigarette screen as well. Users are able to set a limit of how much they want to vape that day, either through pod percentage or amount of puffs. Once they have reached their desired limit, the e-cigarette will not allow them to vape until the next day.

#### Selected Design and Storyboards We decided to continue with our first design, the “Mobile App & Scaling Sensor”. We believe it would be the most convenient option for the user since there is no need to buy a new device, and it works with any kinds of vape devices/cartridges. For our design, we are focusing on the tasks of automatic tracking and connecting with friends and family. We decided to focus on these tasks, firstly, because we found no products on the market with the automatic tracking feature. From our research, many participants cited the challenge of manually tracking their vape usage due to the subconscious and habitual nature of vaping. Secondly, we want to leverage the social aspect of vaping, a recurring topic in most of our interviews with college-aged users. Because accountability is one of the most important aspects of undertaking the challenge of quitting tobacco products.