Weave - a calm approach to help balance managing diabetes
Personal project / 3 weeks / Summer 2026
Managing type 1 diabetes each day takes time, attention and patience. And for me, it's become the biggest source of distraction in my daily life.
To help get a greater sense of balance, control and headspace from diabetes, I created Weave. A prototype ecosystem, helping reduce the cognitive workload of keeping an eye on my blood glucose throughout the day (and night), through ambience.
A bit about living with type 1 diabetes
Technology
Living with type 1 diabetes means you've got to manually manage your blood glucose levels with insulin.
Apps and insulin pumps become life's essentials.
IMAGE OF INSULIN PUMP & APP
What's my glucose now?
Technology has made glucose data more available than ever, but it's led to a constant question on my mind:
What’s my glucose now?
This question, ever on my mind has become a distraction in all areas of my life and at all times of the day.
GIF OF DISTRACTION / OR DRAWING
Distractions, distractions, distractions
Your tools alert you whenever your glucose reaches a certain hard coded number - too high or too low.
It’s not contextual, it’s not based on what you last ate or when. So you often receive distracting false negative notifications.
GIF OF INSULIN PUMP TURNING ON AND WAKING UP OR IPHONE WAKING UP DEXCOM APP
Concept
Weave uses light to gently let you know when you’re glucose goes too high or too low, relative to the size of your last meal & when you ate it.
Only notifying you when your diabetes could do with your attention.
GIF OF LAMP CHANGING COLOUR
Weave's Watch & iPhone apps provide an input for you to let Weave know what and when you eat, so it knows when to tap you on the shoulder.
Instead of inputting the exact amount of carbs, it’s simply small, medium & large.
IMAGE OF MEAL INPUT (COULD BE A GIF TOO)
Weave's apps double as support for when you’re out and about.
IMAGE OF BEING OUT WITH APPLE WATCH
Weave let’s you know when your glucose has come back down to a normal level after eating.
Giving you headspace to carry on with your day.
GIF OF LAMP & APP
Prototyping as Research
As I have a decade of lived experience and knowledge of diabetes, I jumped straight into prototyping as a way to explore potential concept solutions.
I began with low-fi versions and let my experience using them inspire new ideas.
A simple alternative to the number on the phone.
Like a clock on the wall of your kitchen, it continuously presents your most recent blood glucose reading.
It’s physical presence helped keep me updated on my diabetes without feeling as distracting as reaching for my phone.
IMAGE OF ARDURINO DISPLAY
What if numbers were removed altogether?
It's simmered down to the key question - is my glucose safe, too high or too low? Answered by colour.
But key limitation - it's home bound. What about when you're out & about…
IMAGE OF LAMP AND COLOUR
Through using the prototype I was reminded that a key reason I check my blood glucose so frequently was to see if it had come back down to a normal range after eating.
Within 30 mins of discovering this idea, I had a new type of notification shipped to Test Flight.
IMAGE OF XCODE PROTOTYPING NOTIFICATION CODE
IMAGES Prototyping Haptic Labs and Colour Changes