the Numinous journey
Numinous was developed by creative
entrepreneur Stefanie Bonte as an appealing communication tool to help people suffering from burnout and/or stress symptoms. Numinous makes the heartbeat tangible through biofeedback: users experience their heartbeat as vibrations outside of their bodies using this tool. Numinous consciously only generates experiential feedback instead of numbers and values.
In 2015, after her own severe burnout, Stefanie started a journey to discover how she could develop a tool in co-creation with patients and therapists. After graduation, and winning two HKU Awards with this project, she continued to research Numinous as a passion project with Innovation company 'VANBLEND' to find out what Numinous really is and could mean for us human beings.
Numinous is currently no longer in our ownership, but was sold to a new owner that will continue its journey. We'll keep rooting for you!
This is its story.
2016 - 2022
Stefanie Bonte & Frans van Hout (2022)
NUMINOUS
2016
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Fascination arose from Stefanies own burnout in 2014.
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In three weeks time she developed the first working prototype of Numinous.
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Back then she used all kinds of sensors and feedback.
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The concept and prototype of Numinous were developed in co-creation with both patients, therapists and the designer.
Halfway through my Masters 'Crossover Creativity' I got the opportunity to work in one of the multimedia maker labs of the HKU. This is where Numinous was born, quite literally. With tape, batteries, Arduinos and wires I connected sensors to people and people to all kinds of feedback. Visual, auditive and tactile.
Alongside multiple followup depth-interviews with all of the contestants, a beautiful iterative proces submerged.
This video was the result of a three week pressure-cooker inside the maker lab.
apr '16
December that year I got to present Numinous at the yearly HKU Awards, and brought home both the Entepreneurship and Audience favorite Awards.
Right after graduating, healthcare & design connecting company 'UCreate' made me a professional video.
This was the beginning of a very elaborate year, with presentations, expositions, interviews and constantly developing Numinous both as a technical prototype and its belief system and philosophy behind it.
sep '16
jul '16
dec '16
NUMINOUS
2017
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In 2017 I met Guido Jilderda, we decided to meet up and see where out paths could match.
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Our collaboration got a flying start by creating a MPV with only ONE feature, the heartbeat.
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In the coming year we would develop this new prototype and visit congresses and social design exhibitions.
jan '17
Numinous was further developed in collaboration with innovation consultancy VANBLEND. From that moment, the team consists of Stefanie Bonte - lead designer, Guido Jilderda - innovation lead, Frank Groot - technical lead, and Frans van Hout - business development.
Technically and conceptually a new and stable Minimal Viable Product was going to be built. The goal: To be able to test Numinous in its simple existence - with only one feature - in the field and context of burnout, to collect feedback from both therapists and patients.
oct '17
Numinous also got to participate at the Dutch Design Week that year as a part of the 'Ambassy of Health' expo. This was a great opportunity for out new prototype to meet a lot of new hands and hearts.
We carefully designed a short questionnaire to figure out what thousands of visitors exactly experienced while holding Numinous. We were greatly inspired, and noticed that our presumptions that we were putting to the test, were not that far off.
"A positive finding is that the Numinous does reflect that the heart rate goes up or down as a result of therapy, this was an aid for clients to monitor their body signals."
Teacher Psychomotor therapy, Windesheim University of applied sciences, tested Numinous on students undergoing therapy.
Linda Biemond
Wouter Jordens
psychosomatic therapist, experimented with Numinous in various therapy settings.
‘It’s important for clients to learn to feel their body again. Where is tension and where is it not? Numinous is an interesting supportive tool that helps clients to practice in a structured way.’
Werner Vermeulen
hypno therapist, Kinepoint Antwerpen
‘Our clients found the prototype we used interesting, but it needs further development. We would like to do more with data that future Numinous-versions might collect.’
NUMINOUS
2018
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This year we focussed on creating a survey for multiple, different therapists to use.
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The goal was to understand better what Numinous exactly is and how it should be used.
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It is important to note that we as designers don't see ourselves as the right people to decide that.
In 2018, Numinous was subjected to an extensive field test. To this end, several prototypes have been tested for a longer period of time by collaborating therapists and by students of the Psychosomatic Physiotherapy course at Windesheim University of Applied Sciences in Zwolle.
The therapists carefully selected patients with different complaints in the 'stress symptom spectrum', age and background.
oct '18
The first results were astounding. Participating therapists identified a clear need for technology that can be used on an empathic level. Numinous should be therefore viewed as a 'tool' or 'communication tool' to support existing therapy.
These new insights have led to a number of interesting questions for the further development of Numinous. That next step requires close collaboration with external experts, professionals from the healthcare sector and industrial designers.
feb '19
feb '19
Innovation for Health congress, Rotterdam
apr '19
Chronic Health congress
aug '18
NUMINOUS
2020
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It was time to put Numinous to the test through a kickstarter.
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The goal was not to raise as much money as possible, but to see what sector would be most interested.
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To make this crowdfunding happen, we collaborated with a group of HKU students.
By the end of 2019 we started a crowdfunding campaign, using the 'Voor de Kunst' platform. Main objective: testing the market needs for Numinous as product validation.
With the support of a group of students of University of Arts Utrecht, extensive market- and product validation research was performed and aggregated. We concluded that Numinous needs one more round of iterations (concept, design, software and hardware) before starting sales and production by a knowladgeble team that is experiences with the industry.
click for larger version!
The campaign not only generated a lot of valuable data. An important validation moment, for example, was the far-reaching interest of Christiaan van Hoof of the world-renowned Flemish digital innovation center IMEC in further developing Numinous on the IMEC campus and making it ready for the market.
Since it was clear from the start that we didn't see ourselves as the team that would eventually develop and market Numinous, this was nonetheless the best compliment we could ever get! We would love for Numinous to find that new dedicated team to get Numinous fully of the ground to reach its full potential.
Do you have any questions, or does design like this tickle you too? Feel free to contact Stefanie at bontestefanie@gmail.com
