Rachana Solanki
GURU:
A mobile application with the aim to assist people (here the target audience is old people) suffering from Dementia. With the aim to help reorient their memory after dementia induced a panic attack. The potential user can be an old person suffering from dementia or their caretaker.
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(August- October 2017)
Motivation
The team (me, Swapnil Kosarabe and Eric Smith) decided to focus on the group of old people. The idea was to find the most common problem amongst this group of adults and try to address that problem.
Design
Process
Research
&
Empathize
Define
Ideation
Design
&
Test
Observation
Secondary
Research
Stakeholder
Interview
User
Interview
Key
Findings
Persona
(Understanding
the user)
Storyboarding
Final Design
Direction
Wireframing
Lo-Fi
Prototyping
Hi-Fi
Prototyping
Testing
&
Evaluation
Problem Space
Design a solution using technology to assist/help old-aged people and make their lives easier.
Empathize
We began with observing and interviewing the old people at different places. We observed old people at the festival called “Back to Fifties”, Canal Walk near the Canal Square Apartments, Indiana world war memorial and Obelisk square. We conducted an interview at an assisted living in Brownsburg. Later, based on our interviews and observations, we listed everything and analyzed the data.
Primary Research
We interviewed 3 old people and 2 formal caregivers at an assisted living in Brownsburg. Interview Questions asked are as follows:-
Old person:
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How do you typically spend their day?
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Do you use devices such as mobile, tablet and/or laptop and for what purpose?
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How do you stay connected with their family members and friends?
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Do you use social media applications? Which ones?
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How do you remember and/or remind yourself of important days and appointments?
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If introducing a new technology, are they willing to learn?
Formal Caregivers:
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What steps do you take in order to reorient their memory when they have a panic attack?
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Have you come across a scenario where the dementia patient gets a panic attack while on a walk? How do you locate them?
Secondary Research
47 Million
people suffering from Dementia worldwide
10 Million
new cases for Dementia every year
75 Million
expected people suffering from Dementia by 2030
Define
After user research, we defined our problem statement and jotted down the key requirements, key findings and build the persona. Persona was used throughout our design process to recall/remind ourselves who is our USER and stay focused on our user-centric approach.
Problem Statement
To help/assist old people suffering from dementia or their caretakers to reorient the memory after having dementia attack.
Affinity Mapping
Key Findings
At assisted living, the old people
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have access to mobile phone, iPad, laptops and/or desktops and they use social media applications to stay connected to their family members and friends
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find it difficult to remember and remind themselves of their friend's birthday/deathday, events and/or appointments
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a person with dementia condition is not allowed to go alone outside the building unless accompanied by a formal caregiver or a family member
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open to technology if given proper training/tutorial on how to use it they are willing to learn
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60/100 people were suffering from Dementia in their later life
Key Requirements
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Memory recall after an old person has dementia induced panic attack.
(ii) Track or locate an old person when having dementia induced a panic attack.
(iii) Design keeping visual and sound requirements for old age.
(iv) Instructions / Tutorial requirement if the technology is introduced to them
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Ideate
We brainstormed around 60 ideas during 3 brainstorming sessions. After this, we selected the top three ideas - Mobile application, smart wristband, and e-Ink paper book. We build storyboards for all the three ideas and then downselected our final design direction based on key requirements.
Idea 1
Mobile Application
Idea 2
Smart wristband connected to T.V.
Idea 3
E-Ink Slam book
Selection Process
The mobile app will be used by caregivers to remind the elder person of who they are and what relation they share with the old person during visits. We decided to incorporate this idea into the more available devices in assisted living like Television along with mobile phones for old people (secondary user) to recover themselves in the absence of their families.
GURU for the friends/family members of old people.
After the dementia attack, the surrounding people can use a mobile application and help them regain their memory using the main functionality - Media files (images, videos and audios)
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Some supporting functionalities - Add/delete reminders/events, Messages & Tutorials/Instructions
Design
We conducted the heuristic evaluation and cognitive walkthrough on our low-fidelity design in our usability testing. We also got an opportunity to conduct a think-aloud test with one participant. Based on the results of usability testing, we refined and build our final medium fidelity prototype.
Medium-fidelity Prototype
Future Steps
Our future step is to conduct the usability test on the medium fidelity prototype. And later build the high-fidelity prototype based on the feedback we received.
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