Identifying Hypothesis I: Communication Help
When identifying the hypothesis from the earlier assumptions that I was working on, I saw that there was a common theme amongst them, surrounding language. I’ve been very centered around discovering what communication looks like for people living with MS and it is definitely a very tricky task trying to determine what that looks like.
I found that there are two groups of people living with MS: People who like talking about their stories and journeys living with MS and people who never like to talk about their story or their life with MS. There are caregivers and partners who are understanding and there are caregivers who are not very in tune with what happens when their loved one who has MS is going through a tough time in their MS journey. In parallel, I’ve been exploring different kinds of communication apps or tools that exist for patients with other diseases to communicate with the outside world or their families. The closest I came to finding such a thing was for cancer patients who are close to ending treatments and get ready for end-of-life talks. I did not find those to be very close in doing what I am trying to create simply, because that seemed to be more for people wanting to discuss end-of-life treatment and options.
So the hypothesis that I want to test for is that if I create a tool for MS patients to communicate better with their family, they will feel less anxious, stressed and more understood in their overall journey. My idea proposal included communication regarding moods needs, feelings, conversation facilitation, things to avoid saying and other situational conversation helpful for people living with MS.
My next step is to build a prototype around this idea and to see where this direction you lead me in terms of building a robust communication or connection between patients and their families.
