Starting fresh
Coming back to school and doing this exercise as a group was definitely a great way of starting fresh. This idea was just to sketch new ideas for how our individual problem areas could be approached. I worked with Paula and Abhi and after brainstorming, it was interesting to see that we were all thinking of similar ideas and executions.
Some ideas that came out of everyone’s sketches were:
- Digital screen with haptic feedback which can be stuck to a fridge or selected common place where the patient and the family members can interact with it.
- Different kinds of games for the patient to interact with.
- Having a physical computing component to go with the app for the patient to interact with as the main input source.
- App to keep patient connected to the family.
- App will give specific help for managing MS symptoms for the family.
- Interactive screen that syncs with the phone app.
- Having an app which allows the patient to get across to their supporter system on how they feel and what their specific needs are.
- Family gets a notification when the patient is having a bad day and they are not home. They get help on what they can do to make them feel better e.g “Can someone help me make dinner tonight?” etc.
- Digital screen with digital taps as input.
- Magic 8-ball which records emotions and syncs with the app.
- Rubik’s cube which records colors and updates the app with the latest emotion being the color that glows on top. The colors can be loaded on the cube and held down for three seconds for that emotion to get recorded.
- App which gives specific help to the family on how to handle the symptoms of MS that the patient is suffering from.
- The app can also be used to update and record emotions and moods throughout the day especially useful for the time the patient is away from the house or the physical component of the system.
Some common themes that I came across in all three of our sketches was the need of having a digital connection between the physical prototype and the app which would sink and change as the patient and directed with it.
The other thing the group thought is a must was the need to update the family with real time input from the patient. The app would let the supporter group know how the patient was feeling and they would be able to login at their convenience to see where their (the patient’s) emotions were at any given time. The other thing that would make the app specific to Multiple Sclerosis would be ways to help the patient in their day-to-day problems that they face with their condition. These tips would be very specific to Multiple Sclerosis and will help the family in taking the knowledge of how their family member is feeling and doing something actionable about it.
