Week 8 Reflection

Scoping the Project

This past week, we narrowed our project scope. Here is a rough overview of what we plan to prototype:

Introduction of Intervention into the System

We also began to think more carefully about how our intervention will be introduced into the system. Initially we thought patients would be given a physical book in the waiting room or in the doctor’s office; however, since we are moving away from a physical artifact, we decided to rethink this first encounter. While we initially thought that patients might be able to indicate whether or not they have children in the hospital’s portal, current patients do not have the option to submit this information, and so it is likely that the doctor would obtain this information at the consultation. The doctor can ask the patient upon first encounter, or if patients bring their children with them to the clinic. Other artifacts such as pins that the doctor wears or posters of the characters around the office could also help to provide greater visibility for this initiative.

Storyline Progress

After completing our script, we also began to think about the storyline for our book. As per Kristin’s advice, we wanted to situate the story in a context where children might find themselves having questions if this scenario were to occur in real life, so the opening scene features a mother taking their child with them to the clinic, and the child having questions about their mom’s condition, models of the eye around the office etc.

One main consideration we have is thinking about how to incorporate interactive activities into the storyline, such as having the child write a letter to their grandmother in the book, and teaching them about color contrast, writing bigger etc. Based on some of our readings about writing books for children, rather than having a book that preaches at children, we want to acknowledge that kids are active, and will be able to to learn by doing rather than reading large chunks of text.

We are also thinking about how to increase investment in the series. We are thinking of allowing children to name the protagonist to give them more ownership, and to have a ‘passcode’ or question to unlock each new book on the bookshelf when a book has been completed.

Class Share Out and Feedback

These are some feedback and suggestions we received:

1. People like the idea of interactivity in the book to engage users and help them understand the concept better.
2. Kristin suggested that we show our characters and script to children to get feedback from their perspective.

Further Character Development

In the beginning character development, characters had more textures in the drawing. Since this book has to be accessible to parents or grandparents with visual impairments, we decided to have the drawing geometric with clean cut lines so it’s easier for them to recognize the drawings. In the next steps, we’re planning to choose colors that pass the WCAG accessibility test.

Next Steps

1. More detailed outline of the script on the book pages
2. Establish main design system
3. Finish full script
4. Distribute tasks