Stakeholder Map, Project Brief, Guest Lecture Reflection

Sept. 19, 2020 (9.13.2020–9.19.2020)

Over the timeframe of this week, we continued to conduct research and refine our project scope based on our findings, analysis, and discussions.

Research methods

Method 2: Mapping Innovation Ecosystems; Actor Cards

We each created 12 cards that include information of the description, capacities, and needs of the people, places, and objects that are involved in the system that we are exploring.

Method 3: Stakeholder map

We created a stakeholder map based on the system that we are designing for, which is the healthcare system for stroke patients, to understand all the people who have an influence in the context and how they are connected.

Method 4: Problem/Proposition Definition

We defined the issue and possible solutions through the problem/proposition definition method. We started with classifying the problem and issue definition. Then we mapped out the user segments and organizational resources to define our proposition.

Project Brief:

After lots of research and discussion, we defined our project brief.

5.4 million Americans live with the effects of stroke and more than 50% of people who have had a stroke reported to have depression*. It is currently the number one leading cause of adult disability. We are interested in helping stroke patients gain a sense of community, autonomy, and self-confidence alongside the Occupational Therapy offered at UPMC.

Our solution includes three main stakeholders: stroke patients, occupational therapists at UPMC, and people who lack education in understanding stroke patients. With secondary research planned to further understand how occupational therapy works for stroke patients, we are focusing on developing a support and education platform in tangent with a physical space within UPMC for all of our stakeholders, which will result in patients dealing with the effects of stroke to gain more confidence, autonomy, and sense of belonging.

• In a sample of people with cerebral palsy, the rate of depression was also found to be 40 percent. Rates of up to 50 percent and higher have been found among people who have had a stroke (Robinson, 2003). https://www.nap.edu/read/11579/chapter/17#240

Guest lecture reflection:

On September 16, we had the honor to attend a guest lecture by Catherine Gerchell, director of CMU’s office of disability resources. Below is each of our team member’s reflections on her talk.

Christine

One of the things that Gerchell said that is particularly important to understanding inclusivity, is that it is essential to talk to lots of people who are experiencing the disability that we are looking into. Our imagination is limited, and it is impossible to truly understand the experiences of people with disability unless we listen to them. What every person with disability(even those experiencing the same disability, such as blindness) need is different because of the diverse contexts that each of them are in. Thus, it is even more important to talk to different people to understand the connections between them, and to design a diversity of participation so everyone has a sense of belonging. Another important concept that Gerchell said that is important to keep in mind, is to just to make it known that accommodations are ready and available, and make these accommodations a regular part of the process. Not everyone is comfortable in disclosing their disabilities, and having them to initiate the request for accommodations may be hard. It requires empathy and detailed consideration to achieved this (understanding what, when, and how these accommodations are needed), and is something that all of us should keep in mind throughout our design journey.

Jae

In any type of design process, it is very important to define stakeholders and understand their perspectives. It is difficult to understand the issues/problem the stakeholders have with the system and what perspectives they have, without talking to them. For this project, it was difficult for me to understand what kind of issues the patients are having and how they work, because of the lack of resources. Listening to Getchell’s talk, I was able to have a better understandings. Given that everyone has different experiences and perspective, the visually impaired people’s experiences and perspective would be also very different. I appreciated this opportunity to be able to listen to what Getchell has to say. There were some things that I have already known about the visual disability and some things that I have never known. It was interesting to actually see the tools and technologies she uses, because today, tools and technologies we use is essentially the primary world around us. Thanks to her talk, I think I have a better understanding of how to design for inclusivity.

Elizabeth

Something I’ve always struggled with was a form of guilt that manifested in the fear of not being able to design accessibly for people living lives differently than I do. What really impacted me during Gerchell’s talk was that if you want to design for disabled people in particular—ask them, work with them. Nothing is more biased than designing for ones own life and experiences. It is also not in good practice to design based on assumptions—without Gerchell’s talk, how would I have known that most blind people do not actually learn braille?

The reality of designing based off assumptions came up in Gerchell’s example of a student designing a complex product meant to help visually impaired people. When the problem was brought up to her a simpler solution seemed so obvious. That perspective she had is the information designers need to ask for and understand and empathize with before coming up with a solution to a problem they do not fully understand.