Week 12

Following the peer reviews on Monday, we began by synthesizing the feedback we received. The two main points were that the visuals seemed too playful which did not represent the user base and goals well, and that the means of communication between patients did not seem deep enough. Using that as a starting point, we decided to take a step back and re-evaluate our means and goals using a chart format.

Going all the way back to the research phase, we reconsidered the exact problems that helped to shape the goals of the project, how we plan to address them, the reasoning behind why they should be addressed in that way, what that might look like, and reasons to support why it should look that way.

We applied these evaluative techniques to aspects that relate back to the main problem frame as well as details such as our decision-making process for character representations.

We also reconsidered the interaction as a whole by creating a storyboard showing the beginning and end journey of the user outside of just the clinic experience. We used the storyboard as a tool to better frame the overarching goals of the project.

In the storyboard, a patient dealing with injuries from a car accident feels emotionally isolated as a result of his condition. A key point in the narrative occurs when the patient sees the value of support as a result of his in-clinic experience. Using a resource provided at the end of his appointment, he is able to connect to local support groups in order to take that final step to a face-to-face support system experience.

Finally, we put all of this towards a comprehensive analysis of ideas, including new ones that were inspired by the previous steps.

One element that we are considering adding is a voice to text communication feature. With one of our goals being to design a stepping stone to real life support groups, we want our system of communication between patients to go a little deeper than just hugs and facial expressions, but not deep enough that it intrudes on patient privacy. To support this, we want to implement prompts that periodically appear on screen which users can respond to by using voice to text to record answers. By bumping into each other, users can reveal the answers of other patients but the conversation does not continue deeper into that particular topic. We think that this method would be a good compromise between more meaningful communication and maintaining a level of comfort and privacy.