Week 6: Synthesizing

This week we worked on synthesizing the findings from our earlier interviews and service experiment in the park or order to define the 2 touchpoint that we will mock-up for the final presentation. Over the past few weeks we had brainstormed a number of possible touchpoints:

• Educational materials in the waiting room of the doctor’s office
• Hallway murals in the doctor’s office
• Projected illustrations in an exam room to educate children about asthma and how to take their medication
• A physical storybook
• A digital storybook
• An app for parents to enter symptom data
• An app that helps a child calm down & breathe deeply during an asthma attack
• A traveling “asthma kit” that includes easy to record symptom report cards for non-parental caregivers

In an effort to narrow ourselves down to two touchpoints, we discussed what elements of the service experiment resonated with children (stickers, coloring, being prompted to remember their day) and what the needs of parents tasked with tracking their child’s asthma symptoms may be. We knew the the storybook would be the anchor of our system, so brainstormed a number of ways that the storybook could exist and when it would be most useful.

We decided that the storybook should be introduced, in a physical form, during the doctor’s appointment to educate a child/parent about asthma and how to use their inhaler. For the on-going data collection mechanism, we realized that we could create a single integrated app, which could contain:

• A digital version of the storybook, with daily activities that would prompt symptom data collection
• A meditation/deep breathing animation for during an asthma attack, which could also collect data on the duration of symptoms + medication given
• A data visualization of symptom data entered into the app (low-fi mockup)
• A copy of a child’s asthma management plan & medication list (not to be mocked-up)

We imagine this app to be compatible with phones and tablets, with the idea that for the daily storybook exercise a child would be using a tablet. We spent a bit of time discussing what would work best for data collection? Should a parent and child be operating off of the same device? Given how much the kids we interviewed liked coloring, we discussed the idea of a child coloring in the storybook on a tablet, while a parent asked them questions and entered data on the iPhone app. Once the child finishes coloring in the activity, the illustration could animate as a reward for completing the activity.

As far as transmitting the symptom frequency data back to the doctor, we realized that we could potentially create the data visualization within the app, with the idea that the parent would bring the app to a doctor’s appointment. Keeping the data with the parent/child would also be helpful in transmitting information between different doctors that a patient may encounter during regular appointments vs. ER visits vs. Specialist appointments.

With this service experience in mind, we conducted an additional interview with a parent of a 6 year old (and 1/5 year old) in order to get feedback on our concept. Our interviewee was receptive to the overall concept, and had some interesting suggestions on how to make the nightly storybook/data collection engaging. He noted that children are really motivated by rewards and often enjoy “tracking” progress, if that tracking is related the a reward. He gave an example of his daughter needing to practice the piano for music class each week, and she diligently makes sure to add stickers to her practice chart so that she can get the reward at the end of the week. He also seemed to think that the parent and child should not be on separate devices for the data collection part, but perhaps after the data input is complete, the kid gets a reward (ie- a short video clip) for finishing the activity. We will discuss next week how to incorporate this feedback into out storybook app design.

Next week we are also beginning to wireframe the app, drafting the storybook content, and deciding on a illustration/visual style for the system. We have a created moodboard on Pinterest and to collect inspiration for our storybook.