Chestnuts Interview

Introductions: Our names. Small talk to get everyone comfortable. How's your day been and the such.

Explanations: Why we're here. Clarify the scope and timeline. Explain what will be needed from the client. 

Down to Business: What is your daily life like here? Are there any parts of it especially frustrating or difficult, or that you need particular assistance with?

Brainstorm: Ask for clarification on different problems we've discussed. Narrow down list of ideas, make sure ideas are within scope.

Fine Details: Ask for information that might've been missed. Ask questions regarding design details and finishing touches.

Impressions and overview:

We met with Zajkora (our client) and Bill (a staff member) in the art studio at CLASS.  We began by introducing ourselves, and going over our goals with the project. Talking with Zajkora about some of her hobbies and routines at CLASS, we learned she's creative, and enjoys to have opportunities to do new things and visit other places. She was planning to make some work for the upcoming art show, and we talked about what we all enjoyed shopping for at the mall.

One other thing about Zajkora is that she was a bit shy while talking to us as we were coming in as strangers. She opened up more through the interview, but her quietness led to Bill getting in a lot of talking too.

Throughout the meeting, some of the things said that Zajkora would like assistance with were with painting and drawing, and with tracking money she had to spend at CLASS's vending machines and shopping trips. She also talked with us about enjoying computer games and practicing typing in the computer lab, but through further thought it seemed there was already software that worked just fine for her to play typing games. With art-making, she said she'd have trouble staying within the lines, and her hand would get tired so she'd have someone assist her by holding her hand to stabilize it. By the end of the meeting, we narrowed down our discussion to the creation of a "virtual wallet" to help Zajkora with balancing her money.

The set up:

Zajkora receives $25 from home each week. She brings in the money with her to CLASS, and staff keep track of it in their office. She has to ask the staff everytime she wants to check how much money she has or to take some out. This can be frustrating and a nuisance for her to have to rely on other people to be able to check her wallet.

The logistics:

The money is kept in an envelope in a safe in the office. Zajkora doesn’t know the pin to the safe, or have access into the office it’s kept in. Staff keep track of the amount on a paper ledger when Zajkora deposits or withdrawals money.

Zajkora has a cubby in the main hallway. The cubby is 18”x 12” (width x height), with an 11.5” (depth) shelf, though the full depth is 12.25”. It’s at about eye-level. She keeps a backpack in it that takes up about ¾ of the space, plus some papers with her schedule and typing work. The cubby and the office with the safe are within 50 feet of each other, which is notable for if we use wireless communication in our design.

She likes to spend the money on trips or at the mall, but also at the vending machine at CLASS. The vending machine is notable because it means she may be making many small withdrawals, and may have change that isn't in $1 increments. It's unlikely the amount of money she's keeping at CLASS will be over $100.

The idea (so far):

From this, we're thinking to create some kind of device to slot into Zajkora's cubby in the hallway where she can access it easily and whenever she wants. It would be able to display how much money she had in the office safe whenever she turned it on and entered a code. It would know her balance by wirelessly asking a device in the staff's office. The office device would be updated by staff (along with or replacing the paper ledger) whenever Zajkora withdrew or deposited money.

We discussed after the meeting that we felt the discussion might've been a little railroaded by Bill. We think the virtual wallet device would be useful for Zajkora, but are worried it's not an idea she came up for for herself, and there might be something more useful to her or her disability. The issue wasn't that Zajkora was too introverted- she was open to talk about herself. We learned that her favorite thing to draw is flowers, where she spent money and if she had plans for saving, and if she had difficulties in daily living like with typing, memory, and vision. Our team felt that the meeting could've gone in a more fruitful direction if we had stepped in more and made sure we were only hearing Zajkora's voice and not Bill's. We were considering perhaps making another trip down to CLASS to meet with Zajkora and discuss other ideas, although we are not discounting the usefulness of the virtual wallet.