Team Almonds

Introduction

60-223 Introduction to Physical Computing is a course at CMU designed to teach students basic technical skills of hardware and software, including electronics, programming, and laser cutting through a series of projects. For the final project, we are tasked with building an assistive device for a client from the CLASS community. In this page we, Team Almonds, document our interviews with our client Jill, where we discussed her areas of need and ways we can make her life more convenient in order to create a device that addresses those needs. 

Meeting Agenda 

Initial Interview

Introduction

• Name, Year, Major, Favorite Hobby

• Explain the purpose of the class and the project

  • Building an assistive device

    • May not necessarily be solving a problem, but adding value into your life. 

Understanding Needs and Thinking of Possible Interventions

• Are there any areas of your life that could be made more convenient?

  • What is difficult to do now that the had no trouble doing before?

    • This question only applies if their disability is from an injury

• Any ideas they might have as to how to solve their problems

• Random interests (music, sports teams)

  • Why are these things important to you (significance, ethnographic questions)

• Potentially sketch out ideas that come up during the interview

Conclude

• Exchange contact information

• Thank her for her time

Follow up Interview

Introduction

• Greetings

• Review shortcomings of current ideas

  • Initial ideas not in scope of class (trays) 

  • Mechanical projects typically result in a less effective finished device. 

    • Bring up potential for Saylor’s idea, depends on kitchen space

Reframing the "Need"

• Examples of previous projects, emphasis on additions to life rather than solutions to ‘problems’

  • Anything that can make your life more fun and exciting

  • Puzzle: https://courses.ideate.cmu.edu

  • Bookmark: https://courses.ideate.cmu.edu

  • FitBox: https://courses.ideate.cmu.edu

  • Kinetic art piece: https://courses.ideate.cmu.edu

  • MIDI: https://courses.ideate.cmu.edu  

  • Mindfulness device: https://courses.ideate.cmu.edu

• Reframe problem space

  • Other people around her

  • Shared spaces: work place, apartment

  • Coworkers, mom

  • If comfortable, ask pictures of kitchen / apartment areas, work place (desk, shared kitchen), wheelchair

• Hobbies

  • Is there anything you've ever wanted to try and haven't gotten around to it? 

  • Listening to music, going outside, going to the gym, hanging out with friends

    • Is there anything that could be improved? 

    • Ex. go outside reminders, tracking gym visits 

    • Fun idea / conceptual: baby keyboard

Meeting Summary and Takeaways

From our initial meeting with Jill, it was hard for us to work together and find a problem we can solve using physical computing. The solutions we found were more mechanical engineering heavy rather than creating devices that relied on the electronics. For example, we wanted to create a tray that Jill could use on her wheelchair– giving her more table space when cooking food. However, because this was drastically out of the scope of the class, we decided to pivot and have another interview with Jill.

Before our second interview, we talked to one another about our first meeting with Jill. We decided to reframe our project and focus on any hobbies that she is doing rather than focusing on any ‘problems’ that she needs to fix. We first presented Saylor's idea of using a makeshift sink where Jill could pour boiling water into a pot that sits right next to her stove. This pot would then tell her when it has cooled down enough for her to safely move the water to her sink to pour. Jill liked this idea but she ultimately felt more inclined towards our later ideas. 

During the next half of our interview, we talked about her time in the gym and any specific problems she faced. Within this conversation, we discovered that she had issues with continuously counting the reps she does while doing arm exercises. On top of that, current exercise watches do not have anything integrated within them that are specifically catered towards people in wheelchairs. Jill felt deterred from exercise watches because of their prioritization of people who walk as the pedometers track arm movement. This finding led us to believe that our next project would be to work on rapid prototyping of this idea and bringing it to Jill for critique. Jill also informed us that she will provide us with a detailed list of her arm exercises so we know what types of exercises she would want to log and keep track of.  

Reflection

Following our first meeting, our team felt fairly confident in a direction we wanted to go In. There was a bit of difficulty finding Issues to address In our meeting. Because Jill has had cerebral palsy her whole life, she seemed to have most of her Issues sorted out. She's adjusted to what she can on her own, and the Issues she did bring up dealt more with people and environments around her. For example, she mentioned how opening doors In a wheelchair Is very difficult. We thought about how we might fix this, but It seems to be a more deep-seeded Issue that would be difficult for us to solve. Eventually we asked her about her daily routine and she mentioned how she wishes she could cook more, and we found potential Ideas here.

After the team brainstormed the Ideas In class, It seemed as though our solutions with a trey or lowered countertop piece were too mechanical, so we had another call with Jill. This call opened up more possibilities In terms of different Issues we could design for. Jill mentioned how she wanted a fitness watch to track her arm movements, but most fitness watches utilized leg/foot movement to do so, which Isn't feasible for wheelchair users. Our team brainstormed potential Ideas using a 3-axis accelerometer. We discussed If we think these Ideas are feasible, and as a team we feel a bit nervous about the Idea not working but are willing to give It a chance. In our next steps, we hope to test out how this accelerometer will work and figure out how we could design something that Is wearable and effective. At the moment, we don't need much Information from Jill yet except for the specific arm movements she does at the gym which she Is getting to us as soon as she can, and we are checking back In with her once we solidify our ideas.