Team Chestnuts

Introduction

On October 23, the Chestnut team held an in-person interview with Kathy at CLASS, an organization that supports people with various disabilities, including brain injuries, intellectual and developmental disabilities, autism, neurological and physical disabilities, as well as older adults. Our meeting aimed to better understand Kathy's personal challenges, interests, and her use of assistive devices. This interview is part of our physical computing course project, where we are designing a custom assistive device prototype for Kathy, based on her daily experiences. The Chestnut team, made up of Patrick, Emily, and Allison, is focused on creating a solution that will help address some of her unique needs, such as providing better lighting or magnification when working on her crafting projects, as we work toward a high-fidelity and highly-customized final product over the next several weeks.

Meeting Agenda

Introduction/icebreaker

• 1. Share names

  2. How long have you been in Pittsburgh, and what do you like about living here?

  3. Share an anecdote about building the assistive device for yourself (Project2)

     1. Automatic Cat Feeder

     2. Touch Grass Device

     3. Pill dispenser 

  4. Ask client to share their name and interest in participating in this group activity

  5. Have you had some experience with using some assistive devices particularly for yourself in the past?

  6. Why did you volunteer for this project? What drew you to want to participate?

Explanation and clarification about project goals

• • Be sure to be on the same page about this project.

    • We are:

      • Trying to build prototype useful devices

      • Engaging in an iterative design process, including gathering formative feedback around the midpoint of the process

      • Taking about seven weeks to go from this meeting to a reasonably high-fidelity final product

      • Documenting our process

    • We are not:

      • Professional technologists who are experienced in making polished products

      • Planning to build something that will be sold commercially, the user of the device is specify to the client

      • Constrained by any practicality outside of usefulness to the person we’re designing for

      • Likely to invent a totally novel piece of electronics (we combine many existing available components in new ways, but don’t make components)

  • A quick timeline overview of the process

Understanding needs and thinking of possible technological interventions

• • Do you have any activities in their daily life that are difficult or find more frustrating and time consuming?

  • Can you walk us through a typical day for you?

  • Are there any tasks or situations where you feel additional support or assistance would be helpful?

  • Are there specific tasks where you feel a machine or device could make a significant difference (e.g., cooking, cleaning, personal care)?

  • How do you prefer to interact with devices? (what kind of input of the device best works for you? E.g. button, voice, light, etc.)

  • Are you willing to demonstrate a daily task or a series of tasks during the meeting? 

    • Holding something

    • Writing

  • Could you try to think of something that you used to enjoy doing, which has become harder over time for any reason. Are there creative ways to make that thing easier to do now?

  • Simple creative act of drawing to bring out ideas: can you draw a map or cartoon of their daily life, or narrate the action? It could be a map (literal map, showing travels), a sequence of cartoon panels (first I do this, then I do this), or take a more abstract form.

  • What assistive devices or technologies do you currently use? How well do they work for you?

  • “Why is this/are these important to you”

Conclude

• • Thank you for your time, could you give us your contact information

  • gather any final documentation images/drawings/notes you may need to wrap up before closing.

  • Reiterate the overall project schedule

Thoughts after holding the meeting & discussing as a team 

After reviewing our meeting notes, we realized that our meeting did not go as planned. This was mainly due to our client, Kathy, who began the meeting telling us about some of her preliminary ideas. Many of the questions we had on our planning document never had to be asked, or simply seemed counterproductive given the ideas that were presented to us. Rather, we were excited at the idea of creating a device that would help our client with crafting. We thought that overall, we greatly appreciated Kathy taking initiative and guiding the meeting. In fact, there were only a few times where there was ever a lull in our conversation; in these moments, we’d often break the silence by asking a comparatively leisurely or personal question, such as “What are some projects you’ve worked on recently?” or “Why do you enjoy knitting?” 

While overall we feel that the interview went well, there are a few things that we could have done to have improved the experience and provided us with more actionable information. One standout technical question we asked was about where and how Kathy tends to be situated when she knits and embroiders. While Kathy did answer the question generally, we wish that we further inquired about her physical environment when she’s crafting, such as the type of seating she uses, and what other objects tend to be around her. Additionally, while a bit of a touchy subject, it would have been useful to know more about our client’s mobility; specifically, what movements are easy, difficult, or impossible for Kathy to perform. One of our design ideas involved a wearable component, but we weren’t sure how heavy we would be able to make this component before it would be impractical for use. However, it is understandable that we may not have felt comfortable navigating a conversation like this, especially since this was our first time meeting our client.