For our third project in Intro to Physical Computing, we have been tasked to create an assistive device for a client from the CLASS community. Our device is meant to serve a useful function for our client. 

On Thursday (3/14/24) we interviewed our client, Drayton, and sought to identify a need that we could fulfill with a technological solution. 

Meeting Agenda 

Intro / Icebreaker

• • • Name, school year and major, where we are from, and a fun fact

Give an explanation and clarification about our class and project goals

• • • “We are students taking Physical Computing, which is… In our third project, we are seeking to create an assistive device for you!” 

    • Elaborate on prior assistive devices to help our client get a sense of what we are capable of

    • Give an overview of the timeline of our project

    • Ask questions!

Understanding the needs and thinking of possible technological interventions

• • • Directly ask if the client has any struggles on their mind

    • “Tell us about what an average day looks like for you.”, “What do you like to do for fun?”, “Can you give us an idea of what you do most days?”, “What things are difficult for you that you wish were easier?”

    • During this time, be sure to think about possible interventions

    • Direct the conversation to yield valuable information

Conclude

• • • Thank the client for their time

    • Leave contact information

    • Reiterate timeline

Meeting Summary

As the meeting began, we worked to find out what was bothering Drayton in his daily life. We quickly learned that scheduling his day is very important to him, and he is aided by both his watch and phone throughout the day. At that moment, he happened to have neither on him, so we thought about some way either to help keep track of the watch and phone or to help him with his calendar, noting “Forgetful- watch-like device?” and “use iphone a lot- maybe a way to keep track of it”. However, as we thought about this, we discounted that plan for two reasons- it could be too bulky for Drayton to enjoyably use, and it would simply be a third thing for him to remember. Likewise, any strategy to help him track his devices would ultimately require him to remember that device.

Mal, the liaison between our class and CLASS, then came to help out by letting us know that Drayton enjoyed cooking. We discussed his cooking habit, learning that he enjoyed cooking, and especially enjoyed sushi and pizza. He doesn’t know how to cook pizza, but would like to learn. Since we know he has some difficulties with fine motor control, we thought about making a device that would aid in rolling sushi and preparing it for cutting, two parts of the process that necessitate fine motor skills. “Machine to help with parts of making sushi? Rolling, cutting, etc”.

We also learned that Drayton really enjoys the music of Blue Man Group, which we feel would be nice to include in our final project. He also has a nice cottage north of Pittsburgh, where he fishes for carp. We briefly floated concepts for a navigation device to help him get to the cottage or a device to help with fishing; but he said neither of these were needed for him, so we discounted those plans.

At this point, Mal noticed he wasn’t sure where his phone was and made it clear that he had given it to her to charge. From this, we inferred that a way to ensure his phone was charged throughout the day would be handy, so he could keep it with him constantly. When delving further into his routine, which is important to him, we found that he has a pretty firm nighttime routine, leading us to think about a device that could help him make sure he took care of his full bedtime routine, as well as helping him remember to plug in his phone. 

Reflection

Our team felt that although our interview was a bit slow in the beginning, it was overall successful and we were able to glean good insights, particularly near the end of our interview. Our meeting started by introducing ourselves to our client, Drayton, and briefly introducing our project. Although we constructed an agenda, we found it challenging to keep on the task due to Drayton’s overall satisfaction with most of his daily tasks. 

During the middle of our meeting, Mallory joined our group to aid us in facilitating our interview by providing more specific prompts based on Drayton’s likes, daily routine, and favorite activities; this was extremely helpful in learning more specifically about his daily night routine, tasks that he struggled to remember to complete, and activities he enjoyed doing with his family at his cottage. I think what we could do differently next time would be to have a series of additional questions to keep the conversation on task. In addition we could have potentially incorporated alternative methods of obtaining information, such as having Drayton draw or map out his routine or the layout of his bedroom on paper. Our next steps for the project will be further refining our concept on a bedtime routine device, creating a series of additional questions based on our refined concept, and reaching out to Drayton’s mother, Ms. Foltz to help answer these questions. When we reach out to Ms. Foltz before beginning our design process to get her read on the situation, determine the dimensions of the nightstand we expect the final project to rest on, and to discern if there are any other things we may want to add to our final project.

Our team interviewing Drayton at CLASS