Results phase 1

Planning appointments

• Struggles with creating appointments while others are talking

• Does not care about the exact time, when he gets a notification, he leaves directly

• Uses his iPhone Calendar Application to plan every appointment

• Likes to bike to his appointments and uses public transportation when it is far away

Hobbies

• Enjoys cooking, reading books, watching YouTube, playing GO, listening to music and talking about philosophy with friends

• Wants to travel to i.a. Egypt, still ambitious/adventurous

Relationships

• Has two daughters that are not living with him

• Has a small circle of friends

• Appreciated his daughter turning down the volume of the TV when talking to him

During the interview with the participant in workshop 2, a brainstorming session was done on possible product solutions that could help combat the challenges aphasia and short-term memory loss give him in his day to day life.

Firstly was a voice-activated recipe assistant robot where you can request a recipe from the assistant and it will list out the ingredients and steps to take at the pace the participant desires through voice commands like “next”. This would help the participant learn new recipes as he has not done so since his stroke.

The next idea was a live picture frame where the participant and his friends and family could upload pictures. The frame will then slowly cycle through the pictures so that when the participant looks at the frame it can remind him of events in his life that he may have forgotten.

Next, we wanted to help remind him of his daily tasks. We considered making a pen where he could voice record his tasks or thoughts throughout the day which then gets uploaded to his phone where he can listen back to them. Alternatively, the pen could have rolled up paper inside of it so he can always take notes no matter where he is as long as he has the pen. Another approach was to upgrade his current agenda using a wearable such as a bracelet or watch which reminds him of appointments that he would input into his phone agenda application.

Another idea was to make a device that could help the participant improve his skills in the game GO as he has been unable to improve due to his short-term memory loss. This idea was not well received as the participant considered it cheating.

First version

At the end of the first phase, a design challenge was put together based on all findings. The findings were derived from the literature study and interviews with the co-designer. The design challenge needed to cover the most relevant knowledge gained from it. The design challenge at that point was:

It was discovered that the co-designer is not able to learn new activities anymore. However, the participant knows how to operate products that he had used before or products that are easy to understand. Hence, the challenge was to create a product that is familiar to the user and is perceived as intuitive. Additionally, the product should fit into his daily routine. This is important since the structure in his life helps him with doing things. The idea for the product to serve as a reminder regarding current and future tasks emerged from the fact that he needs to plan all his appointments including a timer. A product that supports him with doing that could improve his experience with planning and time management. Besides that, the product should remind him of the past, purely to function as a morale mood booster. Lastly, the design challenge states that the product should contain visual elements. This decision was made after discovering that the co-designer remembers visual information best.

Final design challenge

Nevertheless, the design challenge was open to change. The design process continued and moved towards the second phase of the project, which was ideation. While creating sketches, brainstorming ideas together and executing more useful exercises with the participant, new findings were revealed. After this shift in product vision, the design challenge altered. The final design challenge can be found in Results phase 2.