The Final Concept

Requirements

Based on all the information that was collected over time and by finding out what the cause of the problem was, a list of requirements was made. 

  1. The product should not potentially restrict current behaviour. 
  2. The product should have the case owner entertained to have the focus elsewhere then the texting. 
  3. The product should fulfil the case owners’ needs. 
  4. The product should be specifically matched with the case owner’s style. 
  5. The user interaction of the product should match with the intellectual level of the case owner. 
  6. The case owner should be able to resolve the problem without need of external approval or supervision.  
  7. The product should work for over a period of a year time.  
  8. The product should be applicable in the co-designer’s environment. 
  9. The product should interact with the co-designer.  
  10. The product should encourage the case owner to the phone less.  
  11. The product should match the physical ability of the case owner.  
  12. The realisation of the activities should not be complicated 
  13. The product should encourage the case owner to do real-life activity.  

Concept Video

The Concept

The final concept exists of multiple parts. These are the jar and string with beads and the app called ‘My Bunny Friend’. The one thing that brings it all together is the app. The app is made for the case owner to be used during the weekend. The app had to be opened by the case owner herself. Though to make it more attractive to open the My Bunny Friend app over any other social media apps, My Bunny Friend has much different possibilities to fulfil the case owner’s needs.  

The main direction of the app is the bunny which acts as a virtual friend. Within the app there are multiple options that the case owner can do. Certain virtual games can be done, though also real-life activities are motivated to be done. When exceeding a certain result on the activities, a virtual and physical bead can be gained over the weekend. This bead can be collected by the guidance at the day-care when one had been received in the app. The physically received bead can be attached to the string on her phone. 

The 'My Bunny Friend App'

The bead within the app can be gained with virtual games by achieving a certain, reachable level per game. Examples of games are Subway Surf, catching food, piano tiles and more. Within the app there is also a place for a logbook. In this logbook photos of certain activities can be uploaded. With this way a bead can be gained for those activities. Additionally, the case owner can look back at the activities done and sees how much she has accomplished, this way the logbook can also act as a motivation.  

Click here to open app

The beads with bunny jar

Here on the left, the physical jar with the beads can be seen. On the jar a bunny is attached that functions as a lid. The bunny is the same bunny in the app, making the jar and app connected. This also counts for the beads, these can be found in the app digital and are given physical. 

The bead that has been physically collected can be put on the string to her phone. This way the bead also acts a reminder and motivation of what the case owner is working for. The total received beads that can be gained are saved up to 52 weeks, one year. As this is quite a long period of time to keep motivation, smaller goals are set. With every fourth bead a small gift/activity can be done. The fourth bead has a different style and colour to distinguish between the levels of beads. After the fourth bead, the bead can be put into a jar. Within the jar there fits exactly 52 beads. Therefore, if the jar is full, the one year has been achieved. The deal that can be made with the case owner is: if the jar is full, a day out/activity can be done.  

Concept Photos

Here the app ‘My Bunny Friend’ can be seen used in action. The user sits on her phone and plays games with the bunny.

Here the physical jar and beads can be seen. The bunny and carrot function as a lit which are made by 3D printing. 

Scenario

This scenario shows what steps the users takes while using the concept. In this specific case the case owner decides to do an activity as origami to gain the bead. Before she collects the physical bead and puts it in the jar, a photo is uploaded to the app. When uploading a photo to the app one bead is gained.  

Evaluation Concept

After the final concept was developed, it was important to show the concept to Laura and the others that are involved in her daily life. It is important to recieve feedback and ask if the concept is applicable for everyone. 

 

Meeting Laura

A part of the figma was shown to Laura. This was shown without context to get an initial reaction. Her expressions showed happy and she seemed amused with the concept. As the figma is only a potentional app some existing apps were shown. These apps relate to parts of the My Bunny Friend app, this help to boost the idea the app. When showing the apps there was both looked at and asked which one has preference. Though all potentional app showed were a succes what did show is that the case owner prefers swiping over tapping. Therefore, all the games integrated in My Bunny Friend wil only contain swiping elements. 

My Bunny Friend also has a chatbot integrated. The idea of this was proposed to Laura. Though due to lack of understanding it was hard to share an opinion with us. Nevertheless, when proposing the idea of a chatbot to the parents there was enthusiasm. According the parents this has a lot of potential of succes as Laura does not read the text but just gets a thrill of getting a responds.  

Meeting Guidance

The final concept was shown to the guidance. It was important to get their opinion and see if it is feasible as they are the ones that have to help Laura with some tasks in the app. They seemed ready to integrate the concept into the day–care program and set the app into action. They also loved the creativity of the jar with the beads. The only issue they had with the concept was with the big activities. Unfortunately, there is not enough budget at the day-care to do big activities on a yearly/half-a-year basis. Therefore, the parents were contacted to see if it was feasible for them to set aside a budget for these activities. If the budget is provided by the parents, the guidance would love to take Laura on the big activities.  

Meeting Parents

The concept was also proposed to the parents. The style and options of the app were positively recieved. They were very curious about the concept and wanted to see it in action. According to them, there is no issue providing the budget for the bigger activites. This means that the day-care indeed can take Laura on the big activities.  

Conclusion

To conclude, after having multiple meetings, applying multiple co-design methods and doing a lot of brainstorm sessions, a sufficient and good working concept was developed. The concept consists of an app called My Bunny Friend and a string and jar with the beads. In the beginning there were some struggles with defining what the problem was and whose problem it was. After applying multiple UX methods, such as the google forms, more insights were gained about the user. This way, the problem could eventually correctly be identified, and a solution could be thought of. Furthermore, the usability was tested by constantly keeping the user and secondary users updated, showing the ideas and asking for feedback.

Because of that, the concept can easily be implied into their daily life and reduces the changes of the product not being used. To prevent the product being abandoned, a system was thought of for a longer period. The beads and jar can be used on a one–year basis and after that the progress can start again. So, by constantly keeping the user and secondary users involved in the design process, a good working concept was developed which will resolve the boredom and loneliness of the user. Indirectly, this could lead to a decrease of the texting behaviour.  

Reflection

The final concept is not a concept that is fully realised. This is mainly due to lack of time and figuring out what the problem was. Though when within more time certain setups and main directions could have been coded.  

The final concept of the app can be improved to be applicable to more users. This could be done for example by personalizing different animals and different styles to the app. Besides the options of the app, the deepening of the app could also be improved. This could be done by for example having different levels with different games and options attached to them. Though, this should be critically thought about as motivating for a new level would imply using the app more to success correct behaviour, which can be argued to be a persuasion for addiction.   

The problem only occurs every four weeks over the weekend, therefore the concept is also focussed on that period of time. This makes it hard to test the concept. For the next time there should be carefully looked at other ways, moments and possibilities to test certain parts of the concept.  

As lots of the project was focussed on the cause of the problem. This was mainly because the case owner is extremely hard to read. For a next time, the question can be asked differently so that more specified emotion tags were used. This way it could be easier to express emotions. Though, this would need to be tested.  

In general, the problem definition of the project at the start could have been more defined. In the beginning of the project, it was unclear what was needed from the students. As the case owner herself isn’t capable enough to express the problem and did not reach out to us it was unclear the goal was. Though after a few meetings, direct communication and critical question the source and core of the problem became clearer. Additionally, from the start on there must be clarified to have only contact with one person for the case owner which is the direct communication point. This was only done after a few weeks, there was clear difference in the efficiency of the communication.  

Within the group and the project there was somewhat a language barrier. As the case owner and guidance only communicate in Dutch and three Dutch project members it was sometimes forgotten to translate to English. Additionally, as feelings were hard to be expressed, and lots of Dutch expressions were used, it was almost impossible to translate certain situation in English.