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Samco

2022

For my Final Year Project, I hoped to develop an interactive design in which, can support Alzheimer patients to live independently at home. Through the data and information collected, I have been able to apply my knowledge in creating as productive of a design as I deem possible with my abilities.

Samco

2022

For my Final Year Project, I hoped to develop an interactive design in which, can support Alzheimer patients to live independently at home. Through the data and information collected, I have been able to apply my knowledge in creating as productive of a design as I deem possible with my abilities.

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Full PDF of this FYP can be found Here

Software Used

Adobe Illustrator

Figma

Mural

DaVinci Resolve

Free Cad

Design Process

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After conducting my research, interviews and evaluating my findings, I than moved into the design phase of my project. I began to create my users’ personas. In order to give a clear insight into my everyday user, I began by considering age, situation, and condition. What functionalities would they like to include, the different scenarios in which they may find the need for AT, or what situations they would feel the benefits in.


After the development and display of the potential users, these user personas have given a physical idea of the possible users of my design and the requirements they may have based off my interviews and research, each has different background situations and are at different stages of the disease, along with health care professionals

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After conducting my user interviews and creating my personas, taking into account, needs of AT and frustrations of the user with Ad and the duties of those who care for the vulnerable, I began brainstorming my idea I began with the consideration of who it is I am designing for, as mentioned in my user studies, the involvement of the care assistant or family member would be as important as designing for the individual with AD. I ensured to keep a non-invasive design pattern along with avoiding information overload, this led me to the exploration of a wearable, what shape it may take and how it could be integrated into everyday life. I investigated important functionalities that would target concerns and wants outlined to me during my user studies and literature review. Notable outcomes of my brainstorming exercise included

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I created an affinity map as a result of my user interviews and personas in order to create pinpoints of areas that would be of most importance and catering for the wants and needs of those using the assistive technologies. I began by evaluating my personas, reviewing the needs of AT and frustrations of everyday life for those with Alzheimer’s. I then looked at the needs of At and duties of those care assistance that would be interacting with the technology in order to maximise daily living and care provided

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In order to help in grouping content on my mobile application, I ran a card sorting exercise. This helped in creating efficient labelling and information hierarchy. I began by providing each participant with the layout, available in the layout was a list of 15 options I hope to have available on my app. I then asked the participant to group each label under a title of their choice, where they would expect to find each option. This workshop session took place via Microsoft teams, where I asked each participant to share their screen while organising the table under a title of their choosing

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Through my user studies and literature review. I felt my design process would be best moved forward in the direction of including both the care assistant and the user with AD. As it was highlighted to me in my user studies that technology could be intrusive and difficult for a user with AD to use, I felt a wearable device for the user with AD, would be discrete and non-intrusive. Including the family and care assistants, I developed the idea of using an app that would be connected to the wearable for certain purposes.

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After conducting my user testing for information architecture, I felt I had gathered efficient information from my users to move forward in my design process. I began by sketching out low fidelity wireframes  using the data collected from users. After doing so, I then ran A/B testing, in order to choose a preferred design by my users.

Once I gathered this information, I then began by creating a paper prototype in order focus on the users flow throughout the application in completing certain tasks. For my mobile application to be a user centeredness design, it is important for a designer to conduct user testing at multiple stages of the design, this will help in creating an efficient and effective design layout and site flow

After conducting user testing on my paper prototypes and evaluating results from my A/B tests, I then began to create my medium fidelity prototype and wireframes

My first user flow mirrors the process of a user creating a prompt and the direction they will take in order to do so. User flows allow for an app or a website to have an intuitive design pattern and an easy flow as the user moves through interfaces. It will also give me a clear vision of how I intend my application to function.

To display the results of my user tests, I created a user journey map to pinpoint pain pints and gain points, this outlined to me any issues experienced and why, the elements of the application that the user enjoyed and what they would recommend moving forward.

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Points of friction highlighted during my user studies, was the confusion of the user’s location on the page, The user was unaware of what step they were on when each were labelled in the set up, they were also overwhelmed with not seeing the final steps in sight. When creating a prompt, I noted the confusion of repeating the prompt and how they were to carry out this task. The user was hesitant when turning on the ‘repeat’ button and the box that was fitted above it. They also suffered a point of friction on filling in the prompts details as they were unsure were they creating a new one each time or describing the steps. The users also felt overwhelmed by the icons, as they aren’t universally known icons, they did not trigger recall from the user.

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Gain points as a result of my user tests were on the home page where the user described the layout as a feeling of security and a bubble of people who care for the centered individual

Final Product

After conducting my user studies, both interviews and user testing, implementing, and reviewing my brainstorming ideas, information architecture, affinity mapping, user journey and the development of my branding idea. I could officially move on to the creation of high-fidelity interactive prototype

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The Wearable

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