We are a student team working to design, prototype, and build a helpful assistive device for a client with limited mobility. Our client’s name is Elaine. Our design team consists of Dominique Aruede, Jud Kyle, and Eric Zhao. We plan for this to be about a six-week iterative process, including Elaine’s input every step of the way. Here, we cover the details of our first interview with Elaine from 04-06-21 where we introduce ourselves, learn more about her daily activities, and what her daily frustrations look like.

Agenda

The following was our planned course of discussion for the interview:

Intros

• Acknowledge circumstances and ask if anyone has anything they want to talk about before getting started (help warm everyone up and prepare for the interview)
• Name, background, fun fact
  • Elaine
  • Eric
  • Jud
  • Dom
• Ask for permission to record the interview

Explanation

• We are trying to prototype a useful device for you using your feedback to iterate
• We are not professional technologists, but we do want to get as close as possible to something you can use long term that is truly helpful
• Make sure to ask if they have any questions about the process

Questions

1. What are some of the daily activities you enjoy?
   1. Why do you enjoy them?
2. Is there a task or activity you like/have to do on a daily basis that is difficult or frustrating to carry out?/What is something that frustrates you when it comes to enjoying your daily activities?
   1. Is there anything that has become harder to do over time that you used to enjoy doing?
   2. Try to get to a story that they have about a particular task or daily activity if possible (Either by letting it happen naturally or just by asking)
3. If possible, could you physically demonstrate a task you normally do?
4. Would it be possible for you to draw your daily routine/life on a piece of paper or narrate it so that we can draw it?/Can you draw out your daily life from waking up to sleep, or you can describe it and we’ll draw.
   1. Trying to get a better understanding of things throughout the day that we could design something for
   2. Again try to get stories from Elaine
5. Let’s brainstorm convenience gadgets (i.e. I would love a device that tells me when my water boils).
   1. Try to narrow down to a few ideas that could be pursued

Conclusion

• Thanks so much for your answers, those are all the questions we have. Our next step  would be to formulate a more solid idea, and we’ll be in touch very soon to get your thoughts.
• Feel free to contact us at dominiquea@cmu.edu, judsonk@andrew.cmu.edu, and ezhao2@andrew.cmu.edu

Summary & Takeaways

The entire meeting was very fruitful, but the main takeaway was that Elaine views her service dog, Oak, as more dependable than human assistants, and therefore would love to incorporate Oak into the device in some way. We thought of several devices that that might look like. A dog-activated door opener, a dog-activated RFID card scanner, a dog-activated lifeAlert system (granted, this idea is a bit questionable for safety reasons), and finally the idea addressing what seemed to be one of Elaine’s biggest concerns, a dog-activated blinds operator; Elaine expressed that when someone leaves the blinds drawn and the room is too sunny, she can’t do anything about it on her own because she would have to pull a heavy chain which her range of motion and dexterity does not permit. So, inspired by Elaine’s suggestion that “when in doubt, think of how a squirrel might solve your issue” (only in this case we swapped out squirrels for dogs), we quite like the idea of a dog-activated blinds operator.

Team Thoughts

The meeting went a bit off the rails in terms of sticking to our actual agenda, but we got lots of pertinent information from Elaine’s comments. We definitely realized after the fact that there were things we should have clarified like what exactly do her blinds look like. A picture would have been great to figure out specifics like is it floor-to-ceiling? Is it slats that rotate or more like a canvas that rolls up? Next time, I think we’ll focus on sticking more with the agenda if the discussions starts to become derivative, although that wasn’t too much of a problem for this interview. We also would like to ask for images, videos, and other specifics if we can get them.

Talking through our ideas the next day, some of them started to make less sense for the scope of this project. For example, the lifeAlert system posed both technical and moral problems in the sense that it would be a lifeline device built by three inexperienced students, and an emergency-grade wireless connection would be difficult for use to implement. It was great to have the blinds idea stick out as the most doable assistive device, though. We are still open to pivot points, but leaning strongly toward that one.

Meeting Agenda

We discussed our meeting plan during class the day before our interview. The meeting outline agreed on is below. We thought it would be important to try to understand what Amy’s life looks like and how her disability affects her before she gave any ideas for the project so we could ideate while learning about her better.

Introduction

• Introduce ourselves, allow Amy to introduce herself to us (5-7 minutes)
• Ask her abut hobbies/work (5 minutes)
• Why was she interested in working with this class again (2 minutes)

Explain scope of project

• Limited in time/mechanical ability (3 minutes)

Ask about her life/needs (Remainder of time)

• What her disability is and how it limits her
• Ask her to run through her daily life/tasks she struggles with
  • Take note of where utility is lacking vs. could be improved
• Assistive devices/tricks she currently uses
  • How can we model our solution after familiar solutions?
• Ask her for any issues she came into the project wanting addressed
  • Ask follow-up questions to clarify any of her ideas
• Discuss our ideas for devices thought of during the meeting
  • For each device, is it addressing something important?
  • Would it make another aspect more difficult? 

Meeting Summary and Takeaways

Unfortunately our meeting recording had an error so we do not have media from the meeting itself. 

To start the meeting, we introduced ourselves and asked Amy what she does for hobbies and work. She is interested in reading, shopping, decorating, writing, watching tv, and all sorts of art forms. She said that in the past she painted with a mouthstick. She previously worked as a stylist for a fashion/shopping website, but had a bad pressure sore that forced her into bedrest over the past 2 years. We found out that Amy has a spinal cord injury that left her paralyzed from the shoulders down, but still has a small amount of motor control in her hands/arms that allows her to use her computer and perform some daily tasks. Pressure sores are common in people with spinal cord injuries like Amy as they are unable to feel anything in certain areas of their body and struggle to shift their bodyweight to prevent them. Amy’s wheelchair can tilt to shift her weight in order to help with her recovery and prevent future pressure sores. One of our initial ideas was to make a device to remind Amy to shift her weight, but we decided against pursuing it after hearing more about the assistive devices she currently uses. After finding out about her hobbies and a small amount about her spinal cord injury, we asked her to run us through her daily life. She cannot get up very fast and needs an attendant to help her out of bed using a lift device such as the one shown below.

Example bed lift from https://101mobility.com/products/patient-lifts/portable-patient-lifts/. This is similar to what Amy showed us on the Zoom call. 

 Every day she needs to complete range of motion exercises which help to stretch and strengthen her muscles to prevent them from contracting into the fetal position due to a lack of use. Her attendant leaves around 2, but throughout the day she likes to read, watch TV,  go on Facebook,  possibly exercise again, run errands, or go on a walk. She used to use a standing aid to assist her exercising before bed, but has been unable to recently due to her pressure sore. After speaking about her routine, we asked about devices and tricks she uses. The two standout things were how she interacts with her computer and the environmental control unit she had in her previous condo. She interacts with her computer by using a trackball that she is able to control with the limited mobility in her hands as well as voice recognition software as a replacement for typing.

Trackball similar to the one Amy uses https://www.amazon.com/Kensington-Expert-Wireless-Trackball-K72359WW/dp/B01936N73I

The trackball was the most important find of the meeting to us, as it gives us an idea of how we could make a device that Amy will be able to interact with by basing our input design off of her current device. The environmental control unit in her old condo was an older device, but she informed us that current models are able to control lights, thermostats, the TV, and certain types of hospital beds like the one she has. From this discussion, we found that she currently needs someone else to control the TV for her as well as adjust the angle of her bed. We saw two distinct ideas to help her here, and based two of our ideas for the ideation portion of this project on these topics.

Having already been a part of this project last semester, Amy also came with an idea of an assistive device she would like. She likes to sleep with the blanket completely over her head and chest, but has difficult moving the blanket up and down since her arms have limited mobility and her hands are in an essentially fixed position near her hips. She wanted a device that would help move the blanket up and down by about a foot in each direction. While we obviously want to try and fulfill her wishes, we had some safety concerns about the project, so we tried to gather as much information as we could about how she slept and the typical blankets that she uses, particularly about the weight and material. One interesting thing to note is that when we asked if her bed had railings, Amy commented that she hates them but has one on the left side, but would be willing to add in the right railing if that meant she could move the blanket up and down. Although it seems like an important need for Amy, it may be outside the scope of our project at this current moment. It would be interesting, however, to design a device that could address the safety concerns and execute moving a soft material, even if it’s not for this project. 

Amy’s main type of blanket that she showed on the Zoom call. This would be hard to attach a device too to move in the first place, and is also a heavy blanket, which adds to the difficulty considering our current tools. She also stated she uses a duvet sometimes, which might have been easier to work with if we proceeded with this idea.

Amy also mentioned the “Environmental Control Unit.” Essentially, this was a device that enabled her to switch her lights on and off, control the temperature, turn on/off other devices around the house from a central system. However, since moving back to her parent’s home, there was no Unit that had been hooked up to the house, and she was lacking in many of the functionalities that were previously offered to her. There is a wide range of possibilities that we could address through a physical device when looking at what the Environmental Control Unit used to allow her to do. 

In another aspect, Amy also talked vividly about her past hobbies and things she wishes to go back to. For example, she used to work at StitchFix and enjoyed crafts, and wants to get back into writing. When asking about the tools she uses to transcribe words down and partake in these hobbies, we understood that there are applications she uses but they aren’t extremely compatible with surfing the web. To address this issues would require more of a software solution, but there could potentially be an assistive device in this realm, as well. However, our group decided to move forward with finding an assistive device for her daily life rather than her hobbies. 

Our notes from asking about Amy’s daily routine. Her attendant helps her with exercises since she doesn’t have the strength to do them all herself, but keeping her muscles mobile aids in keeping them flexible enough to move when getting dressed or lifted. l

Our Thoughts on the Meeting

• Reflecting on interview as a team, we consolidated the ideas we had discussed with Amy into three ideas we thought were the most viable:
  • The Blanket Adjustment System: This was the idea that Amy seemed to have the greatest need for the interview. However, we also recognized that although it could be very helpful, it would also be mechanically hard to implement and pose a major safety hazard. In our discussions of different methods to implement this idea we had to balance the factors of efficacy versus safety. While we came up with a few ideas for an emergency stop function (an analog button or voice activation), we ultimately decided there was no guarantee that either method could be truly foolproof. If we were to implement a solution, we would have to put in multiple types of emergency stops, and acknowledge that having the emergency stop go off too often is better than having it not go off at all. However, in a short project with relatively inexperienced students, there’s always a possibility that it malfunctions in a time of need. In a problem where a mistake in design or implementation could mean loss of life, the acceptable risk might be too high. However, at the same time, the benefit to Amy’s comfort, if implemented correctly, would be a huge boost to her quality of life.
  • A Environmental Control Unit (TV): The second idea we discussed was a controller for Amy’s TV that was optimized for her specific needs and use. Using her trackball mouse as a starting point, we started brainstorming different ways of providing a controller that was both easy to use and portable. Building off of the trackball idea, one idea we talked about was a joystick like or scroll wheel based mechanism. The main idea was to find a medium that required less fine-motor skill but also a high level of control as not being able to accurately control volume or channel designations can prove to be frustrating. Sketching out both the joystick and scroll wheel ideas, we also explored making the form more ergonomic to fit her use, whether that means playing with the grip of the joystick or providing a wrist rest that takes the burden off of her arms and shoulders. Further progress for this idea would require working closely with Amy to find out what the limits of her mobility and comfort entail and how we could make something she finds easy to move and use.
  • A Device Connected to the Lift on her bed: The final idea we had was to create a method of interfacing with the lift in her bed. Currently the bed is able to raise her head and upper body up and down, however, Amy is unable to interface with this system due to her limited mobility. The primary challenge could come from creating a system that she is able to control to a granular level that would interface with the existing system. The primary idea we discussed was potentially including a voice control element that allowed the interaction to be hand free and easier to use. A important factor we had to consider, however, was the ability for the original lift to still be operational through the existing interface without our new system preventing Amy’s helpers from accessing it.
• Other thoughts: 
  • As stated previously, our team seemed to collectively agree on addressing aspects of the Environmental Control Unit Amy mentioned, rather than going through the hobbies route. Though we never really discussed it, this route requires less semantics and more thought to address Amy’s specific restrictions. Initially, one group member though that certain ideas such as a remote to turn the TV on and off might be too simple, but after we started the ideation process, the physical restrictions imposed on the design proved to be significant and pose an interesting challenge to overcome. 
  • Another one of Amy’s problems is that in order to even use her laptop, her attendant must help Amy turn on her headphones, set the trackball at the right location for Amy to easily use, and set the laptop in front of Amy, among other intermediate steps. We considered making a device to allow Amy to set up her laptop by herself, but physically moving items (especially expensive, heavy ones) would prove difficult, and each step of the process to open her laptop would essentially require its own device. Just thinking about how to execute this one simply act that we do mindlessly made us further understand Amy’s limitations, and emphasizes the importance/utility of making something that may seem simple initially, such as a control for the lights or an adapted TV remote. 

The goal for this project is to create an assistive device for a person living with a disability that can hopefully make their daily life easier. James, Nicole, and Shuyu (The Maples!), interviewed Jen on April 4rd, 2020, in order to gauge a task they could improve for her. Jen has limited use of her hands and arms, which can make certain tasks like putting on makeup extremely difficult. However, Jen can still use her mouth to perform certain tasks. After conducting an hour-long interview, The Maples set out to create a device that could improve an aspect of Jen’s daily life. 

Meeting Agenda

• Ice Breaker:

• • How are you doing? (If you are comfortable sharing)
  • Introductions (names, brief introduction)
    • Us → Personal value, interest, or relevant factoid to make personal connection to client and group
      • What you made for project 2
      • How long have you lived in Pittsburgh and what do you like about living here?
    • Client → interest in participating in this activity
      • Why they wanted to participate
      • Interests in the project

• Clarification Expectation and Project Goals:

• • What we are doing
    • Making prototype devices
    • Solving real problems with relatively complex solutions
    • Participating in the design and documentation process over 6 weeks
  • What we aren’t trying to do
    • Create polished final product
    • Making commercially available products
    • Discover something revolutionary in the world of assistive devices
  • Schedule
    • April 21 prototype critique
    • May 5 final presentation

• Understanding Needs of Client:

• • Are there any daily activities that you have a hard time performing or would like to be able to perform more easily?
    • Could you demonstrate one or multiple of these tasks? (completely fine if not but it would help us get a better understanding of possible solutions)
  • Is there anything that you maybe used to enjoy doing but cannot anymore?
  • What does your daily routine look like?
    • Could you demonstrate? If not, could you maybe draw a cartoon of it?
  • Why is this solution important to you?

• Conclusion:

• • Thank them for their time
  • Get client contact information
  • Iterate schedule of process again just to be clear

Meeting Summary and Major Takeaways

Sketch made during the interview as Jenn described what kind of device she needed.

Over the course of the meeting we discussed different types of actions that Jen would like to be able to do better. Specifically, we talked about her difficulty with activities like food prep and self-care. From both of these topics, we learned that Jen has the most trouble with actions meant for hands. She currently has no real method of applying things like make-up to her face without a fair amount of effort, if at all. In addition, her current method for cutting vegetables and other foods involves holding a knife in her mouth and leaning over to cut the vegetables with head motions. While she is able to provide enough force to cut through most vegetables, she cannot cut and hold the vegetable at the same time. Despite the relative success that Jen might have at modifying tasks meant for hands, she expressed much interest in a device that could make these modifications much more efficient. From the conversation topics, it was also clear that helping with food prep is very important to her as it is the only part of the cooking process in which she can safely be involved.

Our Thoughts

The meeting went pretty smoothly. We got along well, and our discussions got pretty deep. When the discussions stagnated, we used the agenda more like a reference, effectively keeping the conversation going. Something that we should’ve delved further in during our conversation was discussing the details of Jenn’s range of motion. We had assumed after our discussion that she could use at least one hand, until we watched the video she sent, which showed that she instead used her mouth to do tasks. We wish we asked more questions about how much dexterity she has with maneuvering things with her mouth.

The purpose of this final project is to build an assistive device for a specific client that will help them in their daily lives. Our team, the Yews, is comprised of Sunjana, Vishnu, and Julia (Jubbies). Our initial goal was to design and develop a product for our client, Haleigh, that she could use for either enjoyment or for helping her complete necessary tasks, and that would be accessible for her. On Saturday, April 10, we met with Haleigh to get a better understanding of her hobbies, interests, and the activities that take up most of her time. In addition to Haleigh and the three of us, Haleigh’s mom also attended the meeting. One of our team’s goals was to understand the challenges Haleigh faced that could be made easier with a tool we would build. We were also hoping to get more specific and brainstorm ideas for the tool with her during the meeting.

Meeting Agenda

Our meeting agenda was to start out with some icebreakers so that we could get to know each other, along with explaining what our team was hoping to accomplish, and a brief timeline of our team’s work flow. During this time, we planned to ask Haleigh about her hobbies and daily activities. We then planned to segue into asking Haleigh if there was anything challenging in her routine/hobbies that could be made easier with an accessible tool. After this discussion, we had planned to have a collaborative brainstorming session, with everyone taking turns to discuss ideas for some tool(s) while Sunjana shared her screen and drew what people were describing. We then planned to conclude by thanking Haleigh for her time, exchanging contact information, and answering any last-minute questions. We decided not to allot a time limit for any point in our agenda, choosing to keep the meeting flexible.

Actual meeting agenda:

The interview should b 45 mins to an hour, and we should try to get it recorded if she’s ok w that

*actually don’t bother w the roles lmao, keep it flexible*

Intro/Icebreaker – Jubbies

• Thank you for meeting, How are you doing

• Each of our majors/years (all three of us can talk about this, give like 2 second intro)
• We were all really interested in learning robotics, since we were beginners in that area
• We spent a few weeks building a device we could use in our own lives, and we’re 

excited to take it one step further and build something useful for you 

• @Hailey: Is it okay if this meeting is recorded?

• @Hailey: What are some things you like to do? (we could use this later)

• @Hailey: What led you to want to join this project?
  • She thought it sounded interested 

Explanation – Vishnu 

• 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 six weeks to go from this meeting to a reasonably high-fidelity (albeit virtual) final product
  • Documenting our process
  • Capable of simulating somewhat complex electronics via Tinkercad, and more complex physical objects/devices via CAD software
• We are not:
  • Professional technologists who are experienced in making polished products
  • Planning to build something that will be sold commercially
  • 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)
• Timeline/overview: Jubbies
  • Interview today
  • Ideation and prototyping for first half of next week
  • Physical prototype development for second half of next week (4/16 – 4/21)
  • Final work (4/26 – 5/5)
  • Final due 5/5

Vishnu

• If H has given something she likes to do, ask if there’s anything that makes doing her hobby challenging for her?

• @Hailey: What are some activities in your daily life that are frustrating, and that you wish could be made more convenient? (if she hasn’t given an answer to the hobby thing)
• (if they name activity), would you be able to demonstrate for us?
• Ask client why this is important to her (maybe ask this, maybe not, idk)

Vishnu, , Jubbies, and Sunjana

• Three of us brainstorm aloud some solutions to the problem and Sunjana could draw on ipad and screen share, and we ask her if they’re good ideas, and respond to her feedback

Conclusion

Jubbies

• Do you have any questions for us? Or anything you’d like us to clarify
• Thank your client for their time, make sure they have your contact information, and take any final documentation images/drawings/notes you may need to wrap up before you sign off.
• Reiterate the overall project schedule if you feel it would be necessary to clarify before leaving.

Meeting Summary and Major Takeaways

Over the course of our meeting, we discussed the inconveniences Haleigh faces while trying to participate in her hobby of reading as well as learning in school. We found that she is frustrated that when she wants to use a device, the height and viewing angle is not comfortable. 

Currently, she has a tabletop computer stand with adjustable legs which essentially raises the height of her tray. However, she cannot adjust them herself so if the height is not comfortable for her, she has to ask another person to take apart her setup and raise the height. Additionally, the current stand’s height is adjusted by adding and removing 1.5” blocks that snap into place. For Haleigh’s diverse needs, this height increment is very limiting and often results in the tray being slightly too low or high. Although the computer is easier to see when it is raised, it is much more uncomfortable to type with. 

An orthographic view of Haleigh’s current setup with the adjustable computer stand

Aside from height, Haleigh struggles with using her phone, kindle, or reading from books as the viewing angle is never comfortable for long periods of time. If the device lays flat on the desk requiring her to look down at it, this is comfortable for her arms, but causes neck straining. If the device is propped up, it may be easier for her neck, but it can be uncomfortable for her arms to stretch out forward after a while. Ultimately, Haleigh desires a solution to help her achieve a comfortable viewing angle that also allows her to use the device without stretching her arms in an unsustainable position. In our discussions, we also found that Haleigh would enjoy the ability to make micro adjustments to her setup by herself, so she could tailor the height and angle of her tray top to her specific needs. 

Haleigh used to use this stand for using her phone and reading, but found it wasn’t comfortable and it would slide around.

Another consideration placing things on top of her tray is the concern of the apparatus sliding from left to right. Haleigh’s mom has found that carpet tape seems to do a great job at holding Haleigh’s items in place for a while. She noted that this tape must be replaced after it loses its stickiness, but works well for the most part. 

Haleigh’s mom showing the repurposed carpet tape

Reflection 

The interview was very easy to dive into; Haleigh was very warm and welcoming, and we got right down to inquiring about her life, hobbies, and current situation. All three of us felt quite comfortable asking clarifying questions and follow ups during the interview, and Haleigh was quite eager to help us on that front. We also made sure to ask for a physical presentation of her physical situation—specifically, showing us how her current tray made using and typing on tablets quite difficult. This was a good avenue of questioning, as it helped us ground our project in the real world, instead of just hypothetically discussing constraints. In other words, we could see how tall our device could expand and retract, and also how much weight the object could be without collapsing the tray. Another important strategy was to emphasize an open line of communication with Haleigh—if we had felt we forgot to ask her something or left something out, or if she had any clarifying questions, we could always email back and forth even after the interview.

In this meeting, Dani, Erica, and Tate interviewed Brenda to get a better understanding of Brenda’s needs in order to build a useful device for her. Brenda has cerebral palsy and has complete use of her right hand but can only use her pincer for her left hand since the other three fingers are linked. This limits Brenda’s ability to use both hands and do some activities that we take for granted such as putting her daughter’s hair in a ponytail or tying her shoes. With the resources and knowledge gained from this Physical Computing course, Dani, Erica, and Tate hope to build a functioning device that will aid Brenda in performing a specific task.

Agenda

4/6/2021, 7pm, zoom

• 5 minutes: introductions
• 15 minutes: ask questions about the idea Brenda had suggested to us (acrylic pour painting)
• 15 minutes: ask broader questions about other areas where a device could be useful
• 10 minutes: lingering questions or anything else that comes up along the way

Meeting Prep

• Prior to the meeting, we had already reached out to Brenda via email asking about potential project ideas.
• Brenda had given us two project ideas:
  • 1. a privacy microphone compatible with the iPad Pro that would allow Brenda to use voice recognition to type without picking up background noise
  • 2. a tilting lazy Susan that could controlled by a joystick that would allow Brenda to tilt her acrylic pour paintings without assistance from another human
• Our team unanimously agreed that the second idea was more interesting and feasible, thus during our meeting we mostly discussed the specifics of an acrylic pour device.
• Below is the full email Brenda sent:
• My first idea is a solution to an existing technology problem I have. Are use voice recognition for most of my typing. I’ve switched to an iPad Pro for about 98% of my work computing. The voice recognition is extremely accurate and faster for me then Dragon naturally speaking 15, Not to mention more intuitive and cheaper. I have two problems. The first is that the microphone picks up much more background noise then I headset mic that I used with a Windows based desktop. When that is combined with the fact that my office is now going to be in an open floor plan, I have a real problem on my hands. I need to be able to dictate privately. Privacy microphones exist and I have tried one. The problem is that it is incompatible with the iPad Pro. The audio interfaces don’t talk to one another. I have the components that I have tried if you would like to work on a solution to get them to play nicely with one another.
• The second is a lot more fun… Well I think so at least. One of my hobbies is acrylic pour painting.  I’m sure that at least one of you is familiar with the medium. My problem is that since I only have one functioning hand I have a difficult time picking up the canvas to tilt it to get the paint to flow. I have this idea for a Lazy Susan that would also tilt. I would like to be able to control it through a joystick kind of mechanism. I think variable speed controls would be fun as well. I have parts for the Lazy Susan itself, But nothing for I comptroller of any kind that you could play with.

Summary

• First, we found out how Brenda currently does her acrylic pouring projects. She is able to pour the paint by herself, however, she has someone else assist her in the tilting process since it requires both hands. However, with this device Brenda hopes to be able to complete the tilting step all by herself.
• Throughout the meeting, we discussed the specific functionalities and movement of the device. We had the umbrella idea that this would make acrylic pouring easier for Brenda, but we needed to specify exactly which steps the device should help with and how. At first, we had imagined that Brenda would have wanted the device to help with as many steps of the acrylic pouring process as possible, however we clarified that Brenda actually liked the process of pouring all the different paint colors into cups and having control over how the paint was poured onto the canvas as well. Thus, we only need to build a device that allows Brenda to tilt the canvas with one hand so the paint can slide around and pour over the sides of the canvas.

Brenda’s acrylic pour projects

• We also discussed how Brenda would be able to control the tilting of the board. We currently have a joystick module included in our kits, but we wondered whether Brenda would prefer different grips or mechanisms. She explained that she had some t-bar joystick grips that she likes using and other 3d printed ones as well.
  

  Brenda’s preferred t-bar joystick attatchment

  • Although we can just start with the provided joystick for our project, we can also 3d print a joystick to make the grip easier for Brenda to hold if we are able to.
• Furthermore, we realized that the canvas had to be mounted to the canvas without covering the sides since it was important for Brenda to be able to get paint on all the canvas sides. Brenda informed us that latches were not very accessible since they usually required two hands to use so other methods of attachment would be more useful. Also, Brenda likes to work on different canvas sizes ranging from 4″x4″ to 12″x12″, thus something that was flexible would be preferred.

Side view of Brenda’s preferred canvas

Back view of Brenda’s preferred canvas

• • Thus, we had to find an attachment that hugged the inside of the canvas so that the sides were not covered. During the meeting, Tate drew some sketches of the potential solutions we discussed.

Some of Tate’s sketches

Reflection

• Overall, the meeting went as planned and we clarified many of Brenda’s preferences that we need to take into consideration to make the project easy to use for her. It was pretty easy to get the conversation started since Brenda is quite talkative and we had many ideas after reading her initial description. We also learned that in general, any actions that require two hands are almost completely impossible for her to do, and any device that could help her complete even simple two-hand tasks would be great for her. Ultimately, we decided to stick with her idea of the acrylic pour painting device because it is something that she is excited about and is within the scope of our abilities. For next time, we would want to start with more introductions to get to know each other as people first before diving in to the project.

Introduction

We are the Oaks! Our goal is to make an assistive device for a person living with a disability, with the hope that it improves their daily life and routine. With this in mind, we set to interview our client, Annie, to gauge her needs and find what she would most benefit from improving. This could be a task related or non-related to her disability, as long as it’s useful and fully customized to Annie’s needs. To understand her needs, we conducted an hour-long interview on April 8, 2021 with Annie as the interviewee and Amelia and Carlos as the interviewers. In the next section we will outline our interview agenda and summarize major takeaways from the interview.

Meeting Agenda

Before officially conducting the interview, it was essential to prepare a list of questions we planned on asking our client in order to maximize our time with her, make her feel comfortable sharing snippets of her life with us, and understanding the everyday problems she faces. Our interview agenda is split into four parts: introduction/ice breaker, explanation and clarification about project goals, understanding needs and thinking of possible technological interventions, and conclusion. Official agenda is linked here

• Introduction/Ice breaker consisted of (10 min):
  • Carlos and I introducing ourselves with our name, major, year, and favorite thing about Pittsburgh and then asking her to do the same.
  • Asking Annie what drew her to volunteer for the project
  • Asking Annie for permission to record + take notes for the reminder of the interview
• Explanation and clarification about project goals consisted of (15 min):
  • Explaining the purpose and limitations of the project (i.e. students in an intro class not aiming for perfection, aiming to make a gadget customized to you, not necessarily aimed for commercial use)
  • Documenting the process along the way with lots of images, feedback, initial prototype, and finally a gadget
  • Clarifying the timeline of the project and when she would step in to give feedback on the prototype we develop
    • Showing her Gantt chart of project timeline
• Understanding needs and thinking of possible technological interventions (35 m)
  • The bulk of the interview where we asked direction questions which will lead us to understand the scope of her problems, what solutions she’s tried in the past, and what an optimal solution would look like for her
  • Questions we planned:
    • Q: Tell us about your day, what are you most looking forward to when you start your day? What do you look forward to the least?
    • Q: what everyday tasks do you need the most help with, and what can you do on your own?
    • Q: What are some devices useful to you today and why can’t you live without them? 
    • Q: What are some devices that you would recommend to anyone with a condition. Alt. anyone with a similar condition as your own?
    • Q: When would you say your condition started having an impact on your life? When was the tipping point to the lifestyle you have now?
• Conclusion (5 min)
  • Thanking her for her time
  • Giving our contact info and stating that we’ll send her emails with updates on how to project is going
  • Addressing any last questions/concerns

Meeting Summary and Major Takeaways

Most of the solutions people come up with for Annie’s hassles end up frustrating her, and it ends up becoming a DIY job anyway. That’s where we come in, how Annie sees it. As young people, and as students, we have the creativity to think outside the box and to come up with solutions no one else can fathom.

The first issue Annie told us about was that she and her dog were able to open the door, but neither of them could close it. This is a problem because, while she lives in a very safe town that never even warrants locking the doors at night, leaving the door open, especially at night, could let in the rabbit skunks with rabies that are a problem in the summer. There must be a way to close the door.

Annie can’t access the mail from her 6ft-high porch to her mailbox. Her solution is asking a neighbor for help giving her her mail, but she doesn’t like spending those 10 minutes of her neighbors’ time every day.

If Annie turns on her fan and her overhead lights at the same time, the fan makes the lights flicker enough to give her seizures. Her solution is plugging in night lights into her sockets all over the room, which she then has to manually turn on and off every single one. The voice activated home assistant controls the lights in her entire house all at once, and it can’t target specific rooms of the house.

Sometimes Annie takes care of her brother’s dog. This dog loves taking all of the toothbrushes, but if she puts them somewhere the dog can’t reach it, she can’t either.

She does have a Google Home Mini, but the sound of her noisy power chair confuses the Home so that it can’t understand her voice.

As closely as I can quote her:

Tiny things make such a big difference. And they turn out not to be tiny at all.

This is what our ideations produced:

Notify Annie when she gets mail, so her neighbors don’t have to. Light up an LED strip or send a cellphone notification.

Store the toothbrush in a clear box that also serves as a nightlight. Keeps out of reach of brother’s dog.

Filter the power chair’s loud sound out of the Google Home’s microphone so it doesn’t get in the way of her voice. Very out of scope.

A servo or stepper motor shuts the door with the press of a button. Manual rotation in one direction (opening), motorized rotation in the other (closing). Also not within scope.

Reflection

We thought the meeting went great! After some trouble scheduling, we finally set up a time and met with each other. We had an easy time sticking to our agenda. Annie carried a lot of the conversation since she was really open about her hassles and about her life. This made it really easy to move the conversation forward and stimulate some ideas.

Unfortunately, Annie was getting driven home during our meeting, so she wasn’t able to turn on her video and show us her dog opening the door, or how high her bathroom vanity was, or any of what she was telling us about. We did ask her to send in some videos and photos of these things, and audio of her power chair, and we’re still waiting for those to come in.