Introduction:

For the final project of the Intro to Physical Computing class, our Team Alycai, is working with Keith, a brain injured patient from Pittsburgh, and developing an assistive device that will be useful and relevant to his experience. To better understand his wants and needs, and to get to know Keith better, we conducted an informational interview with him. The interview was conducted at Community Living and Support Services (CLASS), a non-profit organization where Keith attends classes for part of the day, and members of our group: Cable, Bhairabi, and Ethan chose to interview Keith at a time after his classes were over. The purpose of our interview was to gain a better understanding of various aspects of Keith’s daily life, the things he enjoys doing, and the limitations he has in these areas.

 

Meeting Keith:

Introduction/icebreaker

  • Name, interest, major, fun fact
  • Ask client to share the same
  • Ask the client why they volunteered for this project. 
    • What drew them to participate?
  • Explanation and clarification about project goals
    • We are:
      • Trying to build a little gadget that makes something in *your* life easier or more fun.
      • Going to see him again on April 5th weeks to get his thoughts on what we’re making, and we’ll have a product for him by May. 
      • Taking about seven weeks to go from this meeting to a reasonably high-fidelity final product
      • Documenting our process
    • We are not:
      • Professional engineers who are experienced in making polished devices
      • Planning to build something that will be sold in stores
      • Building something for a lot of people, so the final is specifically geared for you
      • Inventing new parts; we have limits to both components and skill set
    • Today, we will just be asking you about your life and some of the tasks you do to get a better idea of what we will be making in the future. There’s no right or wrong answers, and there’s no pressure to answer anything you are uncomfortable with. Let us know if you have any questions throughout the process or need anything that would make this conversation easier.
    • By the end of this interview, we want to be on the same page with you about the general idea of what we make. We will be sketching ideas along the way, and don’t hold back if you have any ideas or are excited about/dislike any ideas that we have.
    • Are you ready? Have any questions?
    • If you want to get in touch with us for any reason talk to Bill, he has our contact info
  • Questions:
    • What are some things that you enjoy doing?
      • Are there any challenges that prevent you from doing that?
      • Have they gotten harder over time?
      • What do you like about them?
    • What does your daily routine look like?
      • Are there any tasks that are difficult to do in your everyday routine?
      • What makes them difficult?
    • What is something you wish you could do differently in your everyday life?
    • What are some things you wish you could do more?
      • Ask if they’d be willing to demonstrate a daily task or a series of tasks to you during the meeting. They can actually do the task if it’s something simple like getting a glass of water, or they may pantomime the task. The closer to reality this action is, the more likely you are to find a particular aspect of the task that’s harder than it needs to be.
      • Use the simple creative act of drawing to bring out ideas: ask the client to draw a map or cartoon of their daily life and show it to you on camera, or have them narrate the action and do the drawing yourself in a way that’s visible to the group. It could be a map (literal map, showing travels), a sequence of cartoon panels (first I do this, then I do this), or take a more abstract form.
      • In general, using a shared drawing-surface tool (such as a whiteboard in Zoom, or a piece of paper in real life) so that everybody can simultaneously contribute to and see others’ ideas is a great idea.
    • For the final prototype, we also want it to be something that you like to have around. What are your favorite colors?
      • What are some things that you like? Cars? Brands? Movies? Something that you own?
  • Conclude
    • 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.
    • One last thing, want to come up with a team name? 
      • Ideas: Keith and the rest, Keith and Co
    • Reiterate the overall project schedule if you feel it would be necessary to clarify before leaving.

Summary and Major Takeway:

  • A lot of Keith’s problems already have solutions that rely upon other people or existing devices
  • Keith believes that he doesn’t exactly need solutions for these problems as he has already found solutions
  • The biggest problems that Keith struggle with are unable to be addressed through physical computing; ie major headaches and a desire to buy weed
  • We may need to discuss Keith’s struggles with someone who knows and understands Keith, rather than Keith himself, to understand what it’s like to need to help Keith with his everyday life (and how to create a device that can alleviate some of that work)

After Meeting Thoughts:

Our meeting followed our agenda but wasn’t very fruitful. Keith’s main problem is his headaches, which are an extremely difficult problem to solve. Additionally, a lot of our questions were potentially too probing or too vague, since his response to a vast majority of them were “I don’t know” or “I don’t care”. His main proposed solutions involved growing marijuana to help with his headaches, which is obviously a solution we cannot help with. Our probing questions into his daily activities were not very revealing as to what types of devices might help him, so we wound up relying primarily on Bill’s suggestions of a device to help Keith put his watch on and to help Keith remember his schedule. In hindsight, it would have been nice to have Bill in the room while we were meeting with Keith, as Keith’s traumatic brain injury seems to sometimes make him an unreliable narrator of his own experience.