HealthGuard – Andreas Balaskas

HealthGuard

Designing for elderlys

Future technology

Time: 2 weeks | October 2015

Type: University project

Skills: UI/UX design | Rapid prototyping

Team: Andreas Berglund | Michael Karlsson

Outcome: Future technology concept

PROJECT OVERVIEW

The purpose of the project was to desing an interface to a personal management system for old people (aged over 80) who are still living independently at home. The system should provide information about medication to take, appointments, and other activities. We should consider that users in this age group may have middle cognitive impairment and/or be unfamiliar with current technologies that could help them (in principle).

SOLUTION

HealthGuard is a bracelet that is connected to 3G/4G network which keeps patients connected to the medical journal, prompts them to take medication at right times, and keeps track on doctors appointments. In addition, this seamless bracelet contains bendable carbon tube which serves to take blood samples and notify the users if the blood pressure or sugar is low. If the blood pressure is at high levels, a signal is sent to the emergency of the hospital with information about the location. The visual feedback is by holograms and optional audio notification.

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IDEATION AND RESEARCH

Conducting a user-centred approach and considering the PACT framework we researched elderly’s relation with technology and elderly with middle cognitive impairment. Outcomes of the research showed that the design should be as less interactive as possible because people with cognitive impairment forget tasks and have difficulty in thinking about complex tasks. Furthermore, elderly need to feel that they are expert with the technology they possess and that there is no obstacle when they use a specific technology. There is strong scientific research that shows how elderly became interested in technology and capable to use it appropriate when designers involved them from the beginning in the design process.

PROTO-PERSONA DEVELOPMENT

The proto- persona created based on the scientific research and experiences of elderly people.

EVALUATION

We made a scenario for a typical day of the persona that was created. We visualized our idea on paper and then we made some illustrations of the bracelet. We conducted interviews with elderly people by showing and explaining the technology.