Prototype Deployment
The third iteration was conducted collaboratively with Gerd again at a new apartment in a facility from the RIBW for sheltered accommodation on the 25th of May and more
elaborately at his activity centre (Dutch: Dagbesteding) on the 29th of May. Furthermore, the
new prototype had been demonstrated to-, and discussed with advisor Erna, from the Dutch Association for Autism and advisor Arjan, the experience expert, on the 1st of June. The set-
up of the test session at the activity centre was not that insightful: as Gerd had supervisors around him, there were no means for which Gerd could use MyDayLight with added value. Therefore, the system was put on the centre’s bar and Gerd was sitting on the sofa a couple of metres further. The focus of the session was to find out how effective Gerd thought the new prototype was and if he personally appreciated it in this way.
Reflection
The reflection phase started along with the test sessions on the 25th and 29th of May,
as each session would end with a reflection interview of which analyses are included as Appendices C.10 and C.11. The second contribution to the reflection phase was by advisors Erna and Arjan, which also marked the first time a focus group was organized: myself, Erna and Arjan collaboratively discussing the new prototype and Gerd’s usage of the system. The
analysis of this interview is included as Appendix C.12. It appeared that a focus group can be of added value, as the parties involved can respond to each other immediately and gain new insights with each other throughout. Aside from these interviews, the interview with Gerd’s sheltered facility supervisor Corné was also conducted in this phase, of which the analysis is included as Appendix C.13.
Means Location Mental Framing
Leaving the apartment on time
At the location of the to be conducted activity: good reminders
Notification system
NOT: as an alarm clock
Most of the insights on the way Gerd had been appropriating MyDayLight so far were identified during the interview on the 25th of May, summarized in Table 8, in which Gerd
confirmed that he had been using MyDayLight during the first iteration to combat personal challenges. He expressed primarily that he believes MyDayLight could be used to support him in leaving his apartment on time for appointments - but not as an alarm clock. Regarding the locations on the lights, I recalled Gerd putting them in front of him and on the pile of dirty laundry. Gerd explained that he believed those were good reminders. He also confirmed that he had put the lights at the location of where the upcoming activities were set to happen. Regarding the mental framing of MyDayLight, Gerd emphasised that MyDayLight had been functioning solely as a notification system. Lastly, regarding the system appreciation, Gerd explained that he believes MyDayLight is a funny device, which can be considered a positive attribute.
Input by: Gerd (1) Gerd (2) Arjan & Erna Researcher
Now
Wow! Erase the recording button as it is too distractive No longer erase the recording button, as it can be used to record personally- effective tunes, such as an alarm clock How? Implement a feedback system where the user lets the system know it has seen the notification
Implement an elaborate choice menu for the tunes Implement a game that needs to be solved to stop the sound playing Intrusiveness in the interface should be related to association and repetition frequency The elaborate choice menu needs categories The sound interface and the planning interface should become one integrated whole
The full spectrum of the rainbow colours to chose as a mood should be restricted to 4 colours Allow new recordings without manually needing to delete the previous one Make processing and Arduino work wirelessly
Optimize code so that it is not only working
effectively, but also efficiently
(Impossible)
Consecutively, HWNMs were constructed that are summarized in Table 9 and included as Appendix D.3., with the first one being based on Gerd’s feedback given in the first reflection interview at his apartment on the 25th of May. Gerd had expressed that he
preferred the recording option to be erased, as he found it to be too distractive. Furthermore, Gerd explained to see value in a feedback system and suggested the rainbow light to
brighten up for five minutes in which the user is given time to let the system know they has become aware of the notification. Lastly, Gerd appreciated the choice menu in which he can chose a tune, but suggested that it would be nicer to have even more options. Gerd’s feedback changed after he had been testing the prototype more elaborately at his activity centre on the 29th of May. Firstly, Gerd and I collaboratively found out that the recording
button could be used in an effective way, contrary to earlier beliefs. On my initiative, I proposed to record the tune that always successfully woke Gerd up in the morning. I argued
that if this tune would be successful in waking Gerd up, it might also be successful as the perfect notification, something confirmed later on by Erna and Arjan as well. After execution, Gerd stated that he found this effective.
In the subsequent reflection interview with advisors Erna and Arjan, not only valuable insights were gained on the way MyDayLight has been used so far, but also a number of design opportunities were proposed. First of all, Erna and Arjan believed that the most important variables for determining the intrusiveness of a tune are the personal association the user has with that sound and the frequency of repetition. However, Erna suggested to not only add tunes that are supposed to be changing in intrusiveness, but a more elaborate choice menu with a number of sound categories, such as instruments, animal- and bird sounds. Secondly, Erna and Arjan believed that, for future designs, both the original interface as the sound interface should become one integrated whole. Thirdly, Erna and Arjan saw value in the feedback system as it had been proposed by Gerd, but argued that it should be tried to make MyDayLight work without the user needing to take such an active role. When the mood functionality was introduced, Erna emphasised that the user should not have the opportunity to select a colour out of the total rainbow spectrum to represent their mood, but they should only be able to choose between green, orange, red and blue, as it is currently taught to children with autism that they can express their mood using one of these four colours. By restricting the possibilities to these four colours, the mood functionality would become more meaningful and it would be easier for the supervisor to recognize patterns in the user’s mood swings.
The last HWNM also includes the design opportunities brought forward by myself, primarily dealing with some practical issues: establishing a wireless connection between the sound system and the lights, optimizing the Processing code and replacing the current speaker with another speaker that fits better with MyDayLight’s design.
Prototyping
This prototyping phase saw design opportunities realized that were proposed in the previous reflection phase. First of all, a more elaborate choice menu was introduced,
enabling the user to choose a category of sounds, as can be seen in Figure 20. Furthermore, in this prototype, it has been made possible to record more tunes without the need to re-start the program. Feedback is given to the user when this maximum amount has been reached, as can be seen in Figure 22. Hand in hand with the possibility to allow multiple recordings is the newly-added reset button, which is the green button on top of the recording button. If pressed, the old recording is deleted and a new recording can be made. To provide feedback to the user that the old recording is deleted, the rectangles in the recording area will
and will not disappear until the reset button has been pressed. Lastly, the communication between the Processing sketch, which handles the sound interface, and the Arduino is now being conducted wirelessly using internet protocols. The Arduino code fragment for this prototype is included as Appendix E.3. and the Processing code is included as Appendix E.4.
Figure 22: The maximum amount of recordings is reached
Figure 23: A still from the video showing the third prototype working
wirelessly and with a new speaker Figure 20: The third prototype
contains an elaborate choice menu