Assitive Technology Winter Meeting 1 by You Xu (Ian)

During this meet, we spent about 1 hour talking in-depth about her life and interest. Last time, we asked her to pay attention to her daily life and take some notes if she feels that something is not accessible enough for her. So, we discussed it during this meet.

Bikes

She lives very far away from her school. It takes about 2 hours on her way back home every day by the metro. The worse situation is that the metro station is not conveniently near her home. Therefore, she has to walk about 10-20 minutes to the metro station every day, which is a heavy burden for her. Her legs often pain after walking for a comparatively long distance. Therefore, she and her father want her to learn how to ride a bike. However, because of cerebral palsy, she is a little unbalanced. Therefore, we anticipate that she might have trouble controlling the balance of the bike. Until now, she has not ever tried to learn to ride a bike. I suggested her to try to learn to ride bikes with protective measures. It may be possible to design some mechanisms or design a bike that is accessible to her.

Hobbies

She is very fond of traditional Chinese drawings. She takes part in a club in the school and gets trained. Since one of her hands is fully functioned, she draws very well and gets praised in school! In addition to that, she is also trying other hobbies like photographing and ceramic art in her spare time.

Major

She is now major in graphic design. Currently, she is learning to use Photoshop and will be learning to use Premier to edit pictures and videos. She can do all the work with her fully functioning hand. She chose this major because she is abler than many of her classmates since this major requires a higher level of learning and practice. And she loves to learn it. However, she also worries that she may not get a well-paid job compared to other normal students who learn the same skills like her. Also, she thinks English is becoming a barrier for her to live and work in Shanghai.

Our Planet – You (Ian) Xu – Inmi Lee

CONCEPTION AND DESIGN:

  • Research on Social Awareness, Inclusiveness, and Interaction

To do this project, we researched the current issues of climate change. And human’s massive impact on it. We referred to the NASA website about the fact of climate change. They have already collected significant evidence to show that human is causing a severe climate change effect. Among them, carbon dioxide is a fundamental cause of it. It also addresses that de-desertification and forest are the ways to ease climate change for a while. Therefore, Vivien and I think that it is significant to address this issue in an interactive way, which could arouse the public’s awareness. As described in the documentation before, combining Vivien and my definition of “interaction” together, we believe that an interactive project with open inclusiveness and significance to the society is essential. The most significant research projects we referred to are bomb and teamLab.

  • Core Theme

Therefore, in this project, we want our users to get the information on the accelerating climate change pace. Guild them through a reflection on themselves: In what did I contribute the climate change? How possible could I pay an effort to eliminate it?

  • Game-like Art Project – ending without winning

Our project is a game-like art project that asks the user to plant trees. In return, they can compensate for their effect on climate change virtually. However, since it is a universal consensus that humans cannot stop causing climate change unless we stop all our lives and movements, meaning death, humans must keep on paying effort in the career of environmentalism. Once they stop, the climate situation will start to get worse again. To express this information to the uses and make them aware of it, we intentionally design the ending as a tragedy – explosion only, meaning that there’s no “winning” situation. Again, our project is NOT a general defined game but an interactive art project that engages the public in the conversation of preservation for climate change.

  • Collaborative instead of Competitive

We humans or all the creatures in the globe are one entity. Facing climate change, we do not compete for resources within groups. Therefore, it is instead, a process that requires all humans’ collaborative efforts. So, in our project, we also make it collaborative instead of competitive. At most four users can shovel the dirt to plant the same tree together at the time to accelerate the growing speed of the tree, which results in a more positive effect to reduce the increasing carbon dioxide. As more users join in, the trees will grow faster; the planet will last for a longer time.

  • Materials

We initially intended to apply four masks to detect (or fakely detect) the users’ breath. Use four shovels with sensors to detect their movement. And apply the computer screen to show the virtual tree graphs to the users. Below is a rough sketch of them.

sketch for project

  • Abandon mask

However, after presenting our project to the class, we collected feedback about the concerns with the masks. Even though applying masks sounds reasonable for our project, it may be not making sense to users. Also, since multiple users will experience our project, it is complex and not environmentally friendly to change the mask every time. Wearing masks may also affect the users’ comfortable experience. Considering all these factors, we abandoned the use of masks and replaced it with a straightforward instruction on the screen that “human breath consume O2 and produce CO2.”

  • Authentic experience with dirt

We tried to experience shovel with the tree growing animation. However, due to two reasons, we decide to have some solid materials to shovel instead of only ask the users to present the movement of shoveling. First, since the user’s behaviors and movements are not predictable, we could not think out of the way to use specific sensors to count the times a user shovel accurately. Second, it is very dull and stupid to shovel nothing. By applying dirt, we can detect the movement of the shovel by detecting the changing weight of soil; users will also have a more authentic experience of planting the tree.

  • GUI

To make the users have a sense of their progress by “planting trees,” we designed a GUI for users to keep track of everything. We apply multiple signals to alert users in the process of their interaction. Two bars regarding the level of oxygen and carbon dioxide, changing the background color, growing trees, simple texts, notification sound, and explosion animation. Each of these components is designed to orient the user into the project as soon as possible.

FABRICATION AND PRODUCTION:

  • Programming and Weight sensor

By referring to our course materials and online references, we did not meet with any unsolved programming issues. We applied OOP, functions, media, etc. into our program. This is the first version of our program.

To detect the movement of “planting trees,” we decided to use a weight sensor. However, when I first got it from the equipment office, I had no idea how it should work.

weight sensor

Then I looked up the official website of the producer about this sensor. It explains all the information about this sensor in detail. The only problem I met is that the sensor I got is broken. I successfully repaired it by myself. As instructed, it needs to work with a weight platform. The sketch is below.

platform

However, the website that details the platform is no longer available. We first intended to design one by ourselves and 3D print it out. However, without detail information, it is too hard to design it within days. We then consulted the lab assistant and received the suggestion to hang this sensor in the air instead of putting it on the ground. Therefore, in the final presentation, we took advantage of the table to fix the sensor hanging on it.

  • User testing: user-friendly redesign

During the user testing session, we received much feedback regarding some problems with our project that makes it less friendly to the users. First, the program is not stable. Sometimes, when the box is just swinging in the air, the program will sense it as the user has put sand/dirt into the box. This misinformation may mislead the user to shovel sand out of the box instead of into the box. So, we changed some algorithm in the program to only sense larger-scale change of weight and only allowed the tree to grow a little each time regardless of how much weight is added to the box. Also, we planned to add a fake tree in the middle of the box to signal the user to put dirt into the big box. Second, the use did not get timely feedback once they shovel the sand into the box. We then add a notification sound to notify the user. Also, we mirrored our small computer screen to a bigger monitor and changed the size of some graphs in the GUI later in the presentation to make sure the user can keep track of their processes easily. Also, since we are putting the sand into different containers, some users may be misinformed by it since it looks like a competition. However, we intend to design it as a cooperating job, not a competition. So, we carefully relocate the position of the containers and shovels to make it at least look collaborative. Last but not least, some users also think it hard to build a logical connection with sand and planting trees. To avoid confusion, we changed sand to dirt so that the correlation between them should be straightforward enough. After this process, I also learned how significant it is to have the user test our project to collect their feedbacks to avoid my fixed mindset. Therefore, we can fix some design flaws to make it more accessible and friendly to users.

  • Fabrication

Our fabrication process includes drilling holes on the box, 3D printing a tree model, and build the whole project into the revenue in advance. Vivien devoted much to this process!

3d printsensor bondingrevenue setting

Final project presentation:

user interaction

CONCLUSIONS:

The most important goal of our project is to arouse the public’s awareness and reflection on a more significant issue of climate change. We want it to be an interactive project that addresses social problems; it is fun to interact with; it is inclusive to many users, both those directly interacting with it and others overserving it. These criteria also correspond to our understanding and definition of “interaction.” First, I think it is indeed a fun and inclusive experience for the users who interact with it. They are paying effort to shovel the dirt and get constant feedback from the program. For others who are observing the interaction, it is also fun to view the whole process, which will also leave an impressive impression on them. The only pity is that the layout of the containers, dirt, shovels, and the monitor may not be very perfect for making sure everyone has a comfortable place to view and move. And the users indeed interacted with our project in the way that we design in the last presentation. Regarding addressing social awareness, we have some successes and some failures. According to our discussion after the demonstration, they successfully get the basic information about the human’s severe impact on climate change issues and the possible actions humans can do to address it. However, we have a debate on the ending of the project. There is only one option of the ending: O2 drops to 0 and the planet explodes. Some argue that it gives out a negative message that whatever you do, it will fail in the end unless four users keep on shoveling without stop. We fully understand this pessimistic thinking pattern. However, regarding the real-word situation, we still think this reflects how severe the climate change issue is and it indeed requires humans’ continuous efforts on it or else it will cause ecological disasters. I believe this is an issue that is worth a full seminar time to discuss. We are open to any interpretation of the design of “no winning, always failure” since that is not a flaw, but part of our special design of the project. Regardless of this problem, we think there are some improvements we can make in the future according to some other feedbacks in the presentation. First, as we are running out of the dirt, we can make the box as an hourglass so that the soil could be recyclable to use. Second, we can redesign the layout of the project, use a larger projection, and have all the dirt directly on the ground if we have a bigger revenue so that all the users and observers will have a better experience. Third, if necessary, we can add a winning situation that could be hardly achieved (still need more discussion, as I state before). I also learned a lot from the process of designing and building this project both technically and theoretically. I gain many skills in programming, problem-solving, fabrication, crafting, etc. I learned how to make a project better fit for the audience by testing and hearing form their feedback. This experience also sheds my understanding of interaction deeper in its meaning that it could be so flexible that it involves many characteristics. By address the climate change issue, I also have a reflection of myself, of my understanding of the issue, and it engages me to think further and discover it.

Climate change is happening. I believe our project significantly addresses this issue in an innovative way of interaction. It is an art, meaning that the audience may have various understandings of their own. However, the presentation of the issue and their authentic experience interaction with our project makes our core theme impressive to them. Big or small, I believe we are making an impact.

Code: link to GitHub

Code: link to Google Drive

Works Cited for documentation:

“The Causes of Climate Change.” NASA. https://climate.nasa.gov/causes/

“Climate Change: How Do We Know?” NASA. https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

“Weight Sensor Module SKU SEN0160,” DFRobot, https://wiki.dfrobot.com/Weight_Sensor_Module_SKU_SEN0160

“Borderless World.” teamLab. https://borderless.team-lab.cn/shanghai/en/

Works Cited for programming:

KenStock. “Isolated Tree On White Background.” pngtree. https://pngtree.com/freepng/isolated-tree-on-white-background_3584976.html

NicoSTAR8. “Explosion Inlay Explode Fire.” pixaboy. https://pixabay.com/videos/explosion-inlay-explode-fire-16640/

“success sounds (18).” soundsnap. https://www.soundsnap.com/tags/success

“explosion.” storyblocks. https://www.audioblocks.com/stock-audio/strong-explosion-blast-rg0bzhnhuphk0wxs3l0.html

Assistive Technology Fall 2019 Final Project Reflection by You (Ian) Xu

Describe your partner

My partner is very quiet. When I first took a glimpse at him, I did not identify anything abnormal about him. He walks a little unbalanced, but that does not make him look strange. We started to ask questions and introduces ourselves to him. He seemed to have understood our words but only replies in limited voice and hand gestures. None of us understood it. Therefore, we found a pen and a piece of paper writing down our conversation. He writes comparatively slow, but the characters are clear to understand. After that, we had a long conversation with his mother. While we are chatting with his mother, I noticed that he is quietly listening and paying attention to our conversation. Later, his mother posted some questions on the paper, and he started writing the response. He even actively started writing a sentence to us while he is a little ignored by us. Therefore, I believed that he has a strong desire to join our conversation. However, the way to communicate is a big challenge for him.

Throughout our conversation with him this time in class, we notice that he relies much on his mother about everything. When we are doing user testing of our prototype to him, he responded indirectly to his mother, and then his mother translates the sign language to us instead of trying to communicate directly to us. Most of the time, he is sitting and observing our communication with his mother as an observer. We then decide to have a conversation with him without his mother. In twenty minutes, we type in sentences on the computer and ask him to reply on paper. The conversation carries out very inefficient since it is hard for him to understand the grammar of a sentence. Therefore, we need to paraphrase a lot to confirm he understand our words. Also, he has limited capability of writing Chinese characters and link them into sentences. We spend much time guessing the meaning by applying body senses. After the conversation, we still think he has a strong inner desire to communicate and experience the outside world more. However, since his mother cares too much for him, it seems that he always wants his mother to help him overcome all the obstacles. Moreover, according to his mother, he likes to play computer games and watch online series at home when he is alone.

After several conversations with him throughout weeks, our communication got even harder and less efficient. As he is now thirty years old, he has already get used to the lifestyle that relies much on others’ help. We think that even though he may have a passion for something, he has already developed a sense of “learned helplessness.” It is too hard for him to step out of his comfort zone and start over again. Because of this, we notice that he is not sensitive to new input from outside. He also blocks himself away from building a new connection to the world with humans and other objects cognitively. Therefore, we believe that even though we tried hard to communicate with him, we still fail to know better about him.

What are their desires/challenges/difficulties?

We got to know that due to the cerebral palsy, he becomes deaf. He is also insensitive and has a problem controlling his left side of the body, including his left hand, arm, leg, and foot. He has many challenges. Throughout our conversation with his mother, we noticed that he never goes out by himself but also with his mother because of the potential dangers on the road. Since he lacks a certain degree of the ability to control the left side of his body, it is tough for him to keep the balance. Also, he expressed his desire to have a romantic relationship with his mother two years ago, but his situation is not socially accepted. Furthermore, his mother is also concerned about his safety at home since he might open the room door for strangers. However, after all, we nearly forget that our target audience should be himself instead of his mother. We were chatting with his mother all the time instead of him. We then realized the most significant difficulty for him is the inconvenient environment of his communication with others. We could hardly communicate with him until his mother came.

When we are communicating with him, we notice that since he is used to relying on his mother so much, he is not comfortable communicating with us directly. He also has little language sense, especially for reading and writing. In our WeChat chat, his mother records and describes how he uses the computer to play games and watch TV series. However, he can hardly control the keyboard using his left hand. We categorize the desires/challenges/difficulties for him in the following points:

  1. Relies too much on his mother
  2. Lack of language senses to communicate with others
  3. Want to build a romantic relationship
  4. Computer sometimes crashes
  5. Difficult to click the keyboard with the left hand/arm while playing the game
  6. Most of all, lack the incentive to try and learn new things

What is your project?

  • Project 1: Portable Writing Pad (abandoned halfway)

At first, we intend to build a portable electronic writing pad attached to his body. In this way, he can carry it outside easily to communicate with others by writing everything down, only using his right hand and arm. We also intend to add instruction, either sound or vision, to notify the other to communicate appropriately with him. However, we abandon this idea after the first prototype and user testing since it could not engage him to communicate independently with others, as he says. Therefore, we do not have a final product picture of this project.

  • Project 2: foot-control keyboard

After the failure of project 1, by checking his needs listed above, we think addressing no.5 will be most helpful for him. We are thinking about to build a special keyboard for him to press the key using his feet instead of his fingers. For most of the games he plays, they require the use of four keys: “W,” “A,” “S,” and “D” to move the figure. Therefore, we intend to design a four-key keyboard with four direction keys. The keyboard should be on the ground and placed properly so that he can easily step on it. We also want the user to customize the key function to make it applicable to more situations.

Please refer to Nour’s blog post for the picture of the final product.

Development process

  • Addressing issues: communication

Our idea is generated during our reflection upon the interaction with our user after the class. We are always spending some time finding a pen and paper to write down words in communication. However, it is not always that convenient to have writing materials everywhere. Also, we did not aware that he is unable to hear and speak at first. Therefore, we came up with an idea to address this problem. So, the purpose of the device should enable him to communicate with others without any barriers in any situation. We still think writing and reading is the most effective, stable, and safe way for his daily communication.

  • Research for project 1

We find the existing writing pad online. It is designed by MI (Chinese Internet Corporation), a link to the product. It is convenient to carry, write, and swipe the previous writing. Also, it is very light to carry. The weight of this product is nearly the same as an iPhone. However, it is not initially designed for disabled people. Therefore, we want to build a device that makes the writing pad accessible to him. We need to figure out the following details in design by prototype and test.

writing pad

  1. Notify others about his lack of ability in hearing and speaking. We may use the sound notification.
  2. Attached the writing pad to his body but should not block his daily movement and make him uncomfortable. We may design a special bracket for him.
  3. Avoid two people writing in opposite directions or make their writing readable to each other. We may want to make the device rotatable.
  4. Make sure the pen will not be lost while walking. We may attach the pen to the device with wires.

To achieve these goals, we apply some materials in our design of the product. We design to use a belt that could attach the pad to his waist. We also consider that it may not be very convenient for him to have a solid pad in the front all the time. So, the belt also enables him to move it to the side of his leg while not using it.

belt

Then another problem is to make the writing pad standstill in front of him so that he can free one hand from holding the pad to writing. Our idea came from the mobile phone bracket that Didi (Chinese Online Ride-Hailing Platform) drivers use since they also do not have an extra hand to hold their phones while driving.

phone bracket

By applying the phone bracket, it also solves the problem to rotate the writing pad so that the two people do not need to read upside-down words.

Since a 10-inch pad is also not small, it may be stuck by his body while rotating the pad. We notice that the small table on the airplane seat can stretch out or fold. How about stretch the pad out a little to leave enough space for him to rotate the pad? Then, we also found a tool online that could make the writing pad movable along the track.

track

  • Prototype for project 1

We did not purchase the writing pad and other materials in the beginning in case it does not fit him well. To test the portability and stability of it, we made a simple prototype of our idea using cardboard and plastic tapes. We use plastic tapes to prototype the belt and the cardboard for the pad. We measure the size of the cardboard and cut it as the exact size of a 10-inch writing pad. Since it is hard to find alternative materials for the phone bracket, we designed another mechanism to prototype it.

project 1 prototype

  • User testing for project 1

During the user testing session for our user, we addressed many new problems. First, since we are using cardboard and tapes, it is very unstable. However, more importantly, we found out that this product may not necessarily address the issue of his lack of communication with strangers. Since his mother is taking the position of him to answer all the questions, we tried some ways to drive his mother out of the classroom for 15 minutes. During that time, we directly asked him when communicating with others, would he refer to his mother or using a writing pad. He gave us a firm answer: mother. Therefore, among our group, we had an argument about his sense of autonomy and to what extent are we eligible to address such an issue. It becomes a paradox that, on the one hand, the writing pad could enable him to take the autonomy and initiate a conversation that he never has the chance to do before. However, on another hand, he is used to his original way of communication by relying on his mother. His “learned helplessness” is blocking him to try using a new tool because it takes more effort while directly communicating with others. This product could arouse his awareness of active communication only under the condition that he is willing to communicate without his mother. After careful consideration, we decide to postpone this idea since it surely does not work in a short time.

  • Research and sketch for project 2

We notice that he likes to play online games. Based on our experiences, sometimes, the player must use both hands to control the game. We have a conversation in the WeChat group asking about what games he regularly plays. This is the website where he usually visits to play online games.

game website

We then visit this website and plays for a while. Indeed, some games require using the left hand to press keys and the right hand to control the mouse. Since most of the time, the player uses the left hand to control “W, A, S, D” to move the figure. Therefore, since he can use his right leg and foot normally, how about take use of it to substitute his left hand?

game shot

We refer our idea to an interactive Japanese game Dance Dance Revolution. It demonstrates that feet are indeed capable of controlling the game. After practicing and training, feet could also be used quite advanced.

dance dance revolusion

We first think about using a joystick bottom to replace the keys on the keyboard. Four directions of the joystick may indicate four keys. I tried to use my foot to test the bottom. I fear that I may break the bottom at any time. So, we believe that he may easily break it as well by stepping on the bottom too often.

joystick

We then searched online for some possible materials for the replacement of keys. We found a pedal that connects to the computer as a key. We then come up with the idea to apply four pedals and build a four-key keyboard on the ground by fixing them on a piece of board.

pedals

  • Project development for project 2

After we received the pedals, we programed the key information accordingly into the pedals by referring to the instruction. Now, these four pedals can work together as a special four-key keyboard. Since for some games, he may need to press two bottoms together, the problem is how to position them best? We open some online games and use only the right hand and right foot to try playing them. We adjust the position of the four pedals according to our experience interacting with it to find the possible best layout. Finally, we think the photo below shows the best layout.

layout

After finalizing the layout, we stock the pedals onto cardboard, waiting for the user testing. We manage to adjust the position of the keys according to the user’s experience and complete the final product.

pedals on cardboard

  • Feedback from the user

During our final user testing session, we tried to teach him to use the pedals to control the figure in the online game. Yanru did this by demonstrating it to him directly. After a while, he got a sense of controlling it. However, it is not easy for him to get familiar with the control of it. When asking about his experience of using the pedals, he told us that he prefers to use the keyboard than the pedals. We understand the difficulty that even for us, it takes some time to master the use of the pedals by foot. However, due to two reasons, we still think this is not an efficient solution to the problem.

user test

First, as the feedback of our project design says, even though we are designing products for him, we still need to consider the attitude of his mother since his mother plays an important role in his life. If his mother does not agree with the design of the product, she would probably take the initiative against the use of it. This time, we heard his mother’s voice that she is not agreeable to our design since it is complex to use. We also think that it does not reduce the burden of his mother. Instead, it has the potential to bring more troubles to his mother. Therefore, his mother probably will not support his use of these pedals at home.

Second, as described, again and again, he is not open to trying new things since there are always some options for him to pay less effort. Learning to use the pedals takes some time and skill development of his foot. Therefore, in a short time, it would be definitely more convenient to use a keyboard than pedals before he masters them. Temporarily, we have no solution to design a product that does not require any effort of learning and adaption.

What were your difficulties?

  • Communication

Communication has always been a difficulty for us throughout the whole developing process. He and his mother seem to have a special system of sign language that none of us understand. The only way for us to communicate without his mother is to write everything down. Even though we can write fast or type on the computer, his comprehensive level is another challenge for us. Because of his limited language sense, we communicate very slow, and it seems impossible for us to communicate deeply. Due to the limited time, we think that we never truly understand and empathize with him by such a shallow and inefficient way of communication.

communicating with iPad

  • Defining the USER’s needs that we can address within four weeks

We are always changing our focus on our user since it is hard for us to define his need that we can pay effort on. During our first meet, we had a rich conversation with his mother. We got to know from his mother that he has many problems in his daily life. However, afterward, we consider all these needs as his mother’s instead of his. From his mother’s perspective, she may want something that could make her life more comfortable. However, these issues may not be necessarily relevant a lot to our actual user.

Then, by having a conversation directly with him, we encountered many problems. No matter what specific need we address, it always leads us to a more fundament problem: his autonomy of social life. We had many discussions about his mother’s control over him, his inner desire for social life, his inclusiveness in society, his “learned helplessness” and unwillingness of changes… However, many of these are out of our capability in this course, “Assistive Technology,” which made us at a loss throughout the process. We successfully address the core issue with him – autonomy – but fails to design a product to resolve it from a certain perspective that we can achieve in a short period of time.

  • Project development

Project development is also a difficulty for us since we do not have our user to test it at any time we want while developing our project. Therefore, we fail to collect feedback timely. Some designs of the project, for instance, the layout of the pedals in project two may only suitable for us but not necessary for him. Combining with the difficulty of communication, it is harder for us to get positive feedback that engages us for better adjustment and improvement. Even though the final product may not be successful, however, we still believe that our user is enjoying the process of interacting with us. We also learned a lot, as described below. From this perspective, we are having a reciprocal impact on each other, which is a valuable and successful Service-Learning experience.

What did you learn from this 4-week workshop?

  • Knowledge about disability

Before the workshop, I only know a little about disability in social media and course readings. I would forget the information in a few hours after reviewing without real-world experience. However, by having authentic communication and interaction with my user who suffers cerebral palsy, I got to know better about the cause and effect of some disabilities, especially different categories and levels of cerebral palsy. By empathizing with my user, I got to know how his daily life is like and how he behaves differently compare to people without cerebral palsy. This is significant for me to be more open-minded and inclusive when designing any form of technology to consider the issue of accessibility.

  • Interaction with disables

Before the workshop, I only have a little experience of interacting with blind people while having activities with some NGOs. This workshop gives me the chance to interact with my user in a comparatively long period personally. This is significant for me to have a stronger awareness to be more considerate in the future when interacting with other people with disabilities.

  • Social environment and issues with disables

In our conversation with his mother, we got to know the changes of people in Shanghai and the Shanghai government’s attitude towards disables. In recent years, society is becoming more and more inclusive to them, especially in an international city like Shanghai. However, it is still a long way to go. He is always thinking about to have a romantic relationship. However, his mother says that people without severe disabilities would not consider him regarding his physical condition, social identity, future potential income, etc.

  • Design thinking

The most fruitful gain for me is the process of applying “design thinking” in an authentic project. I have heard of the notion of “design thinking” over five times in my college life. I was very familiar with the concept of it even before taking this course. However, this course gives me the change to apply it to my project for the first time. I now realize the importance of “empathize” and “define” process in “design thinking.” By reflecting on our not successful project development, I believe we have a wonderful “ideate” process and creative “prototype.” However, during the “test,” we realize again and again that we are always missing some consideration to the user himself. This also corresponds to what we learned in class that the five steps are in a loop. We went back to the first step “empathize” twice after testing! After three weeks, even though we had empathized a lot on him, we are still struggling with the “define” step. In all, I think the updated loop version of “design thinking” is a very useful concept for project development. Among them, “empathize” and “define” processes are especially important.

Assistive Technology Week 6 Assignments #2 by You (Ian) Xu

A campus behind Meng Café

Describe your observations on their classes

       We observed their paper crafting class, wood crafting class, and a personal therapy class for autism kids. Among them, the wood crafting class leaves the most significant impression for me. According to the introduction of the teacher, the kids in this class have different levels of capability. I notice that some students are very good and familiar at rolling the paper scrip. I tried it as well, it is not an easy task at all. I was amazed by their patience in doing such simple repetitive works for a long time. Besides, we also noticed that some students in the class are very active and outgoing. One boy would drag everyone to take a look and praise his work. Another girl is talented at doing creative work to decorate the patterns of their work. Nearly all of them were very excited to meet new people. I feel their sense of happiness when doing handcraft and communicating and interacting with humans.

paper craft

       For the autism therapy class, the student was also very excited to play with us. During the class, the teacher paid much effort to attract the student’s attention. The student was always intending to running around and do things he wants instead of following the teacher’s instruction. I think this class may fail to meet its designed outcomes but the student had great fun, which I think is more important.

autism therapy

What technologies can improve their learning?

       When observing the wood crafting class, I noticed that a student is trying to install the string to the wooden ukulele. He tried many times but failed every time. He then referred to us about the solution to it. However, I did not know the mechanism either. Then only thing I could do at that time is to tell him that “try again and observe how others achieve it” and wait for the teacher’s help. At that moment, I realized that they have the desires and needs of self-learning. I suddenly realized that sometimes it is not they are unable but we are desolation them from getting information. We may not have the chance to achieve and address this issue for this course. But I think it would be helpful to build an online community for students with similar disabilities. Therefore, they can learn from each other reciprocally. They may get the learning resources easier and more accessible.

wood craft

Overall experience and observation

       Again, the direct feeling for this field trip for me is that every individual is different. Everyone has a certain shining point and a special personality. Everyone views the world differently. Although addressing a big social problem for these disables is very significant, however, for every individual, they also have their own colorful lives that need our attention. Next semester, we will also work with individuals to address a small but important issue for a single person. It may have only a small effect on the whole society but it may bring a big impact from the individuals’ perspective.

Meng Café

Describe your interaction with employees

I went to Meng café with Young, Iris, and Kenneth. The cashier is very smart and familiar with all the processes of cashing. At first, I tried to order a Tira Misu cake. However, they are running out of it. She responded to me about this information very clearly and suggest me to change another one. Also, one staff standing beside the door is very extravert that he greets everyone in a passionate loud voice. I think he knows that Young is foreigner so that he also speaks very basic English to us. We also noticed that one female staff is very quiet and seldom speaks even though we are asking her to clean the floor. She did it but she avoided any verbal communication. I also tried to ask for the wifi password even though I see it is written on the wall. They only pointed the password to me. I am not sure whether they can remember the password or not.

wall cafe environment

Overall experience and observation

During the conversation with the manager of the café, we got to know that every staff in the café has a distinctive personality. They will feel a sense of belonging while working in this café. For them, working and earning money is not the ultimate purpose. Instead, they regard their work as a social place to have a connection with the outside world. The existence of the café supports their dreams. I am happy to hear that the café is now making ends meet. I believe it will be significant if we apply some technology to maximize their ability to fulfill their interests.

drawing on the wall introduction of cafe

Assistive Technology Week 6 Assignments #1 by You (Ian) Xu

Describe your partner:

       My partner is very quiet. When I first took a glimpse at him, I did not identify anything abnormal about him. He walks a little unbalanced, but that does not make him look strange. We started to ask questions and introduces ourselves to him. He seemed to have understood our words but only replies in limited voice and hand gestures. None of us understood it. Therefore, we found a pen and a piece of paper writing down our conversation. He writes comparatively slow, but the characters are clear to understand. After that, we had a long conversation with his mother. While we are chatting with his mother, I noticed that he is quietly listening and paying attention to our conversation. Later, his mother posted some questions on the paper, and he started writing the response. He even actively started writing a sentence to us while he is a little ignored by us. Therefore, I believed that he has a strong desire to join our conversation. However, the way to communicate is a big challenge for him.

       Throughout our conversation with him this time in class, we notice that he relies much on his mother about everything. When we are doing user testing of our prototype to him, he responded indirectly to his mother, and then his mother translates the sign language to us instead of trying to communicate directly to us. Most of the time, he is sitting and observing our communication with his mother as an observer. We then decide to have a conversation with him without his mother. In twenty minutes, we type in sentences on the computer and ask him to reply on paper. The conversation carries out very inefficient since it is hard for him to understand the grammar of a sentence. Therefore, we need to paraphrase a lot to confirm he understand our words. Also, he has limited capability of writing Chinese characters and link them into sentences. We spend much time guessing the meaning by applying body senses. After the conversation, we still think he has a strong inner desire to communicate and experience the outside world more. However, since his mother cares too much for him, it seems that he always wants his mother to help him overcome all the obstacles. Moreover, according to his mother, he likes to play computer games and watch online series at home when he is alone.

What are their desires/challenges/difficulties?

He has many challenges. Throughout our conversation with his mother, we noticed that he never goes out by himself but also with his mother because of the potential dangers on the road. Since he lacks a certain degree of the ability to control the left side of his body, it is very hard for him to keep the balance. Also, he expressed his desire to have a romantic relationship with his mother two years ago, but his situation is not socially accepted. Furthermore, his mother is also concerned about his safety at home since he might open the room door for strangers. However, after all, we nearly forget that our target audience should be himself instead of his mother. We were chatting with his mother all the time instead of him. We then realized the most significant difficulty for him is the inconvenient environment of his communication with others. We could hardly communicate with him until his mother came.

       When we are communicating with him, we notice that since he is used to relying on his mother so much, he is not comfortable communicating with us directly. He also has little language sense, especially for reading and writing. In our WeChat chat, his mother records and describes how he uses the computer to play games and watch TV series. However, he can hardly control the keyboard using his left hand. We categorize the desires/challenges/difficulties for him in the following points:

  1. Relies too much on his mother
  2. Lack of language senses to communicate with others
  3. Want to build a romantic relationship
  4. Computer sometimes crashes
  5. Difficult to click the keyboard with the left hand while playing the game

What is your project?

       At first, we intend to build a portable writing pad attached to his body so that he can easily communicate with others by writing everything down on it while going outside. However, we abandon this idea after the first prototype and user testing since it could not engage him to communicate independently with others, as he says. Therefore, by checking his needs listed above, we think addressing no.5 will be most helpful for him. We are thinking about to build a special keyboard for him to press the key using his feet instead of his fingers. For most of the games his mother lists in the group chat, they require the use of four keys: “W,” “A,” “S,” and “D” to move the figure. Therefore, we design a four-key keyboard with four direction keys. The keyboard should be on the ground so that he can step on it. We also want the user to customize the key function to make it applicable to more situations.

Development process.

       We first think about using joystick bottom. However, he may easily break it by stepping on the bottom too often. We then search online and find a pedal that connects to the computer as a key. We then come up with the idea to apply four pedals and build a four-key keyboard.

pedal

We first write in the key information for every pedal and label them accordingly. Now, these four pedals can work together as a special four-key keyboard. Since for some games, he may need to press two bottoms together, the problem is how to position them best? We open some online games and use only the right hand and right foot to try playing them. We adjust the position of the four pedals according to our experience interacting with it to find the possible best layout. Please refer to Yanru’s blog for the videos of this processing. Finally, we think the photo below shows the best layout. We also need to build a higher platform in the middle to place the feet if no pressing needed.

layout of pedals

Due to the late delivery and time conflict, we have not had the chance to go to his home and test with him directly. We will arrange our time later to collect feedback from him and install it on his computer at home.