Index Page Number
Cover
Page 1
Index 2-3
Chapter 1.0 Introduction 4
Chapter 2.0 Background 5
2.1 Why I am
interested in the project area 5
2.2
What I think this project could achieve 5
2.3
Ideas of how I think the project could be done 6
2.3.1
Technical aspects of the project 6-7
2.3.2
Creativity and Originality 7
2.4 Process
and alternatives considered 7
Chapter 3.0 Mindfulness – A Life Management Tool 8-9
Chapter 4.0 Competitor Analysis 10
4.1
Introduction 10
4.2 Headspace 10-11
4.3
Mindfulness Matters 11
4.4
Padraig O’Morain – Mindfulness Resources and Courses 12
4.5
Spun – Out 13
4.6
Conclusions 14
Chapter 5.0 Aims of the project 15
5.1
What I want to achieve by end of project and specific objectives 15
5.1.1 Navigation 15
5.1.2
Landing page 15
5.1.3
Information page 15
5.1.4
Tracker page 15-16
5.1.5
Mind – games page 16
5.1.6
Seasonal newsletter 16
5.1.7
User Interface 16
5.1.8
Project possibilities 16
5.2
Benefits to the end-user 16-17
5.3
How I think the projects can be assessed/ measured 17
Chapter 6.0 Methodology 18
6.1
Research component 18
6.1.1
Questions to ask at the start of the design project 18-19
6.1.2
In-person research audience analysis 19
6.2
Development component 20
6.2.1
RSA Mind – Lab design process 20
6.2.2
Design with Intent Worksheets and Idea Formation 21
6.2.3
Computer programs to develop 22
6.2.4
Tools to use in the project 22
6.2.5
Multimedia content 22
6.3
How I intend on testing and evaluating the system when developed 23
6.4
Is project part of a larger project? Include other people’s contribution 23
Chapter 7.0 Expected outcomes and deliverables 24
7.1
Prototype 24
7.2
Final report contents 24
Chapter 8.0 Schedule 25-26
Appendix 1: Alternative projects considered 27-29
Appendix 2: Evidence of relevance/ need for this
project 30-31
Appendix 3: Use Case Analysis 32-33
Spun-out is a site for young people’s mental health
with a focus on ‘mindfulness.’ It has topics on all aspects of life with
resources on details of these topics.
What I like about this website apart from the others
described above is that as stated in this website: “Some people think it’s all
about calming down, but it’s not. Practising mindfulness may help calm you
down, but, it’s really about becoming more aware and tuned into the world
around you.”
On visiting the site the user is greeted with a graphic
that runs the top-width of the page. In contrast to the examples I have shown
above it emphasises chaos in the image, but structured and contained within the
head area thought bubble. I think if someone is stressed, they could relate
more to this image rather than in the other website where the design is focused
on one of the end-products of mindfulness i.e. calm.
The logo is young and funky that looks a bit like
graffiti. The layout is uncluttered and modern. This is accompanied by
colourful text and other graphics that are informative where a user can very
quickly find what they are looking for. The drop-down navigation located
between the logo and opening picture has a hover function. On hover the
drop-down lists appear immediately and are styled with icons, topics and
images. For the design of my project this is a layout colour, font, typography
and navigation I would like to emulate.
4.6
Conclusions on competitor analysis:
Each of the above have different approaches to
mindfulness:
Headspace:
is an ultra-modern website/ app that is colourful animated and engaging, uses
gamification and would appeal to all ages, particularly young people. It offers
online programmes in a step-by-step process towards developing mindfulness
techniques.
Mindfulness
Matters: is a more conservative website with courses, CD’s,
DVD’s etc. available for purchase. It also has an Irish Weather forecast images
blog which is quite interesting.
Padraig
O’Morain’s courses: are available online and he also teaches
classes around Ireland. The website is strong on content and links are very
good. It is less focused on website design and more on the information itself
and his over 25 years of experience in teaching mindfulness.
Spun-out:
is a modern, up-to-date site that offers advice on all aspects of life,
education, work, life etc. It is focused on mindfulness. The website/ app has
the novel approach of not using the pastels associated with calm which is one
of the end-products of being mindful but chooses an opening image of a head
with a thought bubble inside that is over full with chaos, but the message here
is that is structured, manageable and possible in this website to overcome or
contain this bundle.
In this way, each of these websites represent a
different approach to a similar target audience; manner of communication of the
information; and website design.
Point 5: Appendices
Point 5 a: Appendix 1: Alternative Projects Considered
Appendix 1:
Alternative
projects considered
For
the ‘Project’ module of this Creative Multimedia Course, I read the RSA Student
Design Awards briefs and considered different projects. I was most
interested in:
1) Brief 4 ‘Circular Futures’: this is
about a communication solution i.e. a marketing/advertising campaign or an app
that provides the idea of frugal, innovation or reuse.
Idea: an app where people would
weigh the product they are disposing of e.g. a box which they can record in a
supplied app. For each gram of weight of product, they are disposing of they
can collect virtual points.
These
can be used to collect virtual gifts or along with another business venture.
The user would also be informed of how much of the planet they have saved by
recycling at each entry.
2) Brief’s 2,3,6 'Healthcare': a product
that capitalizes in existing lifestyles and access to mobile phones.
Idea: a medication reminder app for
all ages and medications taken for physical and mental problems. Basic
principle is a database where information can be stored and retrieved through
queries for example.
- The idea is
that the user interface would be a screen where the user would enter
information on: tablet type(s); times to be taken (daily, weekly, monthly,
yearly), commencement date. The variations could be set up as scenarios in
a drop-down menu e.g. scenario 1 “same med-A every day at same time every
day for one week.” There would be insert, update and delete options.
- This user
input would populate a database specific to that individual and act like a
timetable for taking medications. Alerts for times entered would
automatically be set up.
- There would
be the master table with alerts running off this and where adjustments
could be made.
- These alerts
can loop e.g. if medications are the same for the next days, months etc.
it can loop to a set user input date at which point the user will be
prompted to add another time or other such information if they require.
- Peoples needs
differ whether on long-term or short-term medication and the app can be
used for both. Also, people on a lot of medications may have complex needs
and this app would be a help to them as one less thing to worry about.
Another
aspect to this could be a statistics page where, as each alert passes the user
is prompted to tick a box if meds taken and this information is transferred
into a graphical format which can display the med trends and provide real-time
information to the user.
Another
aspect could be:
- Pain management: tablet
alert times as process stated above. Another part of the app could be to
provide a colour swatch of colors corresponding to a scale from 1-10; 1
being the worst pain and 10 being the least pain. This information could
be valuable to the person and their caregivers and again could be plotted
on graphical output.
- Mood management: tablet
alert times as process stated above. Another part of the app would be
colour swatches for user to click on the one they most identify with
(these would be a colour with e.g. blue with word blue=calm; and then
shades of blue etc. The colours will correspond with a number and
they are correlated with the medication taken. This can be useful to the
user and/or care professional to identify action/slumps in a person’s
daily, weekly etc. patterns.
3) Brief 11 'Educating app':
Idea: A central information point
for users to source colleges and courses by location area in the one app. I
have found that there are lots of very good individual sites but not a complete
comprehensive user friendly app. The UI Interface would be a screen with:
welcome to the app/site; please enter your name and email (optional) (data
information laws); diagram of QQI and NUI course levels; there would be buttons
to click for different options as follows:
Button
1: “Courses by Location” (drop-down menu)
Button
2: “Course Type” (drop-down menu)
Button
3: “College”
Button
4: “Courses by time of year” (spring, summer, autumn, winter)
Button
5: “Day courses”
Button
6: “Night courses”
There could be a geo-locater: used here to show
the user where they are in relation to the course location of choice.
Things to add for interactivity: bookmarks,
favourites, saved searches, navigation elements, contact information (phone,
email, contact address), Facebook, twitter, Instagram, navigation-bar, menus,
the user could have their own page (database) within the app to record their
searches and access to these with options to insert, update and delete their
information.
This
idea of being an intermediary between colleges/courses and a potential user has
development potential as a business. This would be where there would be an
‘intermediate organisation’ that offers education related services.
Such
professionals employed could be Career Guidance staff, Work and Behavioural
Psychologists, multi-disciplinary career people, mentors from various
organisations to provide advice to users and mentors working in industry would
keep the intermediary agency up to date and fresh with statistics on what the
workplaces are looking for in students over time.
There
would be psychometric and other suitability questionnaires and their
statistical output and recommendations available on the app. There would
have to be programming code written for processing and output of results.
There
would have to be administration and customer service staff to support the
running of the business.
An
analogy would be that it would operate as e.g. TripAdvisor does for holidays
and accommodation; an intermediary yet very useful and successful. It
would have to be clear that it is an intermediary (and not a college or an
application process).
The
audience and the market for this would-be people thinking of going to
college or/and pursuing a career through a college course.
The
colleges would be including the major LIT, UL, MIC, also the evening course
colleges and other colleges in Limerick.
Button
7: “Career planning tools and tips”
Button
8: “Interview question & answer tips”
An Interactive Chart 9: that is a
timeline, where the user can enter along the time line their career progress
e.g. 2016-2017 H. Dip in Computing in Creative and Multimedia Programming.
Button
10: "links to useful career websites" e.g. “The Muse” etc.
It
could be an app/ business that would grow with the person providing good
decision making tools and advice to pursue the course of their choice.
Point 5 b: Appendix 1: Evidence of Relevance / Need for this project
Evidence
of relevance/ need for this project
Introduction: This chapter refers to health, mind and body,
a holistic lifestyle approach and the role of IT. All these examples reference
lifestyle to be a significant factor in healthcare and the future of health
moving forwards. This includes using IT, Telehealth and other such computer
based activities to improve health worldwide. An overall holistic approach to
lifestyle management and lifestyle choices is being promoted in society.
Upstream-factors
of lifestyle and environmental factors: In a RSA TED Talk on health
it is discussed: what makes us sick? with the answer being to “Look upstream. A
doctor speaks about where he’s come to realize that his job isn’t just about
treating a patient’s symptoms, but about getting to the root cause of what is
making them ill—the “upstream" factors like a poor diet, a stressful job,
a lack of fresh air. It’s a powerful call for doctors to pay attention to a
patient's life outside the exam room.”
Non-Chronic-Diseases
(NCD’s): “NCD’s are also known as chronic diseases and are not
passed from person to person. 38 million people each year die from these
diseases.” Sixteen million of these occur before the age of 70 years with 82%
of these being ‘premature’ deaths occurring in low and middle income countries.”
Mental
health and Physical illness: “There is a strong link
between physical long-term conditions and psychological distress/disorder.
Addressing psychological need can improve outcomes and reduce health care
consumption. Mental health problems are much more common in those with physical
illness.”
A
holistic approach to long-term conditions: “A holistic and
generic view of health and wellbeing should be taken for LTC care. The model of
care, which QIPP promotes has the approach of self-care/ shared decision-making
to treat patients holistically regardless of their age or condition(s), whilst
enabling specialist skills to impact on the patient when necessary as part of
an integrated team. The two key factors for developing a LTC are lifestyle and
aging.
Educating
for life-style well-being in the workplace: “Worcestershire
Acute Hospitals NHS Trust have developed a self-care scheme which has reduced
staff sickness absence costs by 55 per cent and improved staff morale for those
who attended the scheme course. The course modules included: health and health
belief models, motivation and making changes, self-esteem and confidence,
psychological aspects of health and well-being, physical aspects of health and
well-being, healthy eating and exercise.”
Telehealth
& Telecare for quality of life: “There are many small
trials showing that appropriate use of Telehealth9 and Telecare10 can lead to
improved outcomes and reduced admission to hospital and care homes. This in
turn can improve the quality of life and deliver savings to the health and
social carer system.”
Industrial
design and Interaction Design combines health and IT:
“In the UX User Experience magazine as far back as 2010 GE Healthcare asked
students drawn from an Industrial Design (ID) course and an Interaction Design
course. Their objective was to work on design ideas for chronic diseases. The
approach created ideas and built equipment to facilitate physically and with IT
reminders for taking medications.”
3.9
Conclusions:
· From
this it is shown the interaction between a future for a blend of healthcare and
IT supports and innovations.
· It
is increasingly being recognised that a holistic and synergistic approach to
health care is required in our health systems and society in general worldwide.
· Creating
awareness and moderating people’s habits have a proven positive effect on their
lifestyles which in turn improve their physical health.
· Since
mental and physical health are in current generations understood to be
intricately related a solution to an overall health approach seems to be the
way forward.
· It
may not be possible to solve all the health problems in the world overnight,
but we can each contribute to head in this direction.
RSA Toolkit-WHO
article, “Noncommunicable diseases
(NCD’s),” (online, date
accessed December 2016.)
Point 5 c: Appendix 1: Use Case Analysis
Use Case Analysis
Use
Case:
ID:
|
ID 1
|
Title:
|
“Design Your Day Your Way – A Life
Management Toolkit”
|
Description:
|
User accesses the site online and selects toolkit
topics they wish to use.
|
Primary
Actor:
|
Adults of any age-group
|
Preconditions:
|
Any primary actor can access the site. There is also
exclusive membership where user’s login to the site to avail of extra toolkit
items.
|
Postconditions:
|
There are parts to this project:
Home/ Landing page:
refreshed and no-change after use.
Page 1:
refreshed and no-change after use.
Page 2:
updated with information user has inputted into tracker tables.
Page 3:
refreshed and no-change after use.
|
Main
Success Scenario:
|
Initial access to the site:
- User accesses site on line.
- User may or may not sign up on the
site.
- There is free access to the site
and then exclusive membership to access more options.
- A user that has signed up may log
into the system.
- User may access different areas of
the site from the home/ landing page.
Accessing different sections of the
site:
Page 1:
User has access to various life management topics.
·
User selects a topic of interest to them and onclick
they have access to these articles.
Page 2:
User has access to trackers such as: mood/ hobby/ weight trackers. This part of the site has a sequence:
- User selects tracker type.
- User inputs information into the
tracker.
- A graph is generated to show
trends.
- This is used over a timescale of:
hours/ days/ weeks/ month/ year.
- User inputs information frequently
and they can see trends develop. This tracker information can be useful
for life-management development and change.
Page 3:
Mind-Games:
- On this page user selects a topic
of mind-games they wish to play.
- These are very short,
straightforward and can be worked on in minutes.
- Output of answers given.
- Function: for mindfulness: to take
a break; for stimulation; relaxation; for fun.
|
Extensions/Exception
Handling:
|
None noticed at this step in the development process. |
Frequency
of Use:
|
Daily
|
Status:
|
Pending review
|
Owner:
|
Sinéad Boyce
|
Priority:
|
Important
|
Use
Case: the above is a ‘Use Case’ developed from a ‘Use Case
Template’ covered in the Interaction Interface Design module of this course. It
is a requirement analysis technique. This describes the steps and the status of
the project as the user interacts with the product. It has been compared to
being “blueprints for your system.” In client interaction, they provide a view
for the stakeholder to understand how the system is going to be designed. This is useful for the
project in terms of the user interaction with the website/ app.
Updated Gantt Chart:
