FYP Project K00121609 Week 3 College January 2017
Blog 8:
The next step after the Proposal was the Research Project. Here I followed the brief and my supervisors instructions and added some chapters to the existing proposal. I updated the Gantt Chart. In addition I made other additions to parts of the document including images and text. The following are the primary additions I made to the project:
1. Cover Page
2. Index
3. Chapter on Mindfulness
4. Competitor Analysis
5. Appendices:
5a. Alternative Projects Considered
5b. Evidence of Relevance / Need for this project
5c. Use Case Analysis (using Use Case Template from Interaction Interface Design Module)
Next, I will list these in the sequence of as they are numbered above:
Updated Gantt Chart:
1. Cover Page
2. Index
3. Chapter on Mindfulness
4. Competitor Analysis
5. Appendices:
5a. Alternative Projects Considered
5b. Evidence of Relevance / Need for this project
5c. Use Case Analysis (using Use Case Template from Interaction Interface Design Module)
Next, I will list these in the sequence of as they are numbered above:
Point 1: Cover Page
Cover Page
FYP Project 2017
Student Name: Sinead
Boyce
Student k number: k00121609
Course: H.
Dip in Computing in Creative and Multimedia Programming
Research report project title:
“Design Your Day Your Way – A Life
Management Toolkit”
Point 2: Index
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
Point 3: Chapter on Mindfulness
3.0 Mindfulness-a Life Management Tool:
This is a Life-Management concept and tool which is a
way of thinking that focuses people’s attention and brings as sense of being in
the present moment. It is gaining great kudos in society at the moment in
peoples social and personal lives. This concept has gained qualitative and
quantitative strength of proof since the 1970s and have some principles of
Buddhist concepts associated with it. Traditionally mindfulness as a concept
has been associated with meditation and practices such as Yoga.
It has been
contrasted with ‘mindlessness’ or being in ‘auto-pilot’ mode, where for example
you go on a journey and have noticed nothing along the way. Physically this has
been compared to a build-up of the ‘flight-or-flight’ ‘Stress Response,’ that
this builds up in the system and can lead to ill-health. It is advised
therefore that mindfulness is one of the techniques that can help reduce this
effect.
Also, a benefit of mindfulness is that it can be used
anywhere; is flexible, mobile and a person does not need to be very experienced
in meditation to be mindful.[1]
It has been shown that there are strong links between
mindfulness and psychological well-being and perceived health[2] in society in general.
Research has shown that mindfulness can combat boredom and stress[3] both personally and as
group organisations.
Some key players in the business world have taken up
this idea with coaching, meditation breaks and have been found to improve
people’s attitude, decrease absence from work and increase their work
productivity.[4]
Among these are: Google, General Mills, Intel, Atena, Goldman Sachs.[5]
My project target audience is adults of all ages,
however, there are websites for mindfulness for young people also. One of these
organisations that have a website for mindfulness is run by the National Youth
Council of Ireland called: the ‘National Youth Health Programme.’ Here are held
courses in mindfulness and meditative techniques in a non-formal setting. Their
moment to moment quote is “Just this moment, not the one that has passed, not
the one that is to come, but just… This Moment…Techniques once learned in this
group courses can be applied and practised in their personal lives.[6]
Another is ‘Spun-Out,’ which has a very attractive
website for young people. It has topics of news, education, employment, health,
life, opinion and about. It has a hover function drop-down menu with topics of
everyday living.
[1]
Mindfulness Matters, “Creating space in
the mind,” http://www.mindfulnessmatters.ie/about-mindfulness.html (accessed online, 29/01/2017)
[2] Branstrom R, Duncan LG, Moskowitz JT, (Mar 2011) "The association between dispositional
mindfulness, psychological well-being, and perceived health in a Swedish
population-based sample". British Journal of Health Psychology 16 (2): 300–316. (accessed
online January 2017)
[3] Gu J,
Strauss C, Bond R, Cavanagh K (Apr 2015) "How do mindfulness-based cognitive
therapy and mindfulness-based stress reduction improve mental health and
wellbeing? A systematic review and meta-analysis of meditation studies". Science Direct: Clinical
Psychology Review 37: 1–12. (accessed online January 2017)
[4] Good DJ, Lyddy CJ, et al. (Jan 2016), "Contemplating
Mindfulness at Work an Integrative Review", Journal of Management. 42 (1)
[5] Stewart Henry (August 2017), “Five Big Companies Who Swear by Mindfulness.” LinkedIn, (accessed on-line January 2017)
[6] National Youth Council of Ireland, “Mindfulness: Moment to Moment.” http://www.youthhealth.ie/content/mindfulness-moment-moment (accessed online January 2017)
Point 4: Competitor Analysis:
4.0 Competitor Analysis:
4.1
Introduction: There are not available on the market the same
project I am working on, however, there are similar websites/ apps that are
based on the theme of mindfulness. I have selected 4 of these: Headspace,
Mindfulness Matters, Mindfulness Resources and Courses from Padraig O’Morain
and Spun-Out. They each have different approaches to mindfulness. I have
written paragraphs on these websites as follows:
4.2
Headspace:
This is an excellent resource available as both a
website and a mobile app. The founders of website were a mix of skills with
Andy Puddicombe a former Buddhist monk and Rich Pierson specialising in
marketing and new brand development. It is a ‘guided meditation’ resource and
has been promoted in the media on ‘The Today Show,’ ‘BBC Breakfast News,’ ‘ABC
News.’[1] It uses a programme
structure where the user completes separately different stages of the
meditation and once they have done this, the next meditation resource becomes
available for them to use. It uses gamification as a novel way to increase user
attention and interaction. There is a section for ‘Reach Your Full Potential
with Headspace for Sport.’ This provides training in the categories of:
motivation, training, competition and focus. This can be accessed with a
subscription after completing the first ten sessions of Headspace. [2]
The costs of subscription are the following options:
€9.95/ month for a month, €5.99/ month for a year, €4.74/ month for 2 years and
€395.95 for ‘forever.’ There is a ‘cancel anytime option for the first one and
the others have option of 30-day money back guarantee. The layout is clear and
attractive. At the time, I was logged on today, there were 45,331 people
‘meditating’ using this website and app.
4.3
Mindfulness Matters:
[1] Wikipedia (November 2016) “Headspace (guided meditation platform)” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headspace_(guided_meditation_platform), (accessed online January 2017)
[2] Andy Puddicombe, Rich Pierson (2017) “Headspace”, https://www.headspace.com, (accessed online January 2017)
This organisation offers mindfulness techniques with a
mantra that “Mindfulness Matters Creating space in the mind.” My immediate
impression of their website is of soft muted colours and a well organised page
layout. It runs courses specifically in mindfulness and for educators and
businesses. There are CD’s and other products for children and adults to be downloaded
or purchased online. There are also advice tips and videos available in their
resource section. Like one of the elements I am planning to include in the
project is user contribution area, here in this website it has testimonials
from people who have used these resources, they are all very positive. Here I
have taken a screenshot of the home-page which shows the overall layout and
colour scheme.
4.4
Mindfulness Resources and Courses: Dublin, Ireland & Online from Padraig
O’Morain:
Figure 4: Partial
screenshot of Padraig O'Morain's Mindfulness Resources and Courses website
landing page
Here as the title suggests the author has both online
courses and travels around Ireland hosting mindfulness courses. There is also a
schedule for these courses and a 6-week course in Dublin costs €250. There are
many free online resources and information on the website. The list of
resources is:
· The
Quite Short Guide to the Practice of Mindfulness
· Mindfulness
audios
· Mindfulness
for Students
· Mindfulness
in a Nutshell
· Mindfulness
Exercises
· Mindfulness
Techniques
Mindfulness and Sleep
There is excellent text but no visuals, it is very
much a text information site. Nevertheless, it gets the point across and is
resourceful. His stated aim is “to make this valuable practise accessible and
jargon-free.” Important though as a selling point, the author Padraig O’Morain has
over 25 years’ experience and over 10,000 subscribers to his website.[1]
4.5
Spun-Out:
[1]
O’Morain, Padraig, “Mindfulness Resources
and Courses: Dublin, Ireland & Online from Padraig O’Morain” http://www.padraigomorain.com
(accessed online January 2017)
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.”[1]
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.”[2]
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.”[3]
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.[4]
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.”[5]
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.”[6]
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.”[7]
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.
[1] Rishi Manchanda, RSA TED Talk, “What makes
us get sick? Look upstream,” (online, date
accessed December 2016.)
[2] RSA Toolkit-WHO
article, “Noncommunicable diseases
(NCD’s),” (online, date
accessed December 2016.)
[3]RSA, NHS, “Toolkit-Long
Term Conditions Compendium of Information Third Edition: Long Term Conditions
and Mental Health,” (Section 3), (online, date accessed December 2016.)
[4] RSA, NHS, “Toolkit-Long
Term Conditions Compendium of Information Third Edition: Long Term Conditions
and Mental Health,” (Section 1), (online, date accessed December 2016.)
[5] NHS, RSA, “Toolkit-Long
Term Conditions Compendium of Information Third Edition: Training the
Workforce,” (Section 5), (online, date
accessed December 2016.)
[6] NHS, RSA, “Toolkit-Long
Term Conditions Compendium of Information Third Edition: Emerging Technology –
Telehealth & Telecare,” (Section 4), (online, date accessed December 2016.)
[7] Zhenyu Cheryl Qian, (September 2014) UX User Experience Magazine, Design for
Chronic Conditions: “From Understanding to Innovation,” (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:
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:
Page 3:
Mind-Games:
|
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.[1] This is useful for the
project in terms of the user interaction with the website/ app.
[1]
Wikipedia (December 2016) “Use Case”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_case
(accessed online January 2017)
Updated Gantt Chart:
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