Case Study
A CreateAbility Project
CreateAbility, an assistive technology company in Indiana, is developing NORM, a system for unobtrusive monitoring of an independent-living person with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). NORM utilizes environmental sensors to track electricity, water, and internet usage in order to learn an individual's routine at home and detect potential issues.
The team members consisted of myself and Saad Islam as co-designers from conception to high-fidelity prototyping. Our project focused on the design of a mobile application for NORM that allows professional or family caregivers to monitor the status of an individual with ASD and to receive alerts about potential issues.
Pre-Design Research
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Literature Review
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Competitive Analysis
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Functional Requirements
Personas
Two personas (one created by each team member) based on the initial interviews of the target user population. Two Professional Caregivers and two family members care providers of the individual(s) with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Low-Fidelity Prototype
The screens presented to the right were developed based on past research, the identification of requirements based on user models, and additional feedback from the project partner. These screens served as a framework for further iteration into higher levels of fidelity, allowing us to iterate upon each functionality in order to develop the most efficient interface possible for the NORM experience.
User Research & Testing
Usability Metrics Collected:
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Scenario completion (y/n) - Upon completion of the task, the observer shall note down whether or not the participant successfully completed the task scenario they were presented with.
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Sources of error - The observer should note down any screens/functionalities where the participant has failed to proceed with the successful completion of the task. This includes clicking on the wrong pages, getting lost when navigating through the prototype, not being sure where to click, etc. Observers should also note down participant “think out loud” feedback as they go through the tasks.
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Time on task (MM: SS) - Using a stopwatch, the moderator will note the time it takes each participant to complete (successfully or unsuccessfully) each task.
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User feedback and subjective evaluations - After each task is complete, follow the post-task script and note down the ratings and justifications the user provides.
Testing Results
“Whatever your vision is of how a person might go, its probably not far enough.” on the subject of customizability and having a versatile set of functionalities.
Would like to see clearer language and improved icon legibility.
Watch sync was confusing, would've needed tech support to set it up
10/10 (extremely useful system), increases individuals’ autonomy - decreases stress on both clients and caregivers. Participants thought the design was clean and aesthetically pleasing.
Conclusions
After conducting these usability tests, we have identified areas for improvement for the next iteration of the app design. Key action items would include an overhaul of the iconography to improve the user’s ability to identify pages, utilizing color-coding even further to differentiate data points, and simplifying complex tasks into multiple simpler tasks (mainly in regards to task 3). Overall, the NORM application prototype we developed was met with positive sentiment. All participants agreed that NORM is an excellent tool that provides an incredibly important service to individuals living with ASD. Some participants even mentioned that the useful features present in our app prototype could be beneficial for other conditions as well, such as early stage alzheimers, depression, etc. We feel that with a few more iterations, we would be able to produce a very useful and effective product in the NORM system that could be applied to more problem spaces requiring additional assistive technologies.
NORM Remote Monitoring System
Click Below to View the Prototype