Design skills week
Where the idea began
Day 1:
After working with the vulnerable encounters I had this idea of making an activity for the dementia patient and their relatives. I want to make an activity so it doesn’t have to be about the disease every time they meet. So I was thinking about a game or an exercise.
Flower power
I have been thinking a lot about what I can do with the microbit. But also what the M-skill is in this activity or exersice. Dementia patients loves doing gardening or overall just flower arranging (see the sketch above). So the idea was to do an activity where they have to make the flower blossom by dancing to music. Which they also like.
The questions i tend to ask my self a lot is:
- Is this possible with the microbit? I am not sure.
- And also what to make as a product? Is it enough just making a wristband or a shirt for the microbit?
- Because can I even use it like I want and describe?
Memory lane
The sketch above shows a game where the dementia patient and a relative has to help each other. The game is to help each other figuring out which image or picture belongs to what name. So e.g., it could be their son and then they must figure out where the name is and what name belongs to the picture. This is just a thought and I see now that it's not at all something I have thought through. The activity could be something that you would do with the relatives or with the ones you are going to have dinner with. Like a memory game before dinner with people that the patient may not remember.
The questions that has been raised:
- Is a shirt with a microbit enough as a M-skill?
- Because can I even use it like I want and describe?
The circle of remembering
The memory game could also be as a circle where a person must walk out to the images. There will be images around the circle. The person must stand in the middle and walk out from there. The microbit will be on the shirt and will make a sound or show red if it’s wrong and green if they are right.
Questions that have been raised:
- How to do this with the microbit? Because can I even use it like I want and describe?
Day 2:
After experimenting with the microbits functions I have chosen to go with a “boardgame” type product. However, it seems that its functions are somewhat limited, but that can also be due to my current technical knowledge of the microbit.
The limitations that I encountered was in relation to specific movements. Originally, I wanted it to be placed on a person and react to various directional movements, such as sideways and forward/ backwards.
As this quickly became too comprehensive, I instead chose a more stationary approach, where the microbit instead of being on a person is attach to an arrow that points towards a specific object. This arrow is then controlled by a controller.
Purpose of this activity is to train the memory of a person suffering from dementia. This boardgame can be used in different scenarios. E.g., before dinner parties to remembering the guests. But its use cases are limitless.
The code for my design:
The code visualizes a gameboard where the person that plays with it must push the buttons A, B or A+B to see if they got the name right.
- When pushing the button, A, the motor will rotate to the position of 60 degrees and then it will show a name on the display and in this case the name is Olivia.
- When pushing the button, A+B, the motor will rotate to the position of 10 degrees and then it will show a name on the display and in this case the name is Michael.
Prototyping:
After I figured out what I wanted to make I tried making prototypes. First I did the drawings and got it cut out on the laser cutter to see what I could do with it. And if it would work.
So, after cutting it on the laser cutter I was just trying to put it together so I could have a look at it. It seemed obvious to me that I wanted to make this kind of "boardgame" as a polygon and that there should be some images. But I couldn't figure out at first how and where the images should be. Also, how they should be attached to the "boardgame".
I tried cutting in the carboard and putting it together to see how it worked and if it was something that I could go with. It took some time before I figured out how the measurements should be.
By playing around on illustrator and with the carboard I figured out how I would do it. I tried cutting some samples out on the laser cutter just to see how it would be. After some tryings on the laser cutter I finally figured out the measurements and the size.
How the prototype looks at the moment:
Video of the activity:
So, the user is trying to figure out which person the name belongs too by clicking on the buttons A, B and A+B. When clicking on the buttons A, B and A+B the motobit will turn to one of the subjects. Then the microbit will tell you on the display which name you have turned to.
Hours that I spent on each activity:
I wasn’t sure what to do, so I used a lot of time figuring out what I could do. I played around with the microbit quite some time before I came up with the “boardgame”.
Advice:
Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Embrace it and figure out how to go on from there and then learn from the mistakes. This is something I am still learning and made me think about the phrase “keep it simple” because it might help keeping your own expectations in check.
In terms of being afraid of making mistakes I wasted a lot of time on figuring out what I wanted to do. I had to many ideas but couldn’t see the final product because I wasn’t sure how much the microbit could do. So instead of exploring the different materials, I was figuring out what exactly the microbit could do. And how I could use it for the final product. So, the advice in this is that you must explore and try out different materials in order to find out what the materials can do. Don’t get stuck at one idea from the start.
Continuing the project:
If I were continuing with this project, I would like to try a more advanced prototype by having more skills towards the microbit. I would have liked that the motorbit could turn more than 180 degrees and with more functions. By having it turning 360 degree and with more functions like pressing more buttons so it wasn’t only three people it would turn to, I could make the activity multifunctional. It would also make it possible to expand the memory training to more than three subjects at a time and thereby make its use case more warried. For example, using it before a dinner party to remember the guests.
