- Bachelor project: Designing for Specific Users
- We designed a non-stigmatizing digital device for users with short-term memory loss that takes pictures and can show upcoming and past activities.
- Prototypes were designed in three iterative steps and tested with a user after every iteration.
Not every product is meant to be used en masse. Some users have specific needs that can only be fulfilled with a tailored product. In this case, the product had to make life easier for a person with anterograde amnesia (short-term memory loss).
This short-term memory loss makes it hard for a person to remember the time, what they did that day but also what they are going to do in the future. To the user, it is important that the device is not stigmatizing, so they want to wear it. Our solution was the PictoCam. A device that would take photos every fifteen minutes, show them on the screen and also show the time and upcoming activities. These activities are added by the caretakers and photos can also be made manually by the user. We designed the PictoCam to resemble jewellery, to reduce potential stigmatization.
The design process was divided in three iteration phases. Every iteration resulted in a prototype, which we tested with a user. We used the input of our specific user, to improve on our design in the next phase.
In the video below you can see how the device is used and the project process:
