CareClip

           Designed an IoT based
           Reminder device for Eldercare

 

Overview


About the Project

This rapid design project was based on a prompt given by IBM to design an IoT based ecosystem and create a business strategy around the Elder & Elder’s Family, creating a solution/services that maintains the Elder’s digital dignity but also provides the monitoring information the family is interested in to ensure “Mom’s OK”. Three-person teams having assigned roles of Design Manager, Product Manager and the Operations Manager were created by simulating responsibilities of today’s work environment. We conducted research, prototyped ideas and finally pitched our solution to the client.


Our Solution

A smart clip-on which we named as ClipCare having features of reminding, monitoring and automating by targeting elders with AAMI (Age-Associated Memory Impairment) to live an independent life.


Timeline:
5 Weeks

 

 

My Role

Design Manager, User Research, Interviewing, Brainstorming, Sketching, Prototyping, User Flows, UX Design, Wire-framing 

 

 

Design Process

Problem Statement

How can we design a service to help the elderly when they start losing memory to remember or to remind them of important information?

Empathize

User Research

For our user research, we initially started analyzing the age-old related problems and how we can solve them. We targeted the age group of age 65 or older and came up with dementia problem. After having recommendations from the clients (including doctors) who suggested that dementia is a broad term and requires a lot of medical attention, we continued our research on specific age-related problems involving memory loss and we came up with the term, Age-Associated Memory Impairment (AAMI) to suffice the technological usage.

Market Size and Research

We read reports from various sources such as Mintel, IBIS World to understand the market size, trends and identify the gaps between the service available and user needs.

More than 5 Million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease and the number is predicted to rise to 13 Million by 2050

 

 

What is AAMI ?

A decline in various memory abilities in many cognitive tasks.

Phenomenon:

Age-Associated Memory Impairment (AAMI).

Affects:  

Episodic memory
Short-term memory

Age-Associated Memory Impairment

 

 

1. Who does it affect?

With age comes the increasing likelihood of developing memory loss. About 40% of people aged 65 or older have age associated memory impairment (AAMI) in the United States.

 

 

2. What are the boundaries of the problem, example, organizational, workflow, geographic, customer, segments, etc.?

Already a number of reminder apps in the market. A lot of the apps are similar. Understand why it is failing.

3. Where is the issue occurring?

Everywhere.

4. When does the issue occur?

  • Occasionally forgetting where you left things you use regularly, such as glasses or keys, an appointment or walking into a room and forgetting why you entered.
  • Older people forget to take tablets, leave the stove on which is scary.

5. Why is it important that we fix the problem? What impact does it have on the business or customer? What impact does it have on all stakeholders, e.g. employees, suppliers, customers, shareholders, etc.?

  • Reduce stress for elders, caregivers and healthcare providers
  • In the year 2015, 4 million people turned 65. By 2050, 27 Million Americans will need long term care or assistance.

 

 

User Interviews

After thoroughly understanding the market well, we conducted research using secondary research data with our 4 participants (2 elders and 2 caregivers).

Key Findings

From interviews with the potential users, we identified major pain points commonly faced which is alarming.

 

 

Define

Research Insights

After empathizing with the user and analyzing the market closely, we analyzed the received data. Then we narrowed down our customer’s memory loss problem from dementia (as it is a broad term) to Age-associated memory impairment (AAMI Elder) 65+ years age group and advanced to next phase.

In order to have a deeper insight into the customers, we created empathy map and filled out the users thinking, feeling, gain and pain details in the map.

Empathy Map

 

 

Persona

After interviews, we drafted user personas to understand the specific user group and their expectations from the product. User personas consisted of two user group into first, the primary persona, the person getting affected due to the AAMI and second, the secondary persona, caregiver of the patient.

 

 

 

Ideate

Brainstorming and Ideation

We ideated on 30 possible design directions, evaluated those ideas, and narrowed down to 3 best ideas through down selection. 

Brainstorming possible design directions

 

 

Here are the down selection of the top 3 ideas as each one of us selected one idea during the brainstorming session. Further, based on the selection metrics we finalized our final idea. During this process, feedback from our mentor Dr. Lou Lenzi was invaluable. I was the Design Manager for this project so based on my design direction and the selection metrics, we proceeded with the final design.

 

 

 

Down Selection Process

Based on the 10 questions ranking selection metrics we further shortlisted one design direction as our final design direction to advance with.

 

 

Smart Clip-on achieved highest 28 score which ultimately makes our final choice.

 

 

Product Design

Final Design Direction

The smart clip-on idea basically covered the important aspect in value proposition ranking so we selected the smart clip on as our final design decision. We named our product CareClip.

 

 

Value Proposition

The final design combines three main benefits which are: Reminder, Monitoring, and Automation.

Reminder

  • Push button to set a reminder
  • Two way communication with children through app and the speaker on the clip-on

Monitoring

  • Fall detection
  • Health vitals (Body temperature, Heart rate)
  • Activity / Location

Automation

IoT integrated to door, lights, AC/ heater

 

 

Value Proposition Canvas

 

 

 Storyboarding

We highlighted 3 key features in the storyboards, we were able to decide the functionality suits most of our scope and serves best to the eldercare.

Stryboard 1
Storyboard 2

 

 

Competitive Analysis

We made a comparison with traditional competitors, we selected Philips Lifeline, Reminder Rosie and our Clip idea.   

Our CareClip is trying to focus on the best reminder experience, also good at covering all value proposition dimensions and that provides a reason for the customers to buy this product.

 

 

 User Flow

This is a system map which explains “How our solution works”.

 

 

Business Model Canvas

The business canvas model is divided into 9 blocks can help better understand the complete structure of CareClip.

 

 

 

View Full Presentation

 

 

 

Next Steps

Our future goal is to collaborate with the engineering team to integrate this technology and see it implemented in Hexiware that will ultimately serve the eldercare from the newco – Careclip.