CareCam can provide parents of children with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) a seamless way to record, analyze and share children's behavior data with therapists and teachers. It can help parents learn about children's behavior pattern and take better care of children.
a seamless way to record, analyze and share children's behavior data with therapists and teachers, so that they can take care of children.
Well received by end users, and be presented in UXPA conference.
Under mentorship of Microsoft research. Every week we went to Microsoft research campus to discuss projects with mentors.
A team of 4 students. As the only one with design background, I worked as a product designer and in charge of interface design.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is the name for a group of developmental disorders. Children with ASD have ongoing social problems that include difficulty communicating and interacting with others. They exhibit negative behaviors. The number of people with ASD have dramatically increased since 2000. 1 in 68 has been diagnosed with ASD.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is the name for a group of developmental disorders. Children with ASD have ongoing social problems that include difficulty communicating and interacting with others. 1 in 68 has been diagnosed with ASD.
Children with ASD will exhibit negative behaviors, including screaming, crying and so on. There may be different triggers, for example, background noises. Each child has their own behavioral patterns and these patterns are always changing.
Parents of Children (3-12 years old) with autism spectrum disorder
To better understand user needs, we did literature review, expert interviews, focus groups and user interviews. Children with ASD exhibit negative behaviors including repetitive behaviors, screaming and so on. Each child has their own behavioral patterns and these patterns are always changing. Parents would like to collaborate with therapists to learn about children's behavior pattern and take better care of children.
" When my child is crying, I am busy taking care of him, and forget to take notes.
We brainstormed ideas, prioritized ideas, and decided to provide parents of children with ASD a seamless way to record, analyze and share children's behavior data with therapists and teachers.
We analyzed how our competitors solve the problem. Competitor products require users to manually input data; or requires parents to hold their phone to record their child's behaviors while their child is screaming. It makes it very complicate, time consuming or even impossible to do it. Moreover, the data visualization is hard to understand.
We decided to provide users a wearable device. We tried different kinds of wearable devices, for example, smart watch. After testing with users, they prefer to have a wearable device, which they can simply attach to their clothes and the device can help record what have happened.
We tried different proposals and got user feedback.
We made a series of mockups and different paper prototypes of the capture device to get answers to decide on what kind of data is beneficial to be recorded: voice, video, or still pictures, and how users would like to interact with the device and the system.
Every behavior has a trigger. Once activated, the CareCam device can keep recording audio data. When a behavior occurs and the parent presses the button, it will save the past 5 minutes of audio that was captured, and record video for an additional 5 minutes. When the CareCam device starts or stops recording data, it will vibrate to let parents know the status. Parents can input more details later, analyze, and share behavior data.
After getting the reminder, users will input more data into the system to keep the behavior journal. We conducted rounds of user research and usability tests to understand what data they would like to input and review later.
CareCam device can help parents record moments of negative behaviors. Then parents can input details. Our system can help parents analyze behavioral data and parents can share the data analysis with therapists, teachers, and other family members. After collaborating with therapists and teachers, they can better understand their children's behavioral patterns and take better care of their children.
We tested with users and it is greatly appreciated by users. It was presented in UXPA conference and attracted attention. If we can create this product, we can also design a therapist portal so that they can review all the information. This can also be a business model. It will be free for users to use the app, but charge therapists for their portal and premium features.