Enhancing instant messaging for highly contextual societies

A study of text based computer-mediated communication behaviour in high context societies

Deliverable

Product concept & visualisation

Duration

8 weeks
June - July 2020

ROLE

User experience & interaction design

TEAM

Muskan Gupta
Aid for meltdowns associated with autism
A product ecosystem of a smartphone app, smartband and head/earphones to provide a variety of ways to help reduce the intensity and anxiety associated with meltdowns in people with ASD

The Problem

"A meltdown is an intense response to an overwhelming situation which may result in loss of control expressed verbally,  physically or in both ways."

During meltdowns, children with ASD often require the presence of a familiar entity like a mother. The unexpectedness of meltdowns and the child’s dependence on their guardian results in a compromised independence

The Solution

A product to condition the child to associate a custom stimuli with the feeling of familiarity and support and reduce the intensity of meltdown and dependency on guardian by auto-triggering it before the meltdown begins.
What does it do?
Helps in preventing (through meltdown & cause tracking) and reducing intensity of meltdowns.
Who is it for?
Ideal to begin usage from early age(12+). Can be used by adults for self tracking & to reduce the anxiety of their loved ones.
Why do we need it?
Due to meltdowns, children with autism have limited independence and confidence since they rely heavily on their guardians and surroundings to orient themselves and calm down.
How does it work?
It works on the principle of classical conditioning. Familiar stimuli associated with relaxation gets triggered before the onset of a meltdown based on the vitals monitored by a smartband.

Smartphone

During onboarding, the user can select their role; parent or the child. in the beginning of the product journey, parent may be the only user and has complete control which eventually reduces as the child gets his own phone and joins the ecosystem

The colour scheme was chosen based on research data available for colour preferences of people with ASD

Information Architecture

Following screens are from the guardian's version of the smartphone app
Live Status
Live status of the vitals of the child is displayed metaphorically by a boat in the sea. The calm waters denote a relaxed state, slight movement would denote a potential spike and a turbulant sea conveys immediate attention may be required.
home page
vitals page
Vitals update for medics
If required, parents can view the current vital levels by opening the boat and where they lie on the scale. They can also share them with their medical professionals.
Setting custom trigger
A combination of visual, auditory and haptic (vibration) stimulations can be set. Visual and auditory files can be uploaded or picked from the feed. For the custom vibration, a pattern can be set with varying intesity and duration.
settings page
activity page
Activity tracker
If connected with the band, after a meltdown, the app will automatically suggest the user to verify its prediction and add a cause to the meltdown if correct. The tracker makes use of emojis to give a more visual understanding to find patterns through the month.
Visual feed
The visual feed is a collection of relaxing videos which can be set as a visual trigger for the meltdowns. The video will autoplay as it senses an upcoming meltdown and be shown to the child or be played on his own app as he grows old to have his own device.
videos page

Smartband

Uses a heart rate monitor, temperature and EDA sensor. It delivers notifications and updates to the child and provides haptic stimulation in the form of vibration.

Models have the above mentioned sensors currently:
• Band sensor monitor
• Fitbit Sense
• E4 wristband
• Microsoft band
• Basis
• Simband
During meltdown
During meltdown child has the option to disable the auto emergency call within 10 seconds and to shut the entire stimulation in case of a false positive. During the 10 seconds, a ripple animation with be displayed for breathing control.
during call
sound level
Noise level alert
The child can get alerts if the noise level of the room is too high and might cause him discomfort due to continuous exposure. This can be done through any mic available in earphones, smartphone or smartband.

Way forward

• Conduct larger-scale studies to validate findings across diverse demographics
• Explore multimodal solutions that combine vibration patterns with other sensory inputs
• Investigate the long-term usability and adoption of vibration-based feedback in messaging applications.

This research contributes to the broader field of computer-mediated communication by presenting a novel, culturally sensitive approach to bridging the gap between digital and face-to-face interactions. Further refinements and testing could lead to practical implementations that transform how emotions and urgency are conveyed in text-based messaging.

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Artboard 1 Copy 11Created with Sketch.
© 2020 - Made with ❤︎ by Priyal Shrivastava