Category: Projects Spring 2017

Guiding Principles

Posted on by Graciela Hasbun

Guiding Principle 1:  Make Transportation Resources Known to Me and Easy to Understand  

Insights:

Improve Marketing Improve Simplicity Make Resources known to SJHS Staff and Patients Make Resources Bilingual
“There is not enough marketing for the resources available and when people find they have a problem they often don’t know where to look for a solution”

  • Obi Madukoma, Care Coordinator Population Health

On Lack of Technology to research resources :“Most of my clients do not even have cell phones and if they do they are flip phones” – Kaley Kubiac, Transportation Coordinator Riverbend.

Due to Medicaid restrictions, A lot of the burden to schedule transportation sits on the patient who might be unable to do so or not know how to do it.

  • Obi Madukoma, Care Coordinator Population Health
 “ People and staff in house don’t know about the resources. There is a communication gap”

  • Obi Madukoma, Care Coordinator Population Health,
“Some inefficiencies arise when there is a language barrier between the patients and the center’s workers.”

  • Erik,  Volunteer Receptionist at the Sister Maura Brannick Health Center

Guiding Principle 2 : Make Transportation Services Flexible 

Insights:

Make it flexible as appointments often run behind schedule

Make it flexible in case I have to bring children with me

Make it flexible in case I have to pick up medication or other necessities on the way home

Have late night and weekend hours  

“Scheduling one single ride might take 7 separate phone calls and conversations”

  • Kaley Kubiak, Riverbend Transportation Services

“I usually walk, which is more difficult carrying 3 kids and I’m 9-months pregnant.”

  • Kate, client at Mishawaka Medical Center

“All my kids go to different schools…every day is different.”

  • Laura, client at SJHS Mishawaka Medical Center’s Pediatrics

“While REAL Services does transport patients, our transportation services operate within a very specific time frame which leaves some patients without transportation help.”

  • Julie, Director of Client Services at REAL Services, Inc
In a phone interview with Michelle Peters, Director of Community Health and Wellbeing for St Joseph’s Health Systems, she mentioned that South Bend transpo lacks in weekend and late night routes.  The current routes also do not go to all of the SJHS facilities.

 

Guiding Principle 3 : Make it time efficient and Cost Efficient 

 

Make it cost efficient for Patient Make it cost efficient for Organization Make it as time efficient as possible
“Uber requires a credit card. I don’t have a credit card”

-Kate, client at Mishawaka Medical Center
“I think we spend around $550-600 on transportation a month”

-Laura, client at SJHS Mishawaka Medical Center’s Pediatrics

“Patient no-shows can be very costly..up to $300”

–Geoff Zimpelman, Population Health
“Volunteers could do more to assist transportation”

-Rob, SJHS Volunteer

“I’ve been waiting one hour for the Medicaid shuttle”

-Kate, client at Mishawaka Medical Center
“1.5 hour bus ride is usually around a 20 minute drive”

-Geoff Zimpelman, Population Health

 

Guiding Principle 4 : Create continuity for patient transportation within all medical offices and facilities 

Insights:

Improve communication between all offices Find one company, like uber, that will be certified by medicaid throughout all regions Lessen criteria to increase amount of people who can utilize services
“Nothing is centralized. Each clinic and office does different things and they don’t work together on things such as transportation”
–Obi Madukoma, Care Coordinator Population Health		 “Medicaid will cover transportation costs for its patients, but this can get complicated because only certain cab companies are certified to pick up patients. Depending on where you live, there may not be a viable cab company to use.”
-Ranae, Receptionist at Family Medical Office		 “Various organizations will provide transportation for patients, but each organization will only deal with people who meet specific criteria.”
-Geoff Zimpelman, Population Health

 

Guiding Principle 5 : Solution needs to work on a large scale and handle large influx of volume

Insights:

Use Resources Efficiently Standardize Method of Transportation Frequent and Flexible
“With many different services currently being offered, it is important for SJHS to make sure that certain resources are not being unnecessarily duplicated.”

 

  • Geoff Zimpelman, Population Health
“A transportation service that provides ‘door-to-door’ transportation would work best to accommodate all kinds of patients with varying levels of functionality.”

  • Julie, Director of Client Services at REAL Services, Inc
 “Transportation must be able to accommodate different patient’s schedules and availability for doctor appointments.” –

  • Erik,  Volunteer Receptionist at the Sister Maura Brannick Health Center

 

Design Criteria

Posted on by Daniel

Design Criteria for Clay High School

Design Goals

  • We have multiple users in this situation, with both the parent and student perspective. We view the student as the customer in this situation.
  • Students want to get a number of different things out of their high school experience, but every student is unique in their needs
  • Certain basic functional needs must be met for students, such as having bathroom doors on the bathroom stalls, and feeling safe from fights and harassment. We will present guiding principles through the lens of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to reflect how some of these basic needs are currently unmet, preventing students from taking full advantage of their opportunities.
  • The design needs to provide a result that does not mislead students, but rather helps to make Clay the best school possible, and to accurately portray all that Clay High School can offer to potential students. 

User Perceptions

  • There are aesthetic attributes necessary to succeed with the target customer. Clay High School needs to fix the bathroom stalls that do not have doors and they need to create a more vibrant, welcoming environments in the school.
  • The Clay High School reputation needs to be improved. Clay is often perceived to be solely the Fine Arts school that does not focus as much on academics, despite them having numerous AP offerings and strong standardized test scores.
  • Clay is perceived to be an unsafe school, and reports in the media suggest that fights are common.
  • One perception we have discovered when talking to students is the “gay Clay” perspective. This seems to both help and harm the school at times as some students want acceptance for everyone and others are put off by the image.

Problems/Needs/Opportunities

  • Our target users, high school students and their parents, have many needs with regard to their high school.
  • Students may want to be challenged, want to grow, want to feel safe and comfortable, and want to prepare themselves for the future. Parents likely want their students to be happy, safe, and academically challenged.
  • Current pain points with regard to selecting high schools might be informational voids, conflicting opinions from parents, negative press about certain schools, negative experiences in their current school, and negative interactions with staff or faculty.
  • With the emergence of social media and online information about schools, parents might have a difficult time choosing a specific school for their child. Sometimes, too much information can lead to inaction and frustration.
  • As more students explore the options of private schools, public schools as a whole are having a difficult time attracting and retaining kids, especially when they have a negative reputation due to fights, thug culture, or a lack of resources in the classroom.

Functional Attributes

  • Every student that goes to high school will have a unique experience. In this sense, there will be a unique user case for each individual student.
  • The primary issue relating to compatibility is the way in which a student fits into a certain school. One student might thrive in a large, busy school, while another might prefer a smaller, more personalized experience. This has to do with Clay in their ability to market themselves as a school that appeals to a large audience, rather than simply a niche group of students interested in the arts.
  • Essentially, Clay will likely be appealing to a few primary groups of students
    • Students who attend Clay because it is close to their home
    • Students who attend Clay because of recommendations by friends or siblings
    • Students who attend Clay because of its magnet program and commitment to the arts
    • Students who attend Clay for reasons other than the three above (lack of uniforms, sports, CTE courses, etc.)
  • Clay can either focus on improving the experience for students in these existing groups, or create a “new group” by finding a way to draw in students. This could include new program offerings or courses, but most likely it will just involve marketing certain elements of the school more effectively. It seems like the AP program could be a good candidate for this.

Constraints

  • We could face constraints from the South Bend Public School district. There could be certain marketing tools or proposed changes that are not allowed by the district.
  • Clay High School has budgetary issues to deal with and it does not seem that our solutions can be very costly.
  • Change often takes a lot of time, and implementing it within the semester might be challenging.
  • Principal Eid and the rest of the staff might not agree with our conclusions relating to the issues facing the school.
  • We don’t necessarily fully understand the dynamics of the school, and although we have strong research and data from interviews and surveys, it is hard to fully grasp the complex challenges of a school in just a few weeks of working with them.

Guiding Principles & Design Criteria

Posted on by John

Design Goal

What have you learned about the target customers? What ends (functional, emotional, psychological, social) does the design need to fulfill for the target customer?

In this project, we have approached Catholic priests as target customers. For priests, we have learned that most of them (from our sample size at least) think that working to improve their own homiletic skills and the preaching ability of others is of utmost importance. They think that these improvements should start at the beginning of the priesthood, in the classes of the seminary with a stronger emphasis on the Scripture. Next, many of the priests expressed a desire to receive feedback on their homilies so that they may know what and how to improve in their preaching. They approached this aspect in a variety of ways, including a panel of laypeople to hear the homily early in the week and give feedback before the priest preaches on Sunday, filming the homilies and watching them to learn how to improve similar to an athlete watching game film, priest conferences on preaching, and several other ideas. Although these are all excellent ideas that can be helpful in the improvement of the homiletic skills of priests, a recurring theme among the priests we interviewed was lack of time. Due to the copious responsibilities of priests, it is difficult to find time to diligently work on preparing a homily, and many priests voiced that they spend much less time preparing to preach than they would like to “in a perfect world.” Therefore, an important aspect of this project is to understand and implement a system in which priests can work to improve their homilies, whether with one of the aforementioned options or with new ideas, while being cognizant of the time constraints that priests have.

 

User Perceptions

How important is your proposed offering to the target customer’s well-being? Are there aesthetic attributes necessary to succeed with the target customer? Are there reputational aspects involved? What are the key research insights?

The project of improving the homiletic skills is very important to most of the priests that we have interviewed. However, we are aware that this may not be representative of all priests, for our sample size consisted primarily of priests that we have good relationships with, and these priests are passionate about preaching and their audiences, making them good preachers. With that being said, there are absolutely reputational aspects involved in this project because although priests have a myriad of responsibilities, they are often only judged as a “good” priest by their preaching ability.

The key research insights we have discovered are that priests think there is a definite need to improve homiletic skills of themselves and other priests. Many priests believe that they are good preachers, even bad ones, but everyone could improve is some way or another. They think that this improvement needs to start at the beginning of the priesthood, the seminary, and continue throughout the life of a priest in some fashion. They want to connect with the people they are preaching to and bring them closer to God with their homilies. They want to find a way to improve while not taking away from their other responsibilities.

Problems/Needs/Opportunities

What are the target users’ preferred outcomes as they engage with the offering? What pain points does the target user experience with existing options? What gaps exist with existing options that may hamper the target user’s ability to achieve preferred outcomes? What are the newly emerging needs or aspirations of the target user?

Priests want to improve their homiletic skills of themselves and other priests in order to make the message of God clear to their audiences. The pain points in achieving this outcome are the constraints of time due to other obligations, priests not wanting to go out of their way to change their approach to preaching, and the lack of formal systems in place to improve the homiletic skills of priests. Existing options to improving homilies include “homily help” books and websites, but the gaps in these options are that they are not tailored to a certain audience, lose their effect over time, are not original thoughts or “inspired by the holy spirit touching me” (Fr. Kevin Russeau), are abundant and difficult to discern what is useful, and some priests do not desire to use these because they do not think they need to improve their current preparation tactics. The needs and aspirations of the target user are those which have already been stated: to implement a system (or systems) to improve the homiletic skills of priests while being mindful of the time constraints of priests.

Functional Attributes

Does the design of the offering need to accommodate specific use-case scenarios? List them in order of importance to the target customer. Does the design need to address compatibility or standards issues?

The design should provide priests with the ability to accommodate their own specific scenarios in which they are able to change their homily based on their audience, for preaching at a dorm Mass on campus, a wedding, or a funeral are very different scenarios that require different preparation techniques. Furthermore, the design of this program needs to provide valuable insights for priests of all ages, and prove to priests that may be hesitant to change their ideas about their process of preparing and delivering homilies that this process is worthwhile.

Constraints

What are the confines of our project work? What limitations might there be based on costs or requirements?

As previously stated, time is a major constraint in this project, for Catholic priests such as those who work at a university, college, or high school and parish priests have a plethora of responsibilities that require their attention, and preparing a homily can often take a backseat to other duties. Another constraint that is difficult to work around is the fact that priests have done things the same way for a long time, for there is currently no formal program of continued homiletic training after priests are ordained, so some priests may not be open to seeking out or accepting help in their homily preparation.

 

Guiding Principles

1. I’m fine, but these other guys definitely need help.

  • There is a need to improve the homiletic skills of priests.
  • Every priest could improve their preaching.
  • Priests often see themselves as good preachers but recognize when others need to improve.
  • According to our survey of students who attend Mass on campus, priests need to improve in three main ways:
    • Relatability
    • Shorter, more direct message
    • Enthusiasm/excitement

“I think priests could improve their homilies in three main ways. First, I think priests try to do too much, they overreach and make things too complicated. Second, I think they often go too long. And three, they don’t make it relevant for real life. If you talk about saints or other things in the Church but do not connect it to life today, it’s not going to do any good with your audience.” -Fr. Sean McGraw C.S.C.

2. There are not enough hours in the day.

  • Catholic priests have many other things to focus on (teachings, other sacraments, rector, campus ministry, chaplain, etc), but Protestant ministers primarily focus on preaching.
  • The various other responsibilities of Catholic priests present major time constraints on priests.
  • These time constraints lead priests to delay their homily preparation, until as late as the day before or morning of their Mass.

“In an ideal world, I would start preparing my homily on Monday or Tuesday by reading, reflecting, and praying on the readings and then pick up on different things in my life that relate to the readings throughout the week. However, because I have so many other things going on, the process often becomes truncated and I’ll read and reflect on the readings Saturday night for Sunday’s Mass.” -Fr. Pete McCormick C.S.C.

3. Hit me with your best shot.

  • It is important for priests to receive feedback on their homilies in order to improve.
  • There is currently no formal system for improving homiletic skills of priests after ordination.
  • Because of this, many priests never receive any formal training for the rest of their lives.
  • Laypeople often shy away from giving constructive criticism because they do not want to offend the priests or feel they are unqualified to give advice.
  • Even when priests want feedback, laypeople are not in a position to give it.

“I feel that laypeople are not empowered in the Church. If I were in charge, I would install a “homiletics committee” of laypeople that would listen to the priest’s homily earlier in the week, like Thursday or Friday, and then give feedback and criticism of the preaching.” -Zack Imfeld MDiv.

 

Ethnography Summary – Daniel on SB Ave.

Posted on by James

On Friday, Parker, Matt and I interviewed Daniel, a chronically homeless man that is usually on the corner of S Bend Ave and Ironwood.

Ethnography Summary: Daniel

Date: 3/3/17

Type: Interview

Location/Time: Corner of S Bend Ave and Ironwood, where he was sitting/walking around asking for money at 10am on Friday 3/3

Team Participants: Sarah Riehl, Matthew McCormick, Parker Mathes

User Characteristics:

  • Chronically homeless
  • Male, age 34
  • Physically disabled
    • Bilateral drop foot
    • Seizures
  • Has seizures

Top 3 Learnings:

  1. South Bend has strong programs in place to provide the necessary, day-to-day resources.
  2. Losing an address when becoming homeless can cause significant issues to receiving necessary medication.
  3. Daniel was homeless with his wife, which put a lot of pressure on their relationship and made it difficult to remain positive and happy.

Takeaways:

  • There is a clear lack of accessibility to transitional housing for those financially unable to move into permanent housing.
  • Incredibly unique story of homelessness, physical disability can be even more challenging to deal with than substance abuse or mental illness.
  • The resources available to acquire food are incredibly beneficial.

Memorable Quotes:

  1. “I was living a normal life until my concussion in high school football changed everything.”
  2. “My wife’s family won’t speak to me because they think I dragged her into homelessness with me. It’s tough because I love her and want to speak with her family.”
  3. “Acquiring and maintaining a job with a physical disability has been one of the most difficult aspects of my life. Without a steady income stream, it’s tough to get by.”
  4. “I just need to get in transitional housing. Then things will get better for my wife and I. Until then, things will be challenging.”

Gallery Day Reflection

Posted on by Charles

Gallery Day Reflection

Key Takeaways

  • Our research was organized well & covered a wide range of the spectrum
    • The interviews we conducted spanned each age segment in the the retired population
    • The word cloud put this all in perspective
  • Our team feels comfortable enough that we can extract insights & have a point of view with the guiding principles we develop
    • Each of the team feel they have a perspective & can recognize patterns between the research we have conducted
  • We have a much clearer understanding of what Optum is looking for after showing our contact, Pat Keran, our research/progress
    • Geared to maximizing time in home
    • Early Age in Retirement Spectrum
    • Internet of things
    • Preventionary product/service
  • Our team worked really together
    • Everyone was very knowledgable on our call with our contact
    • Each member showed up to prep & took ownership in a piece of the presentation

Gaps in Research

  • Our research did not take into account a diverse population
    • Include women
    • Include minorities
    • Our interviewee’s were largely white males
    • Pat wants us to broaden the population of our research
  • A lot of feedback on some short questions such as habits/needs would be great to further clarify our thoughts
    • Perhaps a survey?
  • Our team does not have an opinion on current IOT solutions in the marketplace  

Plans Going Forward

  • We will go back to our contact at Morningside Nursing Home to get other recommendations for experts we could talk to on pre-assisted living retirement
  • We will reach out to those in our network who fit the mold of our new focus: early side of the retirement spectrum, we will also be sure to chat with a representative sample
  • We will develop a quick survey to send out to gauge responses on quick questions so we can further distill our insights
  • We will start researching current IOT marketplace solutions
  • We will extract 15+ Patterns & 3 Guiding Principles from the materials we have prepared

 

Design Criteria

Posted on by Jacob

Design Goal: What have you learned about the target customers? What ends (functional, emotional, psychological, social) does the design need to fulfill for the target customer?

 

From our research, we have found that teens will attend the Boys and Girls Club for a multiple of reasons. Whether it is to get some homework done or take part in athletic activities, many teens see the biggest benefit of attending the club is the social aspect. Instead of being home alone and bored, these teens will go to the club to hangout with friends and meet new people. Our design is focused on getting more teenagers to ultimately attend the club by creating more awareness and finding out a solution to their current transportation issue.

 

User Perceptions: How important is your proposed offering to the target customer’s well-being? Are there aesthetic attributes necessary to succeed with the target customer? Are there reputational aspects involved? What are the key research insights?

 

As we market the Boys and Girls Club, we wish to show teenagers all the different benefits they will obtain by joining. It is important for kids to join because instead of being bored and possibly making bad decisions, they can instead better themselves and meet a ton of new friends. Regarding the reputational aspects, we asked some teenagers why they don’t attend the club. One of the most common answers we received was that “It is for little kids.” We weren’t very surprised by this, noting the name of Boys and Girls Club. As a proposed solution, we stated to Camille, the head of the Boys and Girls Club in South Bend, that they should try changing the name when you are dealing with teenagers so to not scare them off. After gathering an abundance of research though, we found that transportation is the biggest issue in getting more teenagers to attend the club. Camille stated that when they were supplied transportation, more than 100 kids would be coming to the club every day. As of now, the club only has one van that can make pick ups and the number has dropped to about 25 kids a night.

 

Problems/Needs/Opportunities: What are the target users preferred outcomes as they engage with the offering? What pain points does the target user experience with existing options? What gaps exist with existing options that may hamper the target user’s ability to achieve preferred outcomes? What are the newly emerging needs or aspirations of the target user?

 

The target users in this case are the teenagers that want to attend the club. Their preferred outcome is that they are supplied with transportation so they are able to get to the club. Some current pain points that these teenagers have to deal with are having to pay local transportation in an attempt to reach the club, while some will even have to walk to try and get there. Camille told us about a teen that once got jumped on his way to the club. We know that kids are not going to try and walk to the club if they feel that their safety may be in danger. Next to that, the weather in South Bend tends to error on the side of horrible and no kid should have to be walking in the freezing cold or rain just to try and attend a club. In regard to paying for local transportation, no kid at such a young age has a job that could be constantly be paying for bus fares. While a couple kids are fortunate enough to have a car, they aren’t legally allowed to be driving more than one passenger, which causes a serious problem for these teens. Ultimately, these teenagers need to have transportation that they could use immediately after school in order to get to the club.

 

Functional Attributes: Does the design of the offering need to accommodate specific use-case scenarios? List them in order of importance to the target customer. Does the design need to address compatibility or standards issues?

 

Our design offering will attempt to find a way to get transportation to these teenagers in need. This transportation will need to accommodate the following: free of charge, straight from school, and a safe ride. In the eyes of the teenagers we asked, they see the transportation being free as the most important thing. Our solution to the transportation issue will have to follow a few standards. Some standards may include a safe seat for every teenager that gets on the bus or van, as well as making sure that every teenager that gets on the bus has their own seat and are not doubling up in an effort to get more people in the bus.

 

Constraints: What are the confines of our project work? What limitations might there be based on costs or requirements?

 

While attempting to find a solution to the transportation issue, we must be aware of some of the related limitations. As of now, these teenagers don’t have a productive way for getting to the club. We can’t just go and buy vans or buses for the club because it is simply too much money, which the club can also not afford. One of our proposed solutions to this problem that we are working on is involving Notre Dame on the issue. Students can currently ride local buses for free when showing their Notre Dame identification card. We believe that Notre Dame can put forth some effort and pay the bus organization a set amount monthly, stating that they must allow these teenagers to ride the bus for free if they show them their student ID.

Patterns + Guiding Principles

Posted on by Charles

Patterns + Guiding Principles

Point of View Statement (POV)

Early retiree needs a way medium of preventionary monitoring in a way that makes him/her feel safe/secure.

Define

  • Do you understand what the client is asking for?
    • Internet of things
    • Surveillance vs. Preventative
    • Pension Plan -> when you are qualified for retirement
    • Recently retired retirement
      • Age 35-50
    • Personalized, Engaging, Simple
  • Does the client understand what they are asking for?
    • Yes, they have specific goals in mind
  • Do you agree on the definition of terms?
    • Retirement
      • Financial stability
      • Pension
      • $ for 40-65 years

Research

  • Do you understand the target market?
    • Recent retirees
  • Do you have more research to complete?
    • Survey ND faculty + other people nearing retirement that are “tech-savy”
  • Have you mapped your research on your Archetype Map?
    • Yes, we have
  • Have you identified non-obvious insights?
    • Yes, we have

Patterns

  1. Retiring at an early age would allow more flexibility in post-retirement activities
  2. Early retirees are health-conscious
  3. Early retirees are likely to have surviving spouse who are retiring too
  4. Young retirees are more tech-savvy
  5. Enjoy classy activities
  6. They do not want to hold a job
  7. Confident with their financial stability
  8. The older you get the harder it is to use and adopt technology
  9. Transportation is a must-have
  10. Hate to be controlled by others
  11. Stubborn: increases as age goes up
  12. More (ancestry) family members that are alive
  13. They have more activities to do (Options & interests)
  14. They are very goal oriented
  15. Early retirees have more of a desire to travel.
  16. More migration (ex. Florida)

Guiding Principles

  1. Personalize the product for the individual retiree
    1. Retirement does not simply come with age, every user will have different circumstances, needs, and goals.
    2. The product will have to benefit active retirees as well as sedentary ones.
    3. Retirement is the time for people to live their lives however they please, so the product should cater to the specific wants of each user.

Quote(s):

“Of retired population 10% is over 85. By 2030 30% of population over 65 will be over 85”

“It depends on the individual. Once you get to know them you will notice, like this is something they usually wouldn’t do. Like happy individuals will become cranky or irritable all of the time. Appetite is the big one, change in appetite.”

  1. Prevent rather than survey
    1. While surveillance is important for monitoring the user’s health, we want to prevent the deterioration of the user rather than waiting until an accident occurs.
    2. Establishing habits and rituals early in retirement (or even before) allows the user to get on top of one’s health before it is too late.
    3. Activity, not necessarily physical, is key in prevention. Even the little things in life can help stave off mental illnesses.

Quote(s):

“Depression, is a huge thing. They are separated from their families. And sometimes families don’t get to come visit them. Or they don’t see them as often, so with that age it’s a big time to go more into depression. And it can be from somebody being tearful, to somebody just quitting to eat, or somebody just completely stopping to mingle with other people, and we want to prevent that.”

“Sometimes it’s a fall or sometimes they’re just not taking the medication the way they’re supposed to take it. I’ve had somebody come in, and they’re told to take calcium 3 times a day and they say, ‘you know I forgot my dose in the morning and I forgot it at lunch so I decided to take 3 pills at night’. It happens. Or, ‘I just decided to skip my insulin’ and their blood sugar is way up so when it goes way up there try to double dose and then the blood sugar goes way down and then they’re in critical condition.”

  1. Instill a sense of engagement and simplicity
    1. Older retirees are typically resistant to technology or in need of help using it. A simple design that doesn’t rely too much on the internet of things will cater to their needs.
    2. Constant engagement with the product means the user will stay active. Daily or weekly interactions will imbed the product into the user’s life.
    3. The problem with retirement services is that the user resists help. The user’s well being will only be improved if the product is actually used though. Thus, without forcing engagement, the simple design will not deter use and leave options up to the user.

Quote(s):

“You need your mind to be sharp in-order to keep your body sharp”

Design Criteria

Design Goal: 

What have you learned about the target customers?

  • Very diverse population
  • Wide age range
  • Need routine
  • Connectivity with family
  • Resistant to technology
  • Needs assistance from stakeholders

What ends does the design need to fulfill for the target customer?

Functional: Rooted simplicity & Technologically

Emotional: Caregiving

Psychological: Sense of Safety

Social: Interaction between stakeholders
Design an internet of things product or service for the newly retired population.

User Perceptions: How important is your proposed offering to the target customer’s well being? Are there aesthetic attributes necessary to succeed with the target customer? Are there reputational aspects involved? What are the key research insights?

Our product is directly related to the wellbeing of the user. In order to make sure the user stays in one’s home as long as possible, we need to educate the user about their health and make it simple for them to improve it. The target customer, a new retiree (around 65 years old), will not be looking for flashy aesthetics. Instead, the product must have a simple design with clear and functional aesthetics. This is not a product for entertainment. From our research, retirees are resistant to technology, applications, and help from younger people, so the product should have a classical feel to it, emphasize getting straight to the point, and not force or demand the user to use it. The offering should point towards the future as to not make the retiree feel old or dying.

Problems/Needs/Opportunities: What are the target user’s preferred outcomes as they engage with the offering? What pain points does the target user experience with the existing options? What gaps exist with existing options that may hamper the target user’s ability to achieve preferred outcomes? What are the newly emerging needs or aspirations of the target user?

As of now, after retirement, the user has the option to live out their full retirement in their own home, do so with the help of a caregiver, or eventually move out to a nursing/assisted-living home. Retirees in the demographic we are looking at consistently have negative things to say about the potential option of leaving their home and almost all prefer to stay in their home. There are currently many problems that often force or accelerate this undesirable migration into the nursing/assisted-living homes. These problems often include personal lifestyle flaws including physical and mental inactivity and lack of diligence regarding personal medical issues. Our target user needs a product to make it easier for them to monitor and care for their physical and mental health.

Functional Attributes: Does the design of the offering need to accommodate specific use-case scenarios? List them in order of importance to the target customer. Does the design need to address compatibility or standards issues?

  • Compatibility for all devices and need for internet
  • Visually easy and pleasure for elderly
  • Trustworthy

Constraints: What are the confines of our project work? What limitations might there be based on costs or requirements?

Our project work is constrained by a number of attributes of our target customers:

  • Accessibility: Much of the older generation we are targeting possesses limited skill and experience with technology. Our solution must be very simple to use or it will not be adopted.
  • Price: The target audience is economically diverse, and the majority of their healthcare spending is done by insurance providers. Our solution must be paid for by providers or priced very low

The cost of developing the product will be decided by Optum, however, the cost of prototyping must remain low.

Patterns and Guiding Principles

Posted on by Cheong In

Bottom Up Synthesis of CHS Project

Written by Tyler Prestly, Madi Purrenhage, Faisal Shariff, and Michael Yu

After the creation of our gallery wall, the next step in our innovative problem solving process was to look for insights and patterns in the information we had collected. To look for patterns, we tried to clump together insights that occurred two or more times. The following are criteria with which we tried to look at the patterns and then a list of the patterns themselves.

For Each Pattern We Asked:

  • Is it a true pattern?
  • What is surprising or interesting?
  • Was this an unexpected or supported behavior?

 

PATTERN ANALYSIS

*** Image depicts our initial observation of patterns, further progress was made upon these.

  1. Word of Mouth is essential in the HS decision making process for students and parents alike.
    • Parents begin talking about the schools when their children are at a young age
      • According to Maria C., and various discussions with current Clay students
        1. Jackson Jones, for example, was mostly influenced by his father’s fandom of Clay athletics and knew he’d attend Clay since childhood.
      • Parents are highly influenced by what their friends and colleagues do
        1. Sophia’s father worked at ND and all of his fellow ND professors sent their children to Adams, so he did too.
        2. Students will also follow where their friends go, like Jackson Jones and David Weaver.
  1. Socioeconomic status is a significant variable in school choice and approach.
    • Based on discussions with Maria C., parents from each spectrum
    • High = More financially stable, more resources/wherewithal, agency -> High School Choice made EARLIER(early in a child’s life)
    • Low = Flux, fewer resources, less agency -> High school Choice is made later
      1. Based more on transportation, safety, who they know
      2. Want to be able to make the decision based on academics, but can’t always afford to do so

  1. Safety: Every parent wants their children to be safe.
    • Clay has been known in the past to be unsafe do to the students who attend
    • Principal Eid himself talks about the number of expulsions, which can be seen as a positive (Commitment to safety) and a negative (high rate of expulsions = high amount of dangerous students).
    • Students themselves also care about safety:
      1. Sophia B. gave us the insight that Adams is not dramatically safer than Clay. “I was threatened my freshman and sophomore year at Adams… girls told me they were going to cut me.”
      2. Adams just has a better reputation for safety, and Clay is slowly improving theirs.
        1. Maria C.: “Fights do occur at Adams too”
      3. User survey: “I feel safe on campus” led to a score of 3.45/5
      4. In a world of instant access to media, this has become more important and more of a problem (negative press -> less students choosing Clay)
  1. Community: Parents want their children to be in a supportive, familial environment with a good energy.
    • McKenna: “When I walk through the halls, I don’t want to see a bunch of students being disciplined. I want to see students and staff being able to interact, joking around, having fun, laughing.”
    • Sue: “When everything’s going smoothly you don’t have as much need for support, but when you have a couple challenges, we’ve had good support from the guidance office and the teachers.”
  1. High Expectations: Parents want their children to reach their full academic potential.
    • Based on discussions with various parents and professors
      1. Parents want the school to be challenging
      2. Parents want the teachers to support and push their children to achieve
  1. Academic Advertising is weak: People think Clay doesn’t have strong academics, and they have not adequately addressed their academic offerings in their marketing.
    • The current marketing materials that Clay has does not have much information on the AP/Dual Credit offerings
      1. SBSC, in the past, restricted them from doing focusing on anything else but the “Arts Magnet”
      2. But in reality Clay has one of the best AP/Dual credit course offerings in the area
  1. Importance of College Prep – parents and students alike think it is important that a school prepare them to attend college.
    • This trends more among adults and self-motivated students
    • Adams sends people to Ivy League, Clay does not
      1. Students like Momin M. made Adams as their school of choice because of how an IB diploma would look to colleges
      2. Misconception about college acceptance from Clay (62%-> 4 year colleges)
    • The CTE program is an advantage, but parents need to see college prep too.
  1. Where to find information is a complex issue.
    • Maria C. expert conducting research on school choice, believes that a big part of the problem is people don’t have the proper information/know where to find it.
    • People receive their information from a variety of places
    • There is not an established path or method that parents or students know, the process is more nebulous and flowy
    • Currently the Arts Magnet name provides value in:
      1. Students rank it as an important part of the school
      2. Potential for enhancement of school spaces
      3. It diversifies Clay’s offerings
        1. Education trend towards realizing the potential of art -> Improves outcomes in science and math.
    • Detracts value in:
      1. Weaker academics and athletics
      2. Having a hard time with the academic elements
  1. Diversity is a strength of Clay High School
    • Probably one of the most ethnically diverse student bodies amongst high schools in the area
    • This is beneficial because it is a place where other minorities can feel comfortable and safe
    • Additionally, it enriches the learning environment with unique perspectives and backgrounds
  1. AP vs. IB should influence the academic perceptions of both schools among the community
    • Clay’s listing of AP courses is not widely known.
      1. Not mentioned in the SBSC pamphlets to prospective students and parents
      2. Clay has the most amount of AP programs and is continuing to grow.
    • Adams may offer the IB program, but few end up with the diploma
      1. Maria, Sophia: “Many enter the IB program, but very few end up completing (only about 15 or so in their year)
      2. AP program is more valuable since having those individual credits can help their college experience more than an incomplete IB track
    • Admissions offices have noted that they value AP course credits as much as IB diplomas
  2. CTE is highly successful in preparing students for full time careers.
    • CTE programs have helped students like David Weaver find their place at school in these classes, and go onto reliable jobs after graduation.
      1. Discussion with Auto Shop teacher: Students have gone onto jobs at local auto shops, with little need for job training
        • Making them more attractive candidates for the job
      2. One former student has even been able to find a position at Ford Motors, and has been a major success story for the program
    • Clay has the most diverse listing of CTE programs compared to the other three schools in the district.
      1. One of the upper hands Clay has on the others
        • Main reason why students like David W. chose Clay.
      2. Marketing these listings better to students who may not be academically minded may be able to attract students from other high schools to focus on CTEs as their priority
  3. There’s significant pushback from the school district in Clay’s efforts.
    • As seen with marketing decisions, lack of help on school image, promoting Adams as the “academic school”, etc.
    • Efforts will have to rely more on Clay’s resources, rather than what the district can do for Clay.
      1. School district may not be a partner in the final solution.
  4. Distance is a dealbreaker for some, but is manageable for most.
    • In the user survey, 16 students “strongly agreed” with the fact that they chose this school because of how close they live to Clay.
    • However, the survey average was a 2.35 out of 5, which suggests that distance is not a factor for most students.
    • As long as transportation is provided, students like those leaving the Clay district to attend Adams are willing to take a longer trip to go to the school of their choice.
      1. The solution should look to target a broad swath of students for the entire South Bend area, not necessarily those from the immediate neighborhood.
  5. Lack of school pride and attractions makes word of mouth harder
    • Discussions with various students on campus note the community, the arts magnet as their favorite things about the school
    • User survey: “I am proud to be a Clay Student” results in a 3.6/5.
    • Immersions, however, identify that all of this is restricted to inside the classrooms, and stops in the hallways. Campus is very bland.
    • Immersion experiences point to a restrictive environment, with constant overwatch.
      1. Student to student interaction between classes highly discouraged

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

After identifying important and valid patterns, the team looked through them and prioritized the most important factors. These important factors play into the guiding principles, or the tenants that provide the highest level of direction and organization for concepting.

About Clay and What People Value:

  1. I need to feel safe in my school.
    • The perception exists that CHS is a bad choice/unsafe/does not provide value.
    • This is untrue, and proving it incorrect is core to our solutions, it encompasses the whole issue we are trying to address.
    • Parents care about the safety of their children.
    • Joyce – a low income mother of 2. Said she “ain’t got time for her kids to be bullied.”
    • Prof Maria would have sent her kids there if they had wanted to go

  1. “But if I had a choice, I would have put them in Clay. It was the most impressive in terms of the full package – arts, athletics, caring community, and dual credits. My kids chose something different because their friends chose something different, which we respected and were fine with.”Image result for MARIA MCKENNA
  2. I value the Arts when choosing a school.
    • Students value the arts magnet.
      • On our graffiti wall, many students noted that the magnet and the arts were important reasons for their HS decision.
    • The Card Sort and User Survey also provided insight that the magnet matters.
      1. It was listed as important countless times on the user survey and in the card sort.
    • The arts provide value beyond art itself.
      1. The students could create and build a school that looked like an arts magnet.
      2. Well-rounded diversified student interests.
      3. Studying art helps students to more effectively learn math and science.
    • “They are very focused on them and have tons of opportunities with the Magnet” – Laura

   3. Academics are of top importance in my school choice.

    • “Some of the decision was based on the fact that IB diploma would look best to colleges” – from an interview with Momin Mirza
    • IB vs. AP
      1. There is currently a misconception about the value of IB and AP. This misconception leads to the perception that Clay doesn’t provide as much value.
        • “Clay isn’t known to have a lot of high academic rigor, and that was more important to me than the arts. Arts are supplemental, academics was the focus for my family.” – from the interview with Maria Caponigro 
    • Image result for jenny martin professor“The academic element is essential, and the structure for her kids to learn.” – from the interview with Professor Jenny Martin
    • Parents want their children to be pushed to their potential

 

Appeal to me by Word of Mouth.

  1. Influences on the Decision: Word of Mouth, Reputation, and School Pride
    1. In order to drive enrollment, we had to look at what influenced the High School Decision… from our research we are focusing on the three tenets listed above.
    2. Important Insights:
      • Students are choosing schools based on where friends go
      • Parents are choosing schools based on where other parents send their children (Word of Mouth).
      • “Parents pick schools based on word of mouth, based on what their friends say” “Choosing a school in South Bend is like a game of telephone” – Professor Maria McKenna
    3. In order to improve Word of Mouth, you have to influence school reputation.
    4. Marketing Matters. Recreating the Story – the marketing materials,  building bridge with middle school.
      • Specialist at IDEO recommended that when addressing marketing we try and tell a story and identify what story CHS should be telling.

DESIGN CRITERIA

Design Goal:

  • What have we learned about target customers?
    • Diverse needs: socioeconomic, ethnic, sexual orientation
      • Care about quality of schooling(staying on track), safety, keeping students out of trouble
  • Design needs to show parents that Clay High school can provide what they are looking for, that Clay is a good choice and will benefit their children. That Clay is as good if not better than other schools in the area.
  • After the analysis of our target market, we believe that our target market should be students as opposed to parents.
    • This means both high school students and middle school students and we will approach our solutions to these groups in different ways.
    • Additionally, there are smart students who currently live in the CHS neighborhood and bus to Adams, addressing those students will be a future focus.
  • User Perceptions?
    • Word of mouth
    • CLAY’s identity is extremely important
      • Needs to be defined and spread throughout the school and the corporation, they need to lean on this to attract students
      • Diverse, good academics, safe, Artsy = well-rounded
    • Proposed offering is extremely important, it could benefit them by giving them piece of mind that their children are in good hands, on the right track, and receiving a quality education
    • Aesthetic attributes: Brochure needs to look nice, Clay High school facilities need to be spruced up a little (i.e. locker painting)
    • HUGE reputational aspects

Problems/Needs/Opportunities:

  • Preferred outcome is that their children graduate, are on track and prepared for whatever route their future is going down(college, workforce, etc.)
  • Paint points:
    • Lack of knowledge/awareness of Clay High School’s offerings, benefits, positive characteristics: about why Clay is good.

Functional Attributes:

  • Does the design of the offering need to accommodate specific scenarios?
    • There are a variety of variables that will play into the final offering, and as such, the offering is not expected to have to adapt to every single student.
    • However, the end offering will try to impact and influence students who are artistic, academic, athletic, and a whole slew of other character traits. We hope that it will appeal to a large variety.
  • Does the design need to address specific compatibility or standard issues?
    • If the end design involves an upgrade to CHS marketing materials, we will have to ensure compatibility among the current and future materials.
    • We will also have to ensure compliance with SBSC.
    • We will also have to address compatibility with current programming at the school. If we recommend a variety of engagement techniques for middle school students we will need to ensure our recommendations are compatible with the current situation.

Constraints:

    • What are the confines of our project work? What limitations might there be?
      • Ideally, we would change the whole way that students and parents approach school choice… and innovate on the system itself.
      • However, there are a variety of limitations that we foresee.
  • Clay is starting from behind in terms of attracting academically high achieving students. Adams has the advantage here of precedent, legacy, current situation. Adams has smart students and continues to attract more smart students because of that. Clay has some high achieving students but struggles to attract more (80 of its smartest students are bussing to Adams every morning). These students are KEY to breaking this cycle and making lasting change.
    • Obviously there are going to be budgetary constraints. CHS receives funding per student, 6600 vs. 11,000 per student in Penn-Harris-Madison District because of property tax disparity.
    • Limitations based on the fact that the SBSC seems to favor Adams
    • Constraints on our ability to academically advertise

      

Guiding Principle #3

Posted on by Sophia

Taking Ownership of Health

One of the main goals of our project is to teach the elderly how to take charge of their health by tracking their own vital statistics in order to monitor change and take action with proactive initiatives. However, it is often difficult to convince people, especially the elderly, to begin tracking their health if they are not already used to doing so in their daily routines, or if the product is complicated and difficult to use. Ideally, we aim to help recent retirees monitor the health of their parents so they become comfortable with this tracking technology and can continue these habits when they are older. The sooner patients can take ownership of their own health, the more likely they are to pick up proactive habits that will improve their quality of life. These are three patterns we noticed within this guiding principle.

 

Need for Integration

“I would want something in the home to tell me if they’re taking their meds, if they got out of bed that day… and then could report those facts to a team of doctors, nurses, caretakers, and family members.” — Kathleen Murphy (expert interview)

Self-Health Interest

“Joyce (mother-in-law) likes to communicate, likes following her health. But my mom doesn’t want to know about her health because it will ‘stress her out.’” — Sandra McCarry (ethnographic interview)

Control Where You Can

“Yes, I would love to get updates on how he is doing so I could have that piece of mind, assist him in any way and prolong his independent living”. — Leslie Hinton (ethnographic interview)

Design Criteria

Posted on by Sarah

Design Goal

  • Target customers in this case are the teens of BGC. We have learned that out of those that attend regularly, there is an overall positive outlook on the experience, fellow members and staff.
  • There is a desire to bring others into the club, but many friends of members are not interested, because of the lack of the “cool” factor.
  • There are social and psychological ends that need to be fulfilled for the target customers with our specific case. Social in terms of making the club a place that is not only beneficial for their safety, but also their social lives. Psychologically, it is important for them to see consistency in a place like this, because it is shown in research that a majority of members experience some lack of structure in at least one aspect of their lives outside the club.

User Perceptions

  • I think bringing more members in and providing a more robust option list of activities is important to the well being of our customer, but not necessary. The club has managed to get along well enough before, so this would just be something to enhance it.
  • I think perception is very important to our users, because as teenagers, that means a lot to them. There could be an aesthetic attribute to our solutions in new technology or activities we introduce to the club, as if they are good and up to date, it would help up the “cool” factor we discussed earlier.
  • Similar to the aesthetic aspects, reputational aspects are extremely important in this case, because a big issue of attracting new members to the club is the reputation it has of being “boring” or “uncool”. Working on building up the positive reputation of BGC would have a positive domino effect.
  • Key insights from our research are that once members are there, they tend to stay loyal, but it is a challenge to recruit new members for a variety of reasons (money, other commitments, etc.). Also was insightful to realize the lack of active promotion of the club, which could be a reason the issue of transportation has not been brought up before.

Problems/Needs/Opportunities

  • The current members want more from the club. They want to take more field trips and have better technology programs.
  • The BGC offers activities such as crafts and gym time. The users get bored with doing the same thing everyday.
  • Field trips and other experiences could allow students to get out of their comfort zone and learn new skills. In addition, it will challenge them to be leaders and better communicators, which are attributes BGC strives to instill in the students.

Functional Attributes

  • It would be necessary to be mindful of the members and their schedules. So for transportation, we would need to assure that it could be coordinated to fit a wide variety of high school’s end time of the day. Also, if we would look into rides back after the afternoon, we would have to do our best to find a time that would work for the most members (if we were to implement an extended hours option).
  • As per everything at BGC, any new implementation would need to live up to the standards they have set and consequently followed as a club for decades. We would want our solutions to only enhance a member’s experience at BGC in a positive way, so therefore would be extremely thoughtful when creating anything new.

Constraints

  • BGC faces financial constraints. They do not have the money to get buses for field trips, or better technology.
  • BGC also lacks a sufficient number of quality workers. They only have 8 part time volunteers and one full time volunteer.