Week 7: Ideation II & Motivation

This week we continued the Ideation, together with research for supporting articles. The ideation included two parts, the first was to explore all kinds of products we like and use, and the second was to define a perfect human assistant to our persona in the relevant context.

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Supporting Evidence and Motivation

In the past few weeks we kept searching for supporting evidence, where we found two powerful quotes from two different articles:

“They may have difficulty becoming familiar with digital technology, especially if they have not encountered it previously. And the perception of rapid change renders older citizens less valued as bearers of wisdom and knowledge, and makes it more difficult to sustain an identity which commands respect rather than simply tolerance, and is accepted beyond a narrowing circle of family and friends.”

Martin, A. (2009). Digital literacy for the third age: Sustaining identity in an uncertain world. eLearning Papers, 12, 1-15.‏

“In particular, for elderly people, the acquisition of abilities inadequate and targeted use of ICT (Information and communication technology) is not only an opportunity for personal development and growth (Hazzelewood 2001, 2002), but also offers the possibility of conceiving a range of network-based services of great social significance, such as facilitated access to information and help desks, assistance and aid, reduction in the risk of isolation, and the possibility of making one’s own professional, hobby and life experiences available to others.”

Trentin, G. (2004). E‐learning and the third age. Journal of computer assisted learning, 20(1), 21-30.‏

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The ideation

In the first part, we brought up all kinds of products that make use during the day. To remember we should focus on good features we could embrace, we noted on top "How might we?" question.

The products we chose were Nespresso, Dyson Vaccum cleaner, Washing machine, Snapchat app.

To each of those, we named the features we like, such as:

For the washing machine - predefined scheduled programs to run, can see what is happening in the machine (through the transparent door), gives you feedback (started, ended, error) and gives you the time left to finish.

For Nespresso - one purpose, only a few buttons to operate

Then, we summarized the features we could take to our world - the elderly and technology.

Afterward, we got to the second part of the ideation.

We had to thought about a perfect assistant, one that helps the persona during the day with his or her need. It has to be human rather than a technological system.

We started to think about what are the things that this assistant knows about the persona, and how could it take advantage of this knowledge to help the persona.

Then we started to think about the context that we chose, which is when our persona is sitting alone (probably in the evening) and waits for a call from his or her family.

This is when we think our persona is at need at most, and that's the point where we could intervene.

Therefore we started to think about the next scenario, which we eventually turned to a more detailed and complicated scenario.