OCTO
Octo is an educational toy developed for kids (and their families) with congenital heart disease. The project was completed in collaboration with Dr. Amr El-Bokl and Dr. Guru Hiremath Mallikarjun of M Health Fairview Children's Masonic Hospital.
Industry: Medical, Education
Role: UX Design, Digital Product
Duration: 15 weeks
Background
Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) is a birth defect that is characterized by an abnormality in the structure of the heart such as a hole, missing parts, or a transposition. Severity of the defect affects the presentation of symptoms. As a result, those with CHD require frequent visits to clinic for testing. Early medical exposure along with other environmental factors have the potential to adversely affect childrens’ mental health.
Project Goals:
M Health Fairview asked for an interactive toy for kids with CHD (ages 4-10). The goals of the toy are:
1. Educate children about their heart and CHD.
2. Prepare children for the experience of going to clinic.
3. Demystify CHD and form positive attitudes about heart health.
User Research
My partner Jessica Jenkins and I set out to understand our user, who is effected by CHD, and current solutions on the market. We started by making initial clinic visits to observe hospital spaces, talk to hospital staff and meet with parents/children directly affected by the disease.
After initial user interviews and clinic-site visits we begin mapping out the child's journey of a clinic visit to gain insite on where we could have the biggest impact for our end user. What parts of the journey are the scariest? What are some common feelings and emotions come up during this experience? Here's what we came up with:
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Concept Development
Jessica and I worked closely together to develop moments of interaction between the physical toy and the digital app. After consulting with child-life specialists and the pediatric cardiologists, we narrowed our scope of the project to focus on the clinic visit and the most common experience included in such a visit: 1) Echocardiogram 2) EKG and 3) a blood pressure check. Additionally, the cardiologists wanted to promote oral health, as this is highly important to prevent inflammation and infection of the heart.
Storyboard
Octo emplores three key steps for child-learning: discovery, experience and play. The user starts in an 'open world' with the ability to self-direct and discover independently (both digitaly and physically). Discoveries lead to experiences deicated to learning (there is some goal to accomplish during the experience and is often guided through storytelling. These experiences are designed to facilitate play with the physical toy. Through user research, it was identified that children more accurately engage in play after learning about the toys in the digital app.
Below is a visual storyboard from a presentation to stakeholders (our professor and staff at M Health Fairview).
Physical Prototypes
Credit for physical prototypes attributed to Jessica Jenkins. The physical prototype includes soft, plush toys. Octo himself is plush with a cavity in his chest where the plush heart is stored. The plush heart is made of individual, pull-apart pieces. EKG "stickers", a blood pressure cuff, and ultrasound wand, and a tooth brush were developed with scannable heart decals to direct users to the digital, corresponding activity to aid in learning about these instruments and Octo's heart.
Digital Prototypes
Left: Ultrasound and blood pressure experiences.
Our design process included producing low-fi prototypes and then testing those prototypes with children. Digital prototypes included ultrasound, blood pressure, EKG and teethbrushing experiences. These experiences were presented on a touchscreen interface for iPad.
In the ultrasound experience, users "rub" Octo's tummy and give him a pillow to encourage positive user attitudes about the experience. Users then click and drag the stickers to Octo's chest and "examine" his heart.
Digital Prototypes
Left: EKG and teeth brushing experiences.
During conversations with the medical team we learned of the importance of oral health to the prevention of congenital heart disease complications. Therefore, I created an augmented reality where the user "mirrors" Octo to help him brush his teeth.
Second iteration
MyHeart Experience
Learnings from user testing showed that we were missing a key element in our product. Users were not uninterested in the plush heart accessory and there was no place within the digita app to learn about the heart. Therefore, the MyHeart experience was created. Inspired by a typical jigsaw puzzle users drag and drop elements onto a heart-shaped outline to learn what each part of it's anatomy is resposble for.
Our user testing set up.
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The AR "Teeth Brushing" Experiences was well recieved by our little participants.
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Some kids had questions about the physical toys in the doctor bag, which were explained in the app: what they are and what they're used for.
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Children played with the products in pairs in which each child could test out both the plush physical toy and the digital app.
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Many children recognized the blood pressure cuff, but had questions about the EKG stickers and the Echo wand. We observed that these questions were answered by following along with the digital app.
+ Strong correlation between physical toys and their digital counter parts.
Children commented on the physical touch of Octo. They were eager to tactilely explore his accessories. In the digital app, children were happy to be able to "help" Octo by physically touching the screen.
+ Kids expressed positive tactile experience from both digital and physical app.
Kids expressed less interest in the heart. We realized that there was no digital counter part for them to learn about heart anatomy so this was an area we could imrpove on in the following iteration.
- Not much interest in the plush heart.
Users expressed positive attitudes towards the open-world concept in which they were able to freely direct themselves throughout the app. We observed users playing independently in the app and then engaging in the appropriate accessory.
+ Positive feedback on self-guided learning
Key Findings from User Testing
Final Walkthrough
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Awards & Honors
Octo was awarded top prize in the 2023 MIN-Corps MVP Challenge for "Best Overall Product". It was fully funded through MIN-Corps for prototyping and testing expenses. Click here to read more about the challenge.
Jessica and I also recieved the 2023 College of Design Student Academnic Excellence Award in the Graduate Team Category.
