YOU TALK
I LISTEN
- A CONCEPT DESIGN PROJECT
CHRONIC PAIN
For this project, the end user played a big role in the design phase. What do chronic pain patients REALLY need? I focussed the project on a scenario that a lot of chronic pain patients will end-up in: becoming (temporarily) unemployed. The time-off is meant to focus on rehabilitation, but the loss of daily routine, social contacts and meaningful activities only provide resistance to rehabilitation.
After extensive research on the target group, it was clear for me that a solution should be sought for in mental support and even more specific: communication support. After finding the solution area, two remaining problems had to be solved. First of all, chronic pain patients are often reluctant to any form of help, especially if it requires a lot of attention and time investment. Second of all, even if a patient would use the product for a while, chances are big that they fall back into their old pattern within a period of time. The solution for those challenges: Emotional Attachment and Behavior Change.
TOWARDS BEHAVIOUR CHANGE
For attention towards a better lifestyle to turn into a changed behaviour, a patient needs to go through several phases. These phases require several factors provided by either the patient itself or one of its close peers. The product is designed to support those phases on multiple opportunities marked red in the figure.
DROP
This is DROP. DROP gives the patient the opportunity to feel better about themselves by talking freely (anonymously) about their feelings and helping others. Besides that, DROP helps patients to reflect on experiences both during treatments and at home, which is proven to promote behaviour change.
The amulet (shaped like a drop), can be worn around the neck, the wrist or simply in a pocket. In case of distress, the patient can press the button and start talking about whatever he or she wants to talk about. This recording is send to an anonymous peer patient, who in its turn can choose to return a message to comfort its peer. Because the listener is anonymous, the threshold for sharing personal emotion should decrease. Simultaneously, helping a peer in distress can make the user feel helpful which could evoke positive emotions.
COMPONENTS
For the amulet to be small enough to carry around, good thought had to be put into the internal structure of (electrical) components. The two halfs of the chassis are designed for injection moulding, which requires a minimum, but equal wall thickness, smooth injection stream and no undercuts.
