Support For The Siblings !M11
Research Project Final Report
Yijun Yu s141734 Coach: Loe Feys Project: DPG71 Baby@home Sep, 2014- Jan,2015
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An abstract or a narrative signal, which can provide a better sense of waiting time for sibling children to reduce their anxiety when their parents are away to take care the new ill baby in the hospital?
Abstract
Abstract
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This research project focuses on the o1en unseen needs of the siblings of the new babies(especially the very ill babies, like premature). The birth of a premature baby in the family can be thought as a poten?al trauma?c event for the siblings. (Claudia, 2006) It’s usually sudden and unexpected, tending to reduce the emo?onal support of these siblings. The problems that these siblings encounter diver by age. For the sibling children from 1-‐6, the loss of rou?ne at home and separa?on anxiety can be common in occurrence (CHOP). A state called Depressive Posi?ons (Margaret Mahler) can be taken place on the sibling children when the occupied parents have to spend more ?me in the hospital and have less ?me to be with them.
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Abstract
The research project starts from observing and inves?ga?ng the problems behind this conflict, aQempts to generate deeper understanding on siblings’ psychological needs, and obtaining knowledge on how a solu?on can help siblings children to reduce their anxiety of wai?ng ?me when their parents are away to take care of the ill babies in the hospital, And finally explore the further possibility and improvements on this issue. During the evalua?on of the research project, two major prototypes are proposed as a mean to collect quan?ta?ve and qualita?ve data on the user’s requirements and sugges?ons. This report will start from the designer’s mo?va?on of the project, and elaborate the research process in four ac?vi?es: explora?on, defini?on, idea?on and evalua?on. The research results and values will be analyzed at the end of this report.
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Content
Abstract Introduc.on vision as a designer goals for this research project learning approach general context and challenge
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concept idea.on brainstorming prototypes pilot test improved prototype
Process
! evalua.on
explora.on
interviews
first insights
co-‐construc?ng stories method
context mapping
ques?onnaire survey
hospital observa?ons
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! results !
defini.on
reflec?on of this semester
literature research
plan for next semester
mood board
acknowledgement
interviews
references
research ques?on
appendix
tenta?ve research direc?on
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Introduction
Introduc.on ! !
Vision as a designer A1er coming to study in TU/e, I found the educa?onal system here was quite different from my bachelors’ in China. It has been a brand new experience for me to have a vision on design that serves as a guide for my study. For me, products serve for people, design is something that can meet people’s par?cular demand. As designers, we should have empathies so that we can truly comprehend the inner space of the users, and convey these understanding to the outside world through our designs. So that’s why user research comes as an important role in design process.
Research
Knowledge& methodologies Products& experience
Design
Introduc.on
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Goals for this research project During this semester, I focused more on the “research process” itself. Since I had never undertaken an individual research project before, this semester I have found that I had very limited researching capabili?es, especially when I have to run through the whole research process and use the researching methodologies systema?cally. I think a good researching capacity can be a fundamental quality for a good designer, so I regard this semester as a good opportuni?es for me to reflect on what I have learned during my bachelor’s study, rebuild my knowledge on research methods and learn how to use methodologies to observe, analyze, comprehend people’s needs and think in the users’ place.
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By taking the research project in a technical university with a strong research background, I consider it a great opportunity for me to accomplish my development expecta?on. During the semester, I would like to take advantage of the assigned research project to develop related researching skills in prac?ce.
Introduc.on
Learning approach As a beginner for research, I want to develop my capabili?es as a research step by step. The main mo?va?on for me is to gain familiarity in conduc?ng a design research. So I start with reading some books related to design research.(Figure 1) The book Design Research Through Prac1ce: from lab, field and showroom is a fair introduc?on of design research, which provides me a overview on how to conduct a design research at the beginning of the project. Also I read the book Universal Methods of Design wriQen by Bruce hanington, from which I gain overall idea about how to apply some typical research approaches and methodologies into my design research. At later stages, I read Evalua1ng Children’s Interac1ve Products Principles, which is very helpful for me to gain knowledge on how to obtain qualita?ve and quan?ta?ve data in the evalua?on part of the research.
figure 1
Introduc.on General context and challenge
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Competency areas development Since it’s my first research project, I would really like to develop the competencies in Design and Research Processes by cul?va?ng the mindset and skills on how to run through the whole research process and conduc?ng a good research. Also, although it’s an individual research project, there are s?ll several students in the same theme with me and I think it’s good opportuni?es to communicate with people from different cultural backgrounds and share the ideas and knowledge we gained during the research process. Also, as a foreign student, I have to cross my language barriers and communicate with different people in society of different culture. So Teamwork and Communica.on competency is what I also like to develop in the project. And, I have learned that TU/e is emphasizing on technology so during my design research I would like to develop my competency in integra?ng technology by using arduino to build my prototypes. Ini.al mo.va.on During my bachelor’s I have grown interest in kids’ products. Though this project is much more concerned about the medical area, I would like to make it “less cold” because I think young babies and kids are the groups that always seek so1, warm, love and fun. But what if the needs of these kids cannot be sa?sfied as before? How their situa?on can change because of a new liQle brothers or sisters coming into their life? For my research project, I would like to focus my direc?ons on the siblings of the premature, whose problems can be o1en unseen by the occupied parents and the community.
Introduc.on Hospital environment I made an appointment with Expert Sidarto Bambang Oetomo and paid a visit to MMC. There are 2 parts of care units for newborns in MMC, the medium care unit and NICU (for cri?cally ill babies, premature in the incubators). The parents of premature babies have more tensions who can be very stressful and have to spend long ?me in the hospital to take care of them.
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Defining topic Siblings may suffer a trauma of separa?on with their parents due to a birth of new baby, especially when the baby is cri?cally ill and the parents are fully occupied and under great pressure. As most of the focus may be shed on the bonding of premature and their parents, the rela?onship between siblings and their parents has seldom been discussed and the problems on the siblings can o1en be unseen. Neglecdul behaviors which can be the omission of ordinary paren?ng behaviors are considered necessary for the development of healthy, happy children(Denise A.Hines, 2006). Therefore, this research project focus on exploring the issue about the bonding between parents and older sibling children.
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Defining age The children’s Hospital of Philadelphia(CHOP) states that toddlers( age from 1-‐3) and preschool children( age from 3-‐6) are challenged with separa?on anxiety and loss of rou?nes at home, whose understanding is s?ll limited and can easily become insecure and frustrated. (figure 1) Researches have found out that the most disturbed sibling children were those who had a very close rela?onship with the mother and less age difference with the newborn. So in this research project, I choose siblings aging from 1-‐6 as my psychological target group.
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figure 1:Development concerns for siblings(CHOP)
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Introduc.on
Challenges
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Role as a researcher During my previous study, I had liQle experience in going through a whole research process. This semester may help me to truly comprehend how to be a good researcher, which is unavoidable quality for a designers. Approaches and methodologies should be used theore?cally to serve for the research process.
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Target group and language barriers in communica.on For a freshman coming from totally different culture and language background, it’s a difficult task to find the par?cipants for the evalua?on process, so informa?on should be searched and gathered by consul?ng related experts, organiza?ons, or online websites.
Process
RESEARCH PROCESS
DEFINING APPROACHES Secondary research Case study Mind mapping
EXPLORATION
Expert interview Sibling mothers interview
CONTEXT INSIGHTS Literature research
DEFINITION
Mood board
Personnas
RESEARCH QUESTION Brainstorming
Sketches
IDEATION
Rapid prototyping
IMPROVED PROTOTYPES Scenario cards Scenario video
EVALUATION Pilot test
DATA ANALISIS
GAINED KNOWLEDGE
FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES?
EVALUATION
Explora.on
Context Explora.on and analysis
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First insight What is bonding？ Bonding is the development of a close and selec?ve rela?onship, such as that of aQachment.[10] It can be crucial to building up people’s physical and emo?onal contact. There are four main roles surrounding the issues of premature babies, aiming at enhancing comfort and bonding between relevant people: the hospital, the premature, the community and the family. Several possible research direc?ons are listed out in the graphic( figure 1).
hospital
premature
(staff, pa?ents) how to comfort parents and enhance the bonding between the hospital and families (like to explain the illness and treatment in a beQer way)
h ow to e n h a n c e t h e bonding between parents and their cri?cally ill babies.
society
family
(organiza?ons, chari?es, ci?zens)
（parents, siblings, rela?ves)
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The bonding in the family can be very strong and effec?ve since it may be their personal experience. In the very first explora?ons, non-‐direc?ve research will be made to explore and get inspira?ons from the context.
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how to comfort family members who may under great pressure or whose issues are o1en unseen
how to support the family and babies by the strength of society.
figure 1
EVALUATION
Explora.on Context mapping Goal: to get the basic understanding for the context and gain inspira?ons for the research direc?on.
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Context mapping were made with 2 students who work in the same theme on the 4 aspects: bonding, products, environment, expressions to gain understanding and inspira?ons on my project.(figure 1) It’s interes?ng to think about the rela?onship between different roles who might be affected by the birth of premature or a new baby, like parents-‐parents rela?onship (the bonding to make them go through tough ?me together), first ?me parents-‐ babies rela?onship (who might not know what to do when facing a helpless situa?on), and think about how life can make an influence on the siblings, who might be neglected when a newborn (especially a premature) is born and parents are usually too busy and occupied in the hospital, so the inner space of a sibling can change because they receive less interac?ons with parents.
figure 1:mapping notes
EVALUATION
Explora.on Expert interview Hospital observa.on(visit to MMC)
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Reflec.ons: Environment: hospitals here is quite different from that in China. In China, hospital is usually crowded with too many people but here the environment seems more clean and less stressful. a. sound: the room in baby care units can be very quiet and people there should make so1 sound to avoid noise which can be harmful to premature. b. Temperature: a piece of cloth is usually covered on the incubators to prevent strong light from outer space. c. Devices: tube systems are very complicated and look stressful, which can be designed in a more comfortable way. d. People: stressful, have to spend almost all the ?me in or near the hospital (at Ronald McDonald House). There are sofas in the care room for parents and rela?ves to have a rest or sleep.
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Expert Sidarto Bambang Oetomo There are 2 parts of care units for newborns in MMC, medium care unit and NICU for cri?cally ill babies (premature in the incubators). The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) contains devices and other types of equipment to care for cri?cally ill babies. The units serve single rooms and double rooms (for twins), which may reduce extra noises and create less disturbing environment for parents, doctors and nurses to look a1er the babies. Most of the siblings remain at home, some comes with their parents to the hospital.
figure 1: NICU environment
figure 2: interview with Expert
EVALUATION
Explora.on
Conclusion The parents have to spend lots of ?me in the hospital because of the birth of the premature babies. The general environment of the hospital is very quiet and clean. There are some restrooms for the parents to take a rest while taking care of the new babies in the hospital, and they usually keep the sibling children at home(but must have some one to take care of them) or take them to some one else’s place. For the sibling children, it may become a problem that their parents have less ?me to accompany them. In the following session, more focus will be put on the perspec?ve of the o1en unseen needs of the sibling children, tenta?ve research direc?ons and research ques?on will be defined during the process.
Tenta.ve research direc.on how to comfort the sibling children to reduce their anxiety of wai?ng while their parents are away to take care the new baby in the hospital?
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Goals and approaches To explore the current problems and concerns that may happen to the sibling children of new babies. To find out a specified issue and context for the research ques?on.
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Following mood board, interviews with mothers who have sibling children, literature research are done to narrow down the research direc?on and finally define the research ques?on.
EVALUATION
Defini.on
Mood board（figure 1）
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a. Mothers’ problems Parents especially mothers may be worried for premature all day and become exhausted so that they don’t have ?me and energy to communicate with siblings. Also marriage problems may occur more frequently under this stressful condi?on. b. Nega.ve psychology of siblings Siblings may have some nega?ve feelings like being neglected when their parents are so busy with their newborns and leave them at home, some behaviors may occur like becoming quiet and withdrawn, being rejected and depressed, some?mes they may act out to gain aQen?on, become jealous and want to compete for love with their liQle brothers or sisters, they may sense the change of what’s happening and become sensi?ve and worried for parents unhappy mood. Also, they may have some bad sleep and form some bad habits like sucking thumbs.
c. Accompany Parents, staff in hospital, friends, rela?ve, group help in the place like Ronald McDonald house can make contribu?on to the situa?on. d: “Join them in” the best method to reduce the anxiety of siblings is to make them involved and keep them informed about the situa?on, make them feel the love and warmth of parents, help them understand and be curious about the new members. e: sense of safety: a kiss, a hug, a type of mothers’ flavor can be good for the means of showing love and make them feel safe.
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figure 1
EVALUATION
Defini.on Interviews with 2 mothers who have sibling children Two interviews are conducted on two Chinese mother: one has 3 children from 17-‐21(figure 1) who is living in the Netherlands, one has a 4-‐year-‐old son and 2-‐year-‐old daughter(figure 2). In the interview I ask some ques?ons like what they are thinking and feeling under certain situa?on, what she sees and heard and how she act to form the empathy map. I pick the first mother because I think she might have very rich experience in raising children. In the interview, the mothers agree that some inequali?es happened during children raising process and balanced should be kept all the way down. And I also no?ce that some?mes it’s hard for parents to look at their babies’ inner thoughts.
figure 2: mother Ting Ting
figure 1:empathy map of mother Han Chen
EVALUATION
Defini.on Literature research
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Goal The goal in this session is to gain more knowledge in the area of siblings researches. As for me, reviewing literature can be a very essen?al and inspiring part when conduc?ng a research project. By reading through relevant papers and literature, I can more easily and deeply understand what the situa?ons and problems that the sibling may face, and what current endeavor has already done. Through the ac?vi?es, I expect to establish the theore?cal roots of my research project and to develop research methodology and my future concept.
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Analysis premature birth and siblings’ trauma The birth of a premature baby in the family can be thought of as a trauma?c event for the parents and a poten?al trauma?c event for the siblings which can be sudden and unexpected, tending to break the predictability of the child’s world and its family. The trauma that could be produced by the premature birth situa?on might affect their paren?ng skills, thus making the parents, for a period of ?me, emo?onally less resourceful and available to their newborn baby and their other children and less able to make use of any help offered (Klauber 1998, McFadyen 1994). For the sibling, the premature birth has the poten?al to be experienced as trauma?c, ac?ng as confirma?on of primi?ve anxie?es. Some of these anxie?es are related to the cruelty and strength of the bad internal objects; the fear of the loss of the good objects and the doubt in the ability of the child’s own repara?ve capaci?es and goodness.
EVALUATION
Defini.on siblings of a normal new baby 80%-‐85% of children world wide grow up with at least one sibling.（K.J.Conger, Kramer L, 2010) In the last few years, studies of sibling within their families have greatly increased in number, and have challenged our assump?ons concerning serious ques?ons about how families influence individual development and the development of social understanding in young children.(Dunn J, 1992) Research finds out siblings experience family separa?ons and disrup?ons of daily rou?nes when a new baby is born.(M. Barrera, C. F. Fleming, F. S. Khan,2003)
And research also finds out that behaviors changes may have been due to the separa?on rather than the arrival of a new baby.(M.A. Trause,1977) One source of sibling dissa?sfac?on with the domina?ng influence of other siblings was sibling beliefs that the domina?ng sibling had separated the parent from other siblings. (Lashewicz B,Kea?ng N, 2009)
EVALUATION
Defini.on Siblings’ psychology For inspira?ons and suppor?ng materials about the overlook issues of the sibling children, I searched a few papers related to psychological field on this issue. The most inspiring me ones are the Separa?on-‐ individua?on theory from Margaret Maheler, and a state called Depressive Posi?ons raised by Melanie Klein. Siblings may face a state called depressive posi?ons(Melanie Klein) if their mothers keep being away to take care of the new baby. The contradictory feeling toward their loved one(mothers) will grow and they will suffer loss of rou?ne due to separa?on. And according to the Margaret Mahler ’s child development(figure 1), for the child from 16 to 36 months, they can be more aware of physical separa?on and beQer cope with mother’s absence and engage subs?tutes. If they understand that their mothers will return, and they can get gra?fica?on from doing things alone or they are provided with beQer sense of ?me, trust can be built up by mothers’ return to compensate loss of rou?ne.(figure 2)
Conclusion The siblings will easily suffer a loss in rou?ne if their busy mothers keep being away to care of the new babies and have no ?me to accompany them. If the siblings can be provided with a beQer sense of ?me and they have the signal that their mothers will return, it will make them beQer tolerate the wai?ng. And when the mothers return to compensate the loss of rou?ne, it will build up the trust so that the sibling children may be comforted during the wai?ng process.
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Research ques.on how to provide a beQer sense of ?me for sibling children while they are wai?ng for their parents who are away to take care of the new baby?
figure 1
SIBLING
MOTHER
DEPRESSIVE POSITIONS
AWAY
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TIME PASS
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figure 2
EVALUATION
Idea.on ! ! !
Brainstorming
! Environment(figure 1) -‐home A birth of a premature baby can change rou?nes of a family. The sibling children will suffer a loss in rou?ne at home. Considering the situa?on, when parents are usually occupied in the hospital, sibling children have to stay at home and they are usually looked a1er by nannies, rela?ves or friends who are not very closed to them. -‐hospital Some parents may some?mes take the sibling children to the hospital. So it’s possible to set the context at the hospital, when the mother has to enter the NICU to take care and the premature baby and they make sibling children remain in the restroom to wait form them to come back.
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Poten.als A beQer sense of ?me can make the sibling children aware that their parents will be come back soon, so that they can beQer tolerate the wai?ng ?me and endure separa?on. While wai?ng, aQen?on should be distracted from missing their parents to certain subs?tutes. A beQer visualiza?on of ?me may create a beQer signal for the sibling child to wait and reminds mothers that they should have ?me to accompany their older children, which provides bonding between sibling children and their mothers.
figure 1
EVALUATION
Idea.on Ideas Based on the special background and the insights gained from the previous researches and the mind mapping, ideas have been come up in terms of 2 visualiza?ons of ?me: abstract and narra?ve ones. (figure 1,2). In the following session, compara?ve evalua?on will be made to find out a beQer solu?on to provide sibling children a beQer sense of ?me to reduce the anxiety while they are wai?ng for their mothers.
direct& distinct
innovative &imaginary
storytelling
trigger curiosity
abstract
narrative
children oriented
vivid expression
figure 1: features of abstract signal and narra.ve signal
Prototypes Inspired by the paper The Influence of Rhythmic Changes in Ligh?ng on Breathing Rhythm and Relaxa?on, I built two ligh?ng prototypes that flashed light in certain “breathing” rhythms, one is the abstract ligh?ng hour glass (the light of the upper part will slowly fade down and the light of lower part will gradually become brighter) , and the other one is the narra?ve ligh?ng house( the light on the “mountains” will slowly fade down and the light from the “house” will gradually become brighter). Both of them convey the message of “?me”. figure 2: prototypes
EVALUATION
Idea.on
Pilot test before mid demo! Feedback from mid demo I only built one prototype( figure 1) on the mid demo day. Compliments were made on the working prototypes and good set up. Doubt comes from whether the the visualiza?on of ?me can truly help the children reduce their anxiety and whether a child at that young age can understand the signal.
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Feedback from the coach Try to make the prototype more elegant(like hide the wires and add the switch), try to come up with more specified research ques?on so that compara?ve data can be gained from the evalua?on process. And move on to the evalua?on. Specified research ques.on A direct signal or a narra?ve signal, which can provide a beQer sense of ?me for the sibling children while they are wai?ng for their parents who are away to take care of the new baby?
figure 1: prototype of the ligh.ng hour glass
Evaluation
Evalua.on
Overview The goal of the whole evalua?on session should be clear. The goals of the whole evalua?on process are:
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-‐Validate the usefulness of the concept enhanced by improving quality of evalua?on process -‐Compare the usefulness of two solu?ons by evalua?ng the experience of two solu?ons can trigger, whether the comfort can be supported in such prac?ce. -‐Collect quan?ta?ve and qualita?ve data for users’ feedback and future improvement of the concept.
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a direct signal?
How to provide a better sense of time for sibling children while their waiting for their parents who are away to take care of the new baby?
a narrative signal?
Evalua.on
Procedure Version
Version1
Version2
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To realize the general evalua?on setup with a proper process
To validate and improve the evalua?on process
To have a qualita?ve data
To have quanta?ve data
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-‐Define the evalua?on methods, designed a general evalua?on process -‐Put together 3 evalua?on tools(two physical prototypes, scenario cards, ques?onnaires)
-‐Designed a specified evalua?on plan -‐Designed a visualized introduc?on -‐Made consent form -‐Improved prototypes and improved scenario -‐Contact possible par?cipants
-‐Conducted co-‐ construc?ng stories methods with mothers playing different social roles in the community who have siblings -‐Conducted usability ques?onnaire survey -‐Make a Dutch scenario video
-‐Conducted usability ques?onnaire survey -‐Collect data gained from the evalua?on process
Pilot sessions with 2 par?cipants (Doctor Sidarto, Coach Wei chen)
TU/e or former TU/e students from crea?ve industry
Goal
Ac.vi.es
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Par.cipants
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Version3
!4 siblings’ mothers
related to the context
Version4
6 siblings’ mothers related to the context
Evalua.on/ Version 1 Goals To build the evalua?on tools and set up a proper evalua?on process. I expect to realize the general setup and methodologies for my evalua?on process.
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Ac.vi.es Two mee?ng were made with Doctor Sidarto (expert in the basic context) and Coach Wei Chen (working in the project Smart Health, skilled in research process). By introducing them the basic context and my evalua?on plan, I expected to ask them how the sessions can be improved and obtain their feedback on my evalua?on tools and the evalua?on plans.
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Reflec.ons -‐Coach Wei Chen raised the co-‐design methods to me and helped me to get the basic understanding on the evalua?on process. Interview with Doctor Sidarto helped me to check my ques?onnaires and he suggested that some ques?ons in the ques?onnaire were not suitable and should be changed or le1 out. They suggested that the scenario cards could be made into a scenario video so that the ?me can be more simplified and people can understand it more easily.
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Coach feedback -‐The setup of the prototypes can be more considered (hide the wires, add the switch). -‐Introduc?on about myself and the scenario should be added which could make the par?cipants understand what the context is and how the process will go more easily. -‐It may be difficult for a freshman who also have the language barrier to find the target group, asked me to find the related users as soon as possible, recommended me some relevant people and places to ask.
Evalua.on/Version 2
Co-‐construc.ng stories method Introduc.on Co-‐construc?ng stories is a par?cipatory design technique to elicit in-‐depth user feedback and sugges?ons. [12] The technique consists of two parts: Sensi?za?on and elabora?on(figure 1) . The sensi?za?on part starts by a basic fic?onal story told by the designer to introduce the context and set a stage for dialogue. By asking whether the par?cipant recognizes the story, why or why not, the designer aims to evoke relevant past experiences, which enriches the designer’s understanding of the context. The second part introduced the concept in an envisioned context. The designer will ask the user to envision the story together and encourage dialogue. As a result, the designer and user co-‐construct rich stories about the use of the concept in poten?al future use context.
Construc.ng the story Emily is a 6-‐year-‐old liQle girl. She is living with her papa & mama happily in a house. Someday, her mother tells Emily she is going to have a cute liQle brother soon because mama is pregnant again. A1er the liQle brother is born, Emily visits the baby hospital with her father. Emily finds out that mama begins to have less ?me with her because mama need to take care of the liQle brother. In the evening, Emily used to have her mother read her favorite book with her. When Emily finds her mama, mama is leaving home. And mama tells Emily that she has to look a1er the liQle baby in hospital, and mama promises Emily that she will come back in 30 minutes. (figure 2)
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Sensi?za?on
Elabora?on figure 1
figure 2: Scenario cards
Evalua.on/Version 2 Design ques.onnaire The ques?onnaires was made to collect quan?ta?ve data of the evalua?on session and compare the usefulness of two solu?ons. The fist part of the ques?onnaires is valida?ng the general usefulness of the concept in the aspects of perspicuity, efficiency, aQrac?veness, s?mula?on and novelty, which contains pairs of contras?ng aQributes that reflect par?cipants’ impressions on the concept. The second part contains four ques?ons related to specific hospital context, aiming at compare the specific func?ons of the solu?ons. (figure 1)
figure 1
Reflec.on for the version 2 —This session is to specify , validate and improve the evalua?on process. From people’s feedback, the introduc?on can have more clear purpose and beQer explained to the par?cipants. And some misleading statements should be corrected in the ques?onnaires. —when building the evalua?on tools, efforts were made to contact the suitable par?cipants for my evalua?on process. —Since I’m totally not familiar with the new environment here, I faced huge difficulty in searching for the suitable par?cipants. I consulted many friends, relevant people and the local family I thought could be helpful for me to gain valuable contact informa?on and I tried to contact several organiza?ons, such as the TU/e Daycare, De Kinderkamer Eindhoven and IWCEindhoven. It has been such a struggle for me but many knowledge and lesson have been learned from the experience. — I had a bad habit to doubt and think for a long ?me what I had already done, and trid to “change” and “redo” it before. When I was making my plan and evalua?on tools at first, I automa?cally performed the bad habit, and I received the feedback from the coach that I should s?ck to the plan and tools. “Don’t hesitate and stay in place” is what I have learned during this session.
Co-‐construc.ng stories evalua.on
Evalua.on/Version 3
Goal The goal in this version is [a]to enrich designer’s understanding of users and the use contexts. [b]to beQer elicit feedback about the concept. The data will be used as the qualita?ve data for the evalua?on session.
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Par.cipants 4 mothers playing different social roles in the community who have sibling children(figure 1) a. Lian, siblings’ mother from a local family b. Astrid, nurse from MMC c. Esther, kids’ teacher(expert) from De Kindergarten d. Yuan Lu, ID staff from TU/e
! figure 1: four mother par.cipants
Ac.vity By conduc?ng co-‐construc?ng stories method, interviews were made with par?cipants coming from target user group. Each of the interview takes around 30 mins and the process recordings or videos. Their feedback were documented using notes, recordings and videos. The data was collected for next session of analysis to validate the research assump?on.
! figure 2: sketch the stories
Determining test tasks for mothers Mothers will be shown the scenario cards about a context stories, and will be non-‐directly interviewed during the process, they will be shown to 2 types of solu?ons, they will be asked to sketch. (figure 2)
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Evalua.on/Version 3 Procedure Step1: introduce the background of the research and evalua?on process.
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Hi, I’m a master student studying in the industrial design department of TU/e, you can call me Yijun. Now I’m working on a project for siblings of the babies with special health concerns(like premature) in hospitals. You know parents usually have to spend lots of ?me taking care of the liQle baby, especially when the baby has some special health concerns(like premature). So siblings may face a “Trauma of separa?on” and a sense of neglect when their liQle brothers& sisters come out. So here I would like to do research to find out a beaer solu.on to help mother comfort their siblings when their parents are away to take care of the younger baby in the hospital. In the process, first I would like to show you one story that may also have happened in your life, then I will show you 3 other fic.onal stories, during the process, I will ask some ques.ons around my topic and make you join in the design. Since I’m a Chinese student who comes from totally different language background and it might be difficult for me to cross two language barriers. If something you find you cannot understand, don’t hesitate to ask me again. Hope you can enjoy this research, which can be very helpful for me. figure 2: introduc.on to mothers
Step2: show the basic fic?onal story like the scenario cards. (whether he recognizes the story, why or why not. engage in a dialogue with the user, through non-‐direc?ve ques?ons, aiming to evoke relevant past experiences.encourages the user to supplement the basic story with real life contents)
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Step3: show the designer’s fic?onal stories (2 concepts) in envisioned context with 2 prototypes videos. Elicits posi?ve and nega?ve feedbacks about the concept by asking what the user liked and disliked in the story.
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Step4: asks the par?cipants to envision how the story would be like if the main character in the story were the user himself (sketch the situa?ons he envisions, while he is thinking aloud ).
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Step5: interviewed to find out how they experienced the session and ask their sugges?ons for future improvement.
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Evalua.on/Version 3 !
figure 3: Scenario video
Reflec.on —The par?cipants stated that the context was not only suitable for the background of premature, but also serve for the context with families having normal children. Since it can be quite usual in their daily life when their mothers are away for a while and the children have to wait for their mothers to come back, although they suggested that the real context could be different than what people had expected. —Because of my language problems and unfamiliarity with the evalua?on, it some?mes takes more ?me than I expected to finish the evalua?on process, which may lead to some impa?ence and misunderstandings of my par?cipants. It’s possible to shorten the process ?me by briefing, improving and prac?cing the introduc?on, which can help the par?cipants more easily understand what they are going to do for the evalua?on process. Lian recommended me to make a pitch and clock the ?me, she advised me to bring focus on my scope and explain myself as clear as possible. —Coach Yuan Lu advised me to use why-‐how-‐what methods to tease out my logic when I made presenta?ons to the par?cipants. —There were s?ll space for prototype to be more clear and well-‐arranged for the par?cipants. —An improved scenario video, which was recorded in a clear Dutch language, was suggested to replace the scenario cards to save ?me and make myself more easily understood.（figure 3)
Evalua.on/Version 4
Usability ques.onnaire survey A-‐ house B-‐ hour glass
mothers
1st
2nd
1.Inger Becker
A
B
2.Brenda Lim
B
A
3.Natasja van der Velden
A
B
4.Jolande
B
A
5.Chen hang
A
B
6.Ting Ting
B
A
figure 1: pseudo–La.n Square approach
Goal The goal of this version is to collect the quan?ta?ve data for the evalua?on session by evalua?ng and comparing the usefulness of two concepts.
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Hypothesis Abstract objects which are innovated from its normal look can somehow trigger children’s curiosity. Therefore it’s assumed that the ligh?ng hourglass can beQer help the kids to distract their aQen?on and get comforted when their mothers are way. However, kids show a lot of interest in “stories”, so they may beQer understand the signal of a more narra?ve object.
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Par.cipants Since there are currently suitable siblings’ mothers of premature in the hospital, 6 mothers who have sibling children from 6 families. 4 of them are found in Tennishal Eindhoven-‐Noord, a tennis campus. And 2 of them worked on the online ques?onnaire.
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Approach ques?onnaire& observa?on
! figure 2: survey par.cipants
Ac.vity Mothers will be shown the scenario cards, then they will be shown to 2 prototypes, and asked to fill in two ques?onnaires.
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Evalua.on/Version 4
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Sum method Circles of each line scores from 1-‐7
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Usability Perspicuity: clear-‐confusing AQrac?veness: aQrac?ve-‐unaQrac?ve Novelty: innova?ve-‐conserva?ve S?mula?on: mo?va?ng-‐demo?va?ng Efficiency: prac?cal-‐imprac?cal
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Clear signal Q1 Comfort children Q2 Q3 Raise mothers’ awareness Q4
figure 1: ques.onnaire sample for solu.on 1
Results
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Results Knowledge gained from the sibling children’s mother Qualita.ve data Two types of data were collected through the evalua?on session. The quan?ta?ve data is collected by invi?ng 10 par.cipants to fill in 2 usability ques.onnaires for 2 prototypes. The par?cipants were invited to rate each feature and statements with points ranging from 1 to 7 to express their opinion of the usefulness of 2 concepts and use the collected data to compare 2 concepts. The result will be organized into column graphics illustra?ng the usefulness of 2 concepts to make compara.ve data visualiza?on.
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Qualita.ve data Qualita.ve data was collected during conduc.ng co-‐construc.ng stories methods with 4 par.cipants, who gave diverse opinions on context, impressions of the prototypes, requirements and sugges?ons to improve the concepts. The interviews were recorded. The data was also gained from the ques.onnaire surveys. When filling the ques?onnaires, the par?cipants were guided to think aloud and explain the mo?va?on of the answers they gave for the statements. Feedback they provided was listed as a part of the qualita?ve data to show their opinion towards the topics of usefulness. Some of the most interes?ng and inspiring feedback from the par?cipants are highlighted in the following session.
Results A. ligh?ng hour glass B. ligh?ng house
Usefulness
! Clear(%)
attrative(%)
innovative(%)
motivating(%)
practical(%)
100
100
100
100
100
80
80
80
80
80
60
60
60
60
60
40
40
40
40
40
20
20
20
20
20
A
B
Perspicuity “Of course the signal is
“I think the contrast on
A
B
AQrac?veness
A
B
A
Novelty
“It will be more well designed if it has more struc-
-
like the concept of moun-
B
A
B
S?mula?on
Efficiency
“I can use this item and make the children to play so that they can forget the
“It’s very suitable for the child who cannot read the
“I’m afraid it might be damaged by the kids easily because they always want
Reflec.ons A direct solu?on can show more clear and dis?nct signal for the kids so it might be more mo?va?ng and prac?cal for the kids. A narra?ve solu?on has more vivid context and is more story-‐telling, so it can be more appealing to the kids. When considered efficiency, mothers have taken materials into account, so they find hour glass will be more suitable for a young kid.
Results A. ligh?ng hour glass B. ligh?ng house
Usefulness
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clear signal(%)
reduce anxiety(%)
raise awareness(%)
100
100
100
80
80
80
60
60
60
40
40
40
20
20
20
A clear signal
B
A
B
comfort siblings
A
B
raise mothers’ awareness
Reflec.on For the func?onality about 3 aspects: clear signal, comfort siblings to reduce siblings’ anxiety and raise mothers’ awareness, the general score of solu?on A is higher than B. From the graphics, the signal of the ligh?ng hour glass is very straighdorward and dis?nct, and the mothers suggested that the signal ligh?ng house can be stronger. And the mothers agree that they can be reminded to play with the children by two types of visualiza?on to some degree. Nega?ve comments come from the doubt that whether the visualiza?on of ?me can take the place of physical contact of the mothers. Also mothers think it’s very hard for some young children to wait, so situa?ons can vary quite different from person to person.
Results Processing qualita.ve data
! A1er the evalua?on, qualita?ve data of the feedback is collected to gain diverse opinions on context, impressions of the prototypes, requirements and sugges?ons to improve the concepts. The data is finally analyzed and listed in 3 aspects: context, concepts and improvements in the following session. (figure 1)
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The data is gained mainly through two parts of the evalua.on: -‐through the co-‐construc?ng stories methods, interview the par?cipants. (figure 2) -‐during the ques?onnaire survey, guid them to think aloud.
I believe nothing can be more important than a person to comfort the kid. Kids will be disappointed if someat the time, they will be panic.
PARTICIPANTS
Esther, Kid expert Astrid, MMC nurse
Context Concept Improvement
You cannot avoid the situation of separation. The parents will be tired and the routine of siblings has to change.
especially for the toddlers, which can help to teach them about the waiting. Now the routine has to change because of the new baby, it might be a great hurt for the child.
figure 1: collected feedback
I think it might be better to picture out where and what my mummy is doing while waiting.
figure 2: feedback gained from the co-‐construc.ng stories method with 4 par.cipants
Results Processing qualita.ve data
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Context
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“It’s realis.c, you cannot avoid the situa?on of separa?on. ”
! Posi?ve
“It serves many situa.on.”
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“I will use it to tell the child when the hour glass is empty I will have ?me so child will know how long he has to wait or play with himself.”
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Neutral
“Children need rou.nes. You have to figure out what is the rou?ne everyday. For example, the kid needs her mother to read story with her at 7:30, but now the rou?ne has to change because of the new baby, so it might be a great hurt for the child.”
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“The only way I will use it is when I’m physically in the house and I’m just to do something else.”
! Nega?ve
“The situa?on is different than you thought; one minute can be enough long for a liale kid.”
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“I believe nothing can be more important than a person to comfort the child.”
Results Processing qualita.ve data
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Concepts
“I like the concepts. They are aQrac?ve.”
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“The concepts can be very useful and suitable for a liQle child, General especially for the toddlers, some?mes they have to wait but it’s opinions difficult for the children to wait, so this can help to teach them on two about the wai.ng.” concepts
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“Kids will be disappointed if something they expect doesn’t happen at the ?me, they will be panic.”
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“ I prefer the hourglass because it’s more designed.”
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Opinions “ For a liQle child, abstract objects can be interes.ng, because the on ligh?ng kids usually don’t know many things so they will grow curious about hour glass it.”
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“ The abstract one should have more dynamic changes, don’t be too sta?c, in that way the kids may loose concentra?on.”
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Opinions “ For a 3-‐6 years old kid who can understand the stories, on ligh?ng narra?ve one may be a good op?ons, since it has meaning and house the kids can understand it.
Results Processing qualita.ve data
! Improvements
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“ I think it’s beQer to make them witch their focus on something else, you can make a book telling a story relevant to the prototypes. So children can read the book quietly while wai?ng for their mothers to come back. And they will know that their mothers will come back to read the book with them.”
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“ It’s also difficult to exactly plan the ?me, so it can be shown that the mother is already on her way. You can make some gradua.ons on the concepts to show different periods of .me.”
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“ I think maybe it’s beQer to picture out where my mummy is and what my mummy is doing while wai.ng, like pos?ng a picture of the baby in the incubator, so that the kids can track their mothers. And also a signal to show my mummy is “almost home” if they will be a liQle late.”
Results
Overall conclusion
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Answer to research ques.on The mother par?cipants agree on the context, some siblings’ mothers have pointed out that there are many familiar scenes happening in their daily life, when they have to something else and keep the children wai?ng for a while. They regard the concepts as a useful tool to make the kids learn how to wait.
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For the usefulness, the visualiza?ons of ?me have poten?al in helping the sibling children have a good sense of ?me while they are wai?ng for their mothers to come back and play with them. The par?cipants regard the abstract signal( ligh?ng hour glass) as more dis?nct and efficient one, and think the narra?ve signal can be interes?ng, inspiring, have more vivid stories for sibling children. However, most of the mothers doubt whether the object can replace the physical contact. So some “bonus” or compensa?on can be made by combining the physical contact with their children a1erwards.
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Future poten.als Most of the par?cipants understand the mo?va?on but some of them don’t accept the current concepts. During the evalua?on, various ideas have been given on how to improve the concepts, and there is s?ll huge space to improve the concepts and the prototypes.
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Based on the research having been done, the research can go on for a more specified hospital context for the siblings’ of the premature. The following research can cast more focus on the bondings among family, sibling kid, and the premature.
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Also, the focus can be switched to a more usual context. To explore how to provide the children a beQer sense of ?me when they are wai?ng for their mothers to spend ?me with them.
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Dynamic interac?ons can be explored to provide the kids a beQer sense of ?me, and it’s possible for the kid to track what their mother is doing and where is the mother to enhance the bonding between them. Also, it can be considered to combine the abstract signal with a narra?ve tool when providing the children a beQer sense of wai?ng ?me.
Reflec.on of this semester New environment: Cross culture I have joined the 3+2 program between TU/e and Zhejiang University and just arrived in Eindhoven in September. Everything has come so fast to me. This semester is a brand new environment for me to experience different culture and I have found the educa?on system is quite different from which in my bachelors’ university.
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It’s amazing that I can have the opportuni?es to live in a totally different cultural environment and it’s like to discover unknown land, and I find it interes?ng to communicate with people from a different culture background and see the similari?es we share and the differences we own.
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This semester I experienced some confusions, depress and sufferings, but also some sense of accomplishment. Parts of the challenges come from my language barriers and the cultural gap, some?mes I have found it hard to find the words to explain myself clearly, especially when conduc?ng a research project. Some senior students have told me “the more you suffered, next semester you will find more surprise.” and I believe in it, I have tried to cross the cultural difference and I’m glad that I handled the most of it. Although I think I can do more if I could more quickly adapted to the environment here, I have the confidence that with the poten?als and my power and passion I can do beQer next semester.
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Reflec.on of this semester !
New role: researcher rather than a designer The biggest challenge also comes from my research project. Since the 3+2 program come very late and I come here in September, I didn’t choose the project by myself and I had very limited choices in choosing the modules. A1er coming here, I found myself “have no skills in research” at all. I didn’t know how to work on a whole research process and didn’t know how to use the methodologies systema?cally. In my bachelors’ study, I always like to figure out how to come up with good ideas and create good design, my team and I also have won several prizes in some interna?onal design compe??ons, but it’s the first ?me I review myself as a researcher. During my research, I suffered a lot in finding the suitable par?cipants, both because I’m a new student with language barriers, and I focus on suppor?ng the sibling children. Thanks to my coach to push me go on my research and I also tried my best to make great efforts, finally I found enough samples for my evalua?on. And now I know a good researching skill is also a fundamental quality for a good designer.
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New agtude towards study This semester is my first ?me to hear the word “pro-‐ac?ve”. Chinese students are usually shy and I’m a kind of person that prefer to be in a modest way. This semester I find the designers should have the capacity both to create and to present themselves. Also as I enter the new environment I feel it’s a good experience to be pro-‐ac?ve and I’m eager and curious to learn something new. I always believe the most important quality of a good designer is open-‐minded. I will keep adap?ng this aytude in my future study.
Plan for next semester A social-‐cultural spreader From cultural things we talk and learn from the past to get spirits, inspira?ons and resonances. In China, I have found it an amazing experience to explore cultural area. As I come to the Netherlands this semester, the feeling for me to value more on cultural perspec?ve grow stronger. I see how the people here value and preserve their culture and as for me, I reckon it’s the designers’ responsibility to inherit and spread culture to people all over the world. So next semester, I will keep on the explora?on to the social-‐cultural aspect and try to be a cultural spreader that can make special cultural charm to other people.
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Envision to the digital world !As the world enters a info-‐explosive era and now it’s ?me of mobile Internet, I see the huge power in digital interac?on. So next semester, I may make !explora?ons in this direc?on.
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Tackle the language problem This semester I have found it some?mes hard to explain myself clearly in another language. So next semester I will prac?ce more on the language barriers. Also, I think I s?ll have some stage fright and a liQle reluctant to make a presenta?on in front of people, next semester, I will be more pro-‐ac?ve and try to overcome the language barrier.
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Acknowledgement
Acknowledgement
First of all, I would like to thank all the testers that have par?cipated in my evalua?on sessions. I really appreciate their willingness to help me finish my evalua?on process. It’s their efforts that help me finish my evalua?on process successfully.
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Secondly, the researchers and experts who gave me valuable advices on the research project. They are doctor Sidarto Bambang Oetomo, nurse Astrid Osagiator, TU/e staff of the ID department Wei Chen and Yuan Lu. Their profession has helped me gain insights in the research direc?ons and grow knowledge on the research methodologies.
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I also want to thank for the students who have offered me great help during the process. They are the master students Stefan Manojlović, Carlijn Valk, Marjolein Schets, who work in the same project with me; Michiel Ruben Wolters, the senior TU/e student who worked in the project relevant to the siblings’ issue; And Schets Mikke Leenders and Selma Elezović , who offered me great help in finding suitable par?cipants in this totally new environment.
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Last but not least, great thank to my coach Loe Feys, who helped me get familiar with the new environment, give me valuable advices on my project and technical issues and push me go on the evalua?on process.
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Reference
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References: 1. Denise A. Hines, Glenda K. Kantor, Melissa K. Holt(2006)Similari?es in siblings’ experiences of neglecdul paren?ng behaviors. Child Abuse & Neglect. 30, 619–637
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2. Judy Dunn(1992)Siblings and development. Current direc4ons in psychological science. 1, 6-‐9
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3. Koa Whiyngham , Roslyn N. Boyd , MaQhew R. Sanders, Paul Colditz(2013)Paren?ng and Prematurity: Understanding Parent Experience and Preferences for Support.[online] 4. Claudia Camhi(2006)Siblings of premature babies: Thinking about their experience. Infant Observa4on: Interna4onal Journal of Infant Observa4on and Its Applica4ons, 8:3, 209-‐233, DOI: 10.1080.[online] 5. Mary Anne Trause, Michelle BosleQ, Diana Voos, CarolyniRudd, J:hn Kennell. Marshall Klaus.(1977) A birth in the hospitals: the effect on the sibling. Early home interven4on to improve mothering of premature.11(4) 6. M. Barrera, C. F. Fleming and F. S. Khan(2003) The role of emo?onal social support in the psychological adjustment of siblings of children with cancer. [online]
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7. Katherine Jewsbury Conger, Laurie Kramer(2010) Introduc?on to the special sec?on: Perspec?ve on sibling Rela?onships: Advancing child development research, Child Development Perspec4ves. 4(2), 69-‐71.
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8. Bonnie Lashewicz, Norah Kea?ng(2009) Tensions among siblings in parent care, Eur J Ageing. 6:127– 135 DOI 10.1007.[online]
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9. CHOP (2013) Brothers + Sisters, Tools to help children when a sibling is sick. The Children’s’ Hospital of Philadelphia [online]
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10. Elizabeth A. Mar?n, Tanya A. McFerran. (2014) A dic?onary of nursing.
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11. Bella Mar?n, Bruce Hanington(2012)Universal Methods of design.
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12. Derya Ozcelik Buskermolen, Jacques Terken(2012) Co-‐construc?ng stories: a par?cipatory design technique to elicit in-‐depth user feedback and sugges?ons about design concepts. 13. Beyna Laugwitz, Theo Held, and Mar?n Schrepp(2008) Construc?on and Evalua?on of a User Experience Ques?onnaire, USAB. 63–76. 14. Inge Brandt(2010)The influence of rhythmic changes in ligh?ng on breathing rhythm and relaxa?on. 15. Jiryung Ahn, Margot Filipenko(2007) Narra?ve, Imaginary Play, Art, and Self: Intersec?ng Worlds, Early Childhood Educa4on Journal. 34(4). 16. Ilpo Koskinen John Zimmerman, Binder Johan Redstrom, Stephan Wensveen (2010)Design research through prac?ca: from the lab, field, and showroom. 17. Panos Markopoulds, Janet Read, Stuart Macfarlane, Johanna Hoysniemi. Evalua?ng children’s interac?ve products. 18. Shao?ng Gu(2014) Report: A possible way to support reflec?on and achievement in mobile photography
Appendix
ques.onnaires
Poster on final demo
Poster on final demo
Consent  form
Yijun Yu s141734 Coach: Loe Feys Project: DPG71 Baby@home Sep, 2014- Jan,2015
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