Lindsay’s 2030 experience
Accessibility
Research has shown that ‘free pass’ schemes where a form of identification is shown to allow qualifying families access to programmes are often a barrier to the families that services are trying to draw in. These schemes can make more vulnerable families feel exposed and othered. Sometimes the desire to avoid this stigma outweighs the familes need for the service.
Dietary Support
An important insight from an expert during a feedback session was that a persons diet is largely influenced by their ethnicity and preferred cuisine.
During my interview with early-years dietician Elaine, I was also made aware that a key component in a healthy diet is whether a person is willing to try cooking and eating new things. This comes down to confidence, next to having the resources neccesary to cook.
To have an impact on a person’s health, the system needs to know what that persons preffered cuisine is and encourage them to try new healthy meals that are based on that cuisine.
To build the users’ confidence, the system will provide healthy recipes based on the user’s preffered cuisine, with recipes catagorised into confidence levels 1, 2 and 3. This will empower the user to try something new.
This idea of participant data being used to continuously improve the system is only useful if the participnt feels comfortable sharing personal issues within their group. For this we need to rely on the informal bonds that occur within parent groups between regular attendees. People feel comfortable sharing personal struggles and obstacles with people they know have their best interests at heart. From research, I’ve gathered that those attending parent groups gain a lot of support from other attendees and many maintain friendships outwith their group.
The system will detect when users may be having issues or struggling through changes in shopping habbits, or the user not attending their family support programmes etc.
What if the future system understood these friendships not just as an bonus outcome to group sessions, but as a safe and confidential method of data gathering?
Noting that the user may be in need of help, the system will send out a noninvasive enquiry, asking how the user is, and are they in need of any help?
Help from a friend
System enquiry
In 2020 the stigma of presenting items like ‘free pass’ cards at the beginning of sessions acts as a barrier to accessing services for those who need them the most. 2030’s Family Support Network will have a membership system for services within the area. Those entitled to access programmes for free will be able to do so discreetly, without feeling singled out.
Lindsay’s attendance in these family support programmes will allow her to develop friendships with other young families and, over time, community support on on a peer-to-peer basis.
Stores have used collected data from Lindsays previous shops to continuously update and improve their understanding of what Lindsay likes to eat. The system uses this information to update the ‘Recipe Ideas’ section of Lindsays app, that is located within her shopping list notes.
Next time Lindsay is making her shopping list on the app, she decides to check out the Recipe Ideas icon that appears at the bottom of the screen.
The system has three confidence levels for Lindsay to choose from. This is so that parents and guardians within the system who want to eat healthier, but are new to cooking, can build their confidence and feel empowered to learn new skills, without being thrown in the deep end.
For example, stores have noticed that Lindsay often buys frozen pizzas, jars of tomato sauce high in sugar, pasta and cheese. This indicates to the system that Lindsay enjoys Italian food, and so it tailors it’s recipe ideas to suit her taste.
Lindsay is new to cooking, so chooses confidence level 1. The app shows her meals that she is likely to be familiar with/enjoy, based on her shopping habbits. Since Lindsay buys a lot of Italian-style frozen meals etc, the app shows her healthy italian meals with easy quick prep and cook times, like bruschetta; pesto pasta with veg and “pizza” ciabatta.
Lindsay decides to try making the “pizza” ciabatta. It’s rated high by other parents and guardians in the network who have tried it. The recipe ingredients are automatically added to her shopping list.
Some of the recipes are provided by supermarkets, and some are recipes uploaded by other parents and guardians in the network. Recipes are rated by other other users who have tried them so Lindsay feels confident that what she tries should taste good.
When Lindsay gets home from the shops, she tries cooking for herself for the first time. She follows the recipe with a tutorial filmed by the user who uploaded the recipe.
While shes still on maternity leave, Lindsay find’s a playgroup in her area and takes Sam to it. She meet’s other young mums like her and learns a lot from the more experienced mums in the group. As Lindsay continues to go to the playgroup, she builds friendships with the other mums and the people who run the group.
Lindsay is feeling isolated and depressed. Sam’s dad was back in the picture, and had been living with her and helping with bills, but has left again. Lindsay is overwhelmed by the loss and by mounting bills, and her maternity leave pay is coming to an end. She is scared and doesn’t know where to turn. Lindsay end’s up missing playgroup sessions, and buying comfort food at the shop as well as ordering in. She knows she need’s help, but is scared of the legal reprecussion’s she might face for claiming single parent benifits while Sam’s dad was in the picture.
Dynamic Network
The system notices that Lindsay hasn’t been interacting with the Family Support System’s services and reaches out to beth in a non-invasive way, asking if she is okay, and does she require any help or links to services? Lindsay relays to the device that she needs some help, and it asks her to talk about what the issue is, so that it can direct her to the appropriate services. The conversation is recorded, with Lindsay’s permission and under the knowledge that the recording is anonymous.
Michelle, Lindsay’s close friend in the group also notices Lindsay’s absense from the group. She reaches out to Lindsay to see if she’s okay and they meet in a cafe to talk. Lindsay confides in Michelle about her ex boyfriend, the mounting bills and her fear of leaving Sam when she goes back to work.
A major selling point of this system is that it is self-developing through the feedback of its participants it continuously improves itself. For this to work, user’s need to feel that theyre in a safe space within services. Through research I found that having different group organisers at sessions means that users don’t tend to develop bonds with people who work in family services. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. User’s typically develop bonds/friendships with outher users within programmes.
Routine meetings within parenting groups, playgroups, breastfeeding classes etc etc, where participants feel safe among fellow users to share their experiences, knowing that this information is helping to better the services for young families to come.
Michelle wants to help Lindsay, but when trying to comfort her, Michelle realises that she doesn’t have the knowledge to help Lindsay in any real way, aside from listening to her.
Participants need to be able to see what is happening with their feedback and how it is contributing to the development of the system. They need to feel empowered that their feedback is important and treated with respect.
Users can upload feedback and pictures of recipes they tried, maybe with tips on how they adapted it.
Empowered and involved
Lindsay is proud of how her meal turned out, she uploads a picture of her dinner along with a short review. She tells users that she added chillies and peppers to give the pizza more of a kick.
Lindsay has access to the systems infograph on their website, which shows her what goals services are working todards, based on anonymous research stats and collective participant feedback. She see’s that, like her, many families are struggling to afford proffesional childcare for their children. 47% have reported trying to find family/friends to babysit as a source of frequent anxiety and work problems. Even knowing that her struggle is so common helps Lindsay to feel better. Changes in the buying habits of Support Network participants such as Lindsay will be recorded by supermarkets, and used to continuously inform the Network of how effectively it impacting the eating habits of young families.
The site tells Lindsay that the networks request for government funding to expand and improve childcare services has been accepted. This along with funds directed from network profits means that a subsidised childcare service will be opening in Lindsay’s area within the next few months.
“Paying it forward”
When Lindsay’s son Sam finishes nursery, she is no longer a participant in the Family Support system. She understands the value of the system’s support better than most, and is grateful for the friends she made within it.
She looks to her Family support system for advice on how she can help her friend. The interface provides Michelle with a list of links she can access aswell as contact information for system operators.
Lindsay tells the group about her returning to work and her inability to afford proper childcare for Sam. The group organiser tells Lindsay that this has been brought up a lot at playgroup feedback sessions. Profits from the family support systems yearly intake plus government funding is being used to create a cost-reduced childcare scheme for working parents/ guardians.
Users will be able to share recipes that they think may be helpful within confidence level catagories. They can also upload cooking tutorials, to help users following their recipe learn visually.
What if the people who worked in support services had direct experience of the system, having been a participant in it themselves? This could have a positive effect on the relationships workers have with participants, knowing that they have, to an extent, a shared experience. This network of ex-participants becoming kew workers and contact points within services would lead to more honest and open feedback from participants.
Group feedback sessions
Before her next meeting, Lindsay recieves a notification that her playgroup will be hosting its tri-monthly feedback session for an hour after their next playgroup. she attends the feedback session for her first time, where the organiser informs them, as she does every session, that their feedback is completely anonymous, and will be used to inform and improve the services that the participants are part of.
This idea of empowering the user should filter through the systemuser relationtionship to the user’s relationship with other participants within the network.
However, for the system to get real, honest feedback from participants, they need to feel comfortable sharing within their group and with everyone involved, including the organisers.
Lindsay applies to become apart of the networks “pay it forward” scheme, where former participants in the programme can train to become key workers within the system, funded by the system. Lindsay’s experience as a single mother, as well as her background in health care and working with people, make her an exemplary candidate for the Family Support Network. After Lindsay finishes her training, she is accepted for a breastfeeding expert in a community centre in Stevenston.
In her first class as an expert, Lindsay introduces herself to the group and shares her experiences with breast feeding and the issues she faced with it. She lets the group know that she is here to talk about any challenges they may be facing, and that she has their best interest at heart. Lindsay explains that group meeting are used as research to help improve and expand services within the network, and tells them of how the programme’s improvement’s helped her while she was in the system.