Storybloks.
2020
An interactive storytelling activity designed for Speech Therapists and their clients to use during Speech Disorder assessments as a way to improve data collection through better engagement.
Overview
The current process for evaluating speech disorders is time consuming, distracting, and disorganized for Speech Therapists. It is also a boring process for the clients.
This project is designed to better capture essential data with increased efficiency and more effectively engage clients through well integrated and enjoyable Interactions.
Project Details
Project Skills: Design Research, User Testing, Process Execution, Systems Thinking, UI/UX Design
Duration: 8 Months
Approach
From Interviews and Surveys, I gathered insights on the activities and processes that take place during the evaluation and treatment of speech disorders. I found the current process of data collection when evaluating for Speech Disorders is time consuming, distracting and disorganized for the Speech Therapist.
The Evaluation Experience
This is a the typical experience of a speech therapist evaluating a client for a speech disorder. The process can last between 45 minutes to 2 hours depending on the child's age and their attention span. The evaluation begins with interviews with guardians to establish a baseline and gather insights, and then playtime with the child to identify any behavioral anomalies.
Key Findings
The note-taking process during assessments is disorganized, and the need to get organized makes maintaining a clients attention difficult for the therapists.
How might we more effectively collect notes, and retain the attention of the clients through interactions?
How Positive Distraction can help
Positive distraction can be defined as “A feature that elicits positive feelings and holds attention without taxing or stressing the individual, thereby blocking worrisome thoughts." By applying this logic to speech evaluations, Positive distractions would allow for better enagement during evaluations.
Ideation
Ideation sketching was focused primarily on fulfilling the wants and needs of the users, while reframing current equipment as interactive and positively distracting tools to more effectively collect data
Iteration
Once the general concept of interactive storytelling was established, different forms were sketched and modeled to find test different tangible interactions. The idea of a connected block system was selected and 3D printed for scale, and shown to my users for validation and feedback.
The Storybloks Concept
The solution is based on two key activities - Building and Story-telling. The user experience model shows how a therapist and their client would collaborate to build their favorite stories. The visual cues on the blocks and iPad app allow for the therapist to speak with the client to trigger vocal cues and gather insights about potential speech disorders. The microphones on the blocks record and analyze all the data into a client profile on the app. This system makes the data collection and viewing experience more interactive and enjoyable for both therapists and their clients.
The Blocks
Each block represents a scene in the story. Together, the Speech therapist and their client can work together to connect the blocks and watch their favorite stories move across the displays.
1. Silicone Cases surround each block to offer durability and protection to the internal components, as well as prevent injury to the children interacting with them.
2. Magnetic Connection pins on each of the Storybloks introduce a seamless and enjoyable building experience for both the client and the therapist, and allows for the displays to communicate with each other.
3. Embedded speakers vocalize the stories, and microphones in the blocks work to collect essential vocal data from the clients for the speech therapists to further analyze
The Dock
A Portable dock allows for the blocks to be stored and carried easily between session to session. Pass through charging due to the magnets on each storyblok allows for power to be pushed to each piece through a USB-C port on the back of the dock.
Storybloks App
The Companion App is the dashboard for the Storybloks system. It allows the client to pick which story they would like to build, and visualizes all of the collected data in one place for the speech therapist
App Demo
Click through to experience the Storybloks app
Video
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