Thera Bear
A home integrated physical therapy system for kids
Skills Used: Sketching, User Research, Physical Prototyping, Solid Works Surfacing, Keyshot.
Current System User Mapping
When you see physical or occupational therapy at Children’s Hostipal, you recieve home exercises. To access your home exercise program, you can either view the exercises on a print out they give you at the end of your appopiment or you can use an online patient portal.
Cincinnati Childrens currently uses MedBridge for the perscribed home exercises for both physical and occupational therapy.
Accessing MedBridge for your exercises is inefficient, as it is not linked to MyChart and has each program in a different online patient portals.
The program is sterile, uninviting, boring and unengaging.
Problem
Inaccessible
Confusing
Unengaging
How might we engage kids from the ages of three to eight with chronic
health issues with a home system that simply explains exercises in an exciting
manner to increase adherence to prescribed home physical therapy programs?
What
Why
Who
Persona
Research
Gabrielle Hausfeld, PT, DPT
Gamifying the physical therapy experience would help increase adherence.
“I love the idea of gamifying things. That’s traditionally a really hard concept for not only parents, but also us as a physical therapist”
“Coming up with games is 90% of the barrier [to compliance]”
A gamified exercise library would be a helpful resource for parents and physical therapists alike.
“Having a resource where theres more ideas to give families like that, that would be really beneficial”
Amanda Holland, OTR/L
Creating a more user friendly online experience is vital to increasing home use.
“I feel like a lot of people I feel like dont use the digital version, they’re just using the paper, but I think its because it’s not super user friendly”
To increase pediatric adherence, a characterized and fun set up is important to engage the child with their therapies.
“I think it would be more child friendly and more motivating if it were some sort of character or something”
“If they were to use the app at home, you can see the picture or even the little video animation of that movement”
Task Analysis
Design Goals
Simple
Ease of use encourages independent completion.
Organizes the exercises into one place to ease feeling overwhelmed by quantity and different locations.
Approachable
Intuitive use by the parent and child for a seamless home integration.
Gamified System
Motivates child to do exercises and prevents boredom through exercises.
Concept Evaluation
Solution
New gamified user interface
Bear
Thera Bear
Final Form Inspiration
Simple Organic Form
Animal Characteristics
Soft Silicone Touchpoints
Form development
Evaluative Research
Ability to hold and maneuver device
8 yo
Ease of access to and ability to push buttons
Conclusions:
UI buttons are a good size. Volume buttons can be downscaled. Entire form can be downscaled by 1/3.
Ease of access to and ability to push UI buttons
3 yo
Design Revisions
Reduce scale by 1/3
Do not inset screen or speakers
Ears, nose, legs and arms in the same form language
Integrate ON button closer to UI
