1. POVs & Experience Prototypes
Inclusive Design

2. Team
Helen Fang
Christian White
Varis Niwatsakul
Minna Xiao

3. Disabilities and Social Communities
In last week’s studio, we found that mental health was a challenging subject and that we lacked the medical, legal, and ethical backgrounds to properly address it . As a result, we spent the last week learning more about the experiences of people living with disabilities and other physical limitations. Using our interview with Alyssa as as starting point, we delved deeper into how different members of this group interact with their community and environment. Through their stories we worked to create solutions that would improve their social experiences with their peers and environment

4. Initial POV
Guiding our additional interviews this week, we looked at an initial POV from last week’s interview.

5. We met Alyssa, a former Stanford student, child of deaf adults, and American Sign Language instructor.
We were amazed to realize that people with disabilities were (unintentionally) excluded from community interactions and events.

6. It would be game changing if we could break down the barriers that prevented disabled and physically limited individuals from being fully included in their social communities and environments.

7. Additional Needfinding
To better understand the needs of these people, we conducted further need finding.

8. suffered countless injuries and had a lot of intensive PT experience.
We met Cam, a former Stanford track & field and cross country athlete who
suffered countless injuries and had a lot of intensive PT experience.
suffered countless injuries and had a lot of experience with PT, had to end up medically retiring at the end of his career because the trainers thought his body could not sustain more running

9. Cam
“...my season is over. That was really really hard for me. Teams in general can do a better job at really coming alongside one another and taking care each other. Not that I didn’t feel that with our team, but especially on the male team it’s just different. It’s a lot less common for people to come alongside and encourage one another.”
XC / Track & Field Athlete
We met Cam, an athlete who suffered a series of injuries that eventually forced him to medically retired.
We found 3 main themes stuck out to us from Cam’s interview. 1) He wanted more transparency in the PT process about effectiveness of treatments, a timeline for when he should expect to feel a certain way. 2)He looked for support from people outside of his team because he felt that after a certain point, that he could not talk about his injuries with his teammates. 3) Student-athlete identity as people really depends upon how well they do, somehow we want to give them outlets to succeed in other areas

10. We were amazed to find he did not have the medical or emotional support he needed throughout the physical therapy process
It would be game changing if Cam could have an open, transparent dialogue with his coach, trainer, and teammates during tough situations like injuries.
We found 3 main themes stuck out to us from Cam’s interview. 1) He wanted more transparency in the PT process about effectiveness of treatments, a timeline for when he should expect to feel a certain way. 2)He looked for support from people outside of his team because he felt that after a certain point, that he could not talk about his injuries with his teammates. 3) Student-athlete identity as people really depends upon how well they do, somehow we want to give them outlets to succeed in other areas

11. HMW: Increase transparency between trainers and athletes?
Solution: create an app where athletes/trainers can set milestones, and athletes can share those accomplishments with teammates

12. Experience prototype 1: Human Milestones
Assumption: Visualizing and celebrating personal milestones would help make the PT process more transparent and motivating.
Scene: Looking at her daily goals
Is encouraged along the way to her goals.
The reasoning behind this is that
Athletes/patients often didn’t understand the purpose or expected outcomes of exercises that trainers would recommend. This resulted in athletes feeling frustrated when they did not feel that they are making significant progress.
Having support from others is important (especially teammates) for morale and being motivated in PT.
We feel that this incorporated a lot of the themes that Cam was most passionate about when we interviewed him
Tested with Sarah because we wanted someone else who had extensive experience with PT, but was from a different sport (controlled for the impact that Cam’s team had, i.e. maybe other teams are more supportive) - took place at Lathrop, it was the most convenient for her

13. Human Milestones: Results
Worked:
liked the idea of human milestone which allowed her to celebrate small achievements and keep in touch with her close friends.
Didn’t Work:
Could have tailored it towards back injuries to keep it relevant and meaningful for her. Emphasize the small progress.
We tested this on Stanford Swimmer Sarah, who underwent PT because of extensive back and pelvic injuries.

14. Human Milestones: Results (cont.)
Surprises:
she was concerned about the visibility of sharing these milestones because she only wants to share her progress with a small group of people.
Learnings:
beyond quantifying milestones there was a social/personal aspect that really made a difference in making the user feel they are involved and taken care of along the process.

15. We met Janet Lewis, director of the Deaf Services of Palo Alto
and nationally-certified interpreter
We found 3 main themes stuck out to us from Janet’s interview
It is really difficult for deaf people to be involved in the workplace because meetings and other communicative activities often require an interpreter, which either in unavailable or there is lag in the conversation because of interpretation
Hearing people often do not address deaf people directly because they are used to talking with hearing people. This results in deaf individuals feeling excluded. For example...one of her clients told her to tell the deaf individual that the “meeting was at 3PM now”. She asked him to tell the deaf person this and she would interpret.
There is a shortage of qualified interpreters especially in the workplace. Some barriers include highly technical jargon, etc.
There are a lot of misconceptions about deaf people (assume deaf people are also mute which is not necessarily true)

16. We were amazed to find realize that deaf individuals face many social and communication obstacles in the corporate environment
It would be game changing if group-centric and conversation settings were equally accessible to deaf employees
Next we interviewed Janet Lewis, director of the Deaf Services of Palo Alto and nationally certified interpreter. From her experiences interpreting in Silicon Valley, hospitals, schools, etc., Janet expressed her frustrations about the numerous misconceptions about deaf people and the lack of interpreters. For example, she shared that people often didn’t give time for interpreters to interpret and allow deaf employees to respond. Hearing people would tell her to tell deaf employees that “the meeting is now at 3PM” instead of addressing them directly and allowing her interpret. We realized that there is a significant communication barrier for deaf people that prevents them from participating in meetings.

17. HMW: Better integrate deaf people to workplace meetings and conversations?
Solution: Create a real-time visualization/transcription of conversations
Create a real-time visualization/transcription of conversations that would allow deaf employees to more organically participate in conversations. WHY? This seemed like the best way out of those we came up with to help deaf employees stay in the moment in meetings and not get overlooked when it came time for their opinions to be heard

18. Experience Prototype 2
Assumption: Real-time transcriptions will allow deaf people to converse with others more organically.
App idea is that she can follow a meeting in real time, eliminating the lag that traditionally accompanies interpretations
We tested this with Alyssa over skype (because she lives remotely). We thought that she would be a great fit for testing because she understands firsthand the challenges that deaf people face. Our method, was essentially to run her through a meeting scenario, and imagine that she, as a deaf person, is using our app.

19. Real-Time Milestones: Results
Worked:
Liked that she could follow the conversation in real time.
Didn’t Work:
Conversions were hard to follow in text (people speak over each other, text loses facial cues, etc.)
Didn’t work:

20. Real-Time Milestones: Results (cont.)
Surprises:
Deaf people who didn’t speak English well were disadvantaged because they still need an interpreter, reintroducing lag.
Learnings:
Speech recognition, while faster, does not capture the nuance of speech which is just as important as what words are spoken.
Conversation lag is not eliminated by real-time transcription

21. We met Alyssa, a former Stanford student, child of deaf adults, and American Sign Language instructor.

22. We were amazed to realize it was extremely difficult for her and her parents to equally enjoy live events such as concerts, sporting events etc.
It would be game changing if we could make live experiences more accessible and inclusive by making them feel like an intended audience
We were amazed to realize it was extremely difficult for her and her parents to have bonding moments together during live events such as concerts, sporting events etc. due to her parents having to rely on a highly mediated experience on separate screens or lacking access to interpreters
It would be game changing if we could make live experiences more accessible and inclusive of deaf audiences and make them more engaged by making them feel like an intended audience

23. HMW: Merge the deaf and hearing worlds so that both can live in the moment together?
Solution: create an app where artists can crowdsource interpreters for upcoming concerts
Chose this solution because we watched a video about somebody signing “Rap God” by Eminem and realized that people who are really good at signing things like songs can create a unique experience for deaf people and preserve the artistic element

24. Vote your fav Interpreter (most successful)
Assumptions:
Interpreters are interested in working with artists that they love.
Interpreting a concert does not require the same training and expertise for interpreting in a high stakes environment like the workplace or hospital.
Deaf/or fluent in ASL individuals are the best judge of what a good interpretation is.
Userflow: Interpreters submit video “auditions” for upcoming concerts -> Specified individuals vote for their favorite interpreter -> Interpreter interprets at event
We tested on Julia Burns, a current Stanford student - she is an ASL speaker and is learning to interpret, so she could be a potential end user of the app. We had he run through the process of submitting a video as an ASL speaker. Did so in a dorm room, because as a student, that would probably be the place where she does her audition video.

25. Vote your fav Interpreter : Results
Worked:
thinks this is a very cool and unique opportunity for fans to interact with artists but also help the deaf community.
Didn’t Work:
expressed concerns about voting bias when it came to the part of the app where deaf/or ASL-fluent members voted for their favorite interpretations

26. Vote your fav Interpreter: Results (cont.)
Surprises:
She expressed concerns about improvisation in concerts and whether or not an interpreter is skilled enough to adapt to these changes.
Learnings:
We cannot assume that deaf people and people fluent in ASL are the only and best judges of who is the best interpreter.

27. Appendix

28. Cam’s interview stories
This wouldn’t be my last race (signing medical retirement papers)
I had to medically retire from a diagnosis after a series of pains and try to run on it. When I signed those medical retirement papers I resolved right then that that would not be the end of my career. I’ve promised myself that I would give it another shot. I couldn't do it at Stanford because I couldn’t run anymore because I signed those papers. I didn’t want to go out like that. I started to feel better around late march, I started to train again and was very wise in building up my training. I did this all on my own I wasn’t receiving training of the coach. This was all done on my own. Early june I had another recurrent of this hip pain. It was at that point that I realized that I can’t really have this set backs every couple months if I wanted to run well. At that point I decided that my college career probably be over. I may start training again this spring.

29. Cam’s interview stories
Next thing I know my season is over..
Last fall a week before a regional meet, I wake up with a really sore hip and I walk into Coach Neil’s office and when I walk out my season is over. That was really really hard for me. Teams in general can do a better job at really coming alongside one another and taking care each other. Not that I didn’t feel that with our team, but especially on the male team it’s just different. It’s a lot less common for people to come alongside and encourage one another.