Memory Keeper - The Design Process

The design process centered on our users. It was a cycle of getting input from our users, analyzing their thoughts to make decisions, and returning to our users to discuss our decisions.

Context

Memory Keeper is a conceptual prototype that was developed as part of a course in user-centered design at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden. The goal of the course was to design a shared entertainment product by working closely with the group of people who would use the finished product.

Process

Choosing the target group
	We chose to work with elderly people living in retirement homes, assuming that their everyday life lacks stimulation and that they have limited contact with each other. In choosing this group we wanted to confront the generation gap between the youth and the elderly: challenging our prejudices by putting ourselves in someone else's shoes. Faced with designing for a group that has radically different views toward entertainment and technology, we grasped on to the cooperative design methodology, designing a product not so much for the elderly as with them.
Meeting our participants
	To get to know more about our group we interviewed 10 residents from Fredhällshemmet, Tibblehemmet, and Hammarbyhöjdens servicehus, asking them about entertainment, technology, everyday routines, and social life.
	Our observations: They like talking Like meeting with family Feel lonely but are not interested in meeting new people Few friends among their neighbors Friends live far away Fewer and fewer friends as the years pass Have a radio and cassette-tape player Have both physical and mental limitations: poor vision and problems with hands were common They think they are "too old" to do new things
Proposing solutions
	From these observations, we proposed six possible solutions: Digital Memoirs The elderly document their own lives, creating a digital 'memoir' that can be passed on to future generations Video Diary Users record video snippets of their daily experiences to share with friends and family TV Games A set top box that connects friends who have trouble meeting physically, allowing them to play bridge, complete crosswords, or videoconference together Connecting Different Homes Small groups from different retirement homes would get to know each other by using a video conferencing tool Intelligent Radio A radio that plays compelling content (music and spoken word) from the net Smart Remote Control An all-in-one device combining TV remote, telephone, controls to turn on/off lights, and a GPS and nurse alarm (so that they can be found and helped in case of emergency)
Discussing our solutions
	We discussed our different solutions with a group of 4 residents from Fredhällshemmet, presenting our ideas and asking for their input. The group was more afraid of technology than we had expected, and we noted that our solution would have to be extremely easy to use. Two of our solutions resonated well with the group: "Digital Memoirs" and "Smart Remote Control." We decided to go further with the "Digital Memoirs" idea because it fit better with the theme of the project, 'shared entertainment'.
First prototype: talking photo album
	Since our respondents liked to talk, we chose to base the device on a cassette recorder. We first asked ourselves why the elderly don't use existing cassette recorders to record their memories for future generations, concluding that tapes were hard to organize and gave no guidance on what to talk about. We decided to design a talking photo album, where users could record a story for each photo. It would be in a book form factor, with touch screens, to make it less obtrusive than a conventional PC. To test this concept, a low-tech paper prototype was made.
	We presented the prototype and discussed our ideas with our group from Fredhällshemmet. It was hard to communicate all of the possible uses for the device, but once the group began to understand, they got excited. We heard: "What should I talk about?": our users wanted guidance on which stories to tell, what things are fun to listen to They don't have pictures for all of the interesting stories
Second prototype: guiding voice recorder
	We redesigned the product based on feedback, making the following design decisions: Structure prioritized over freedom To help guide users to subjects to talk about Contents organized by subjects (like childhood, family, and travel) instead of pictures Because users don't have pictures of everything Our product became an improved voice recorder that helps guide and organize input. We built another low-tech prototype of this design to test with users.
	We tested this second prototype with a resident from Hammarbyhöjdens servicehus (more residents were not available). The resident had difficulty understanding the ramifications of the prototype. We determined that in order to continue with the design process we would need to do long-term user tests, with working prototypes, so that users could play with the devices.
The Finished Product
	After some further refinements, the finished product was presented on the 19^th of May 2004 at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. See The Product for a description of the final design.

Context

Process

Choosing the target group

Meeting our participants

Proposing solutions

Discussing our solutions

First prototype: talking photo album

Second prototype: guiding voice recorder

The Finished Product