Lilypad Smartwatch

Overview

In January 2019, I joined a student team in Dr. Gabriela Marcu’s research lab at UMSI as a UX researcher and designer. Our team’s project was Lilypad Smartwatch - a behavioral management application for kids, teachers, and caregivers.

Challenge

Some children who are in special education classes for behavioral support make progress managing their behaviors. They may transition into general education classrooms to continue building independence and further their education. Different structure and inconsistent support in the new classroom may make it difficult for the student to adjust.

Solution

We want to design a child-centered smartwatch application that allows children to self monitor their behavior with the support of teachers and caregivers to help the child adjust to a new learning environment.

Roles

UX Researcher
UX Designer

Methods

Literature review
Competitive analysis
Interviews

Tools

Figma

Duration

January 2019 - October 2019

Research

Prior Research

The original version of Lilypad is a behavioral data collection app for iPads. It was used by practitioners in four classrooms for two years to record the behavioral data of students. The app was used in both general education and special education classrooms. Dr. Marcu and her team conducted naturalistic observations, interviews, and focus groups leading to the following findings:

Oftentimes, students do not have the opportunity to take an active role in monitoring their behavior
Methods used to track the progress of transitioning students are not always consistent across classrooms
Many class-wide intervention methods are difficult to customize to the individual needs of each student
Special education practitioners are unsure which methods best monitor and support the progress of students transitioning from special education to general education

Research Question

From these findings, we saw an opportunity for Lilypad to expand and improve. We believed that putting students with special needs at the center of monitoring and collecting their behavioral data could help support their transition into general education. To explore this idea, we used the following question:

How can a child-driven intervention support the transition process?

Literature Review

Our team began by conducting a literature review. I was responsible for researching self-monitored behavior management. Other members of the team researched goal setting and transitioning from special education to general education. Eventually we decided to incorporate smartwatches into our solution, so another team member began researching topics related to adolescent smartwatch use.

Insights

A child’s behaviors and social skills should be the focus of their intervention
An individualized intervention dramatically increases a child’s positive behavior
A child’s intervention should nudge them to be their own agent of change
A child’s intervention should promote self-management
Self-monitoring can positively affect a child’s school and home life
The benefits of self-monitoring are long lasting
A child can use a smartwatch to quickly and discreetly track their behavioral progress

Competitive Analysis

As a team, we conducted a competitive analysis to better understand how smartwatches and phone apps are currently being used to track and change users’ behaviors.

Insights

Interactions are minimal and scheduled
Users are held accountable and sent reminders when their progress is off track
Users are sent motivational tips throughout the day

Interviews

To further explore our idea, we began preparing for interviews with practitioners in the field, specifically special education teachers, general education teachers, and child psychologists. I helped create separate interview protocols for each and helped conduct one of the interviews.

Design

Target Users - Personas and Empathy Maps

We created personas and empathy maps of the three user groups we’re designing for: children preparing to transition to general education, parents of those children, and teachers of those children.

Bobby - a student in special education preparing to transition into general education

Demographics

9 year old boy
4th grader
Diagnosed with autism at 3 years old

Goals

Be in the same classroom as his friends
Be able to tell when he should stop his behavior
Go a full class without getting pulled aside by teachers
Not stand out when placed in the new classroom

Frustrations

His mom always asks him how school went, but he doesn’t know what to tell her
The rules at school are different than his mom’s rules at home
When his teacher is helping him, his classmates always look at him

Behaviors

Knows right from wrong, but often needs to be reminded of classroom rules
Very passionate about cars and loves talking about them with others, but doesn’t always know when people want him to stop
Keeps his hands to himself during class
Shares with his classmates

Candice - Bobby’s mom

Demographics

37 year old woman
Pediatric Oncology Nurse

Goals

Stay up-to-date on Bobby’s behavioral progress at school
Reinforce at home the behavioral management techniques Bobby is learning at school
Ensure Bobby has a smooth transition into the regular education classroom and is accepted by his classmates

Frustrations

Isn’t always aware of the behavioral management techniques that Bobby is using in school
Doesn’t always know how to reinforce at home the behavioral management techniques that Bobby is learning in school
Finds it difficult to receive behavioral and academic updates from Bobby’s teaching staff on a regular basis, along with receiving tips for at home behavioral management techniques
Needs help understanding Bobby’s Individualized Education Program and how it translates into action

Behaviors

Attends as many parent-teacher meetings as possible with her irregular work schedule
Works with Bobby at home to promote appropriate behavioral management
Always does what she thinks is best for Bobby
Emails teacher once a week to stay updated on Bobby’s behavioral progress
Has an iPhone and uses technology at work, but doesn’t consider herself to be very tech-savvy

Mrs. Cramer - Bobby’s special education teacher

Demographics

47 year old woman
Special education teacher with 20 years of experience

Goals

Be able to provide students with individualized attention and feedback that helps them meet their personal behavioral goals
Feel confident updating student’s parents on their child's behavioral progress
Efficiently track students’ behavioral progress so that she can reflect on how they’ve improved over time
Help her students achieve independence from the special education staff
Ensure that all of her students feel comfortable in the classroom and not singled out

Frustrations

Behavioral tracking of the special needs students she works with is inconsistent implemented across classrooms and by practitioners
Has a difficult time responding to parents inquires in a timely manner
Finds it time-consuming to accurately track the behavior of all of her students
Finds it difficult to customize intervention methods to the individual needs of each student

Behaviors

Works with her students one on one to make sure they get the individualized help they need to succeed
Uses paper and Microsoft Excel to track students’ notable positive and negative behaviors throughout the day
Creates a weekly behavior report for each student to bring home to their parents

Design Requirements

Based on our research, we generated the following design requirements as a team.

Promotes children’s independence

Children self-monitor their behavioral progress by being at the center of its collection and analysis.

Uses child-centered goal setting

Children work with their practitioners and parents to set their behavioral goals. A child’s goals are regularly updated and reflected upon.

Uses positive reinforcement

Positive reinforcement, such as reward systems, are used to change children’s behavior rather than negative reinforcement. Every step a child takes, good or bad, is treated as progress towards their goals.

Is customizable to the individual needs of both practitioners and children

Practitioners can customize the intervention to complement their class curriculum and school schedule. Additionally, the intervention can be individualized to support the behavioral needs and varying motor, cognitive, and visual ability of each child.

Subtly collects children’s behavioral data throughout the school day

The intervention is timely, brief, and unavoidable. The intervention positively affects the learning environment of the classroom and allows children to track their behavioral progress without drawing the attention of their classmates.

Sketches & Wireframes

Our team began sketching designs for a smartwatch app for children. Additionally, we started designing a companion app on iPad for caregivers and teachers. Below are some of my contributions.

I started creating some wireframes from my sketches for the children’s smartwatch app and for the caregiver’s companion app.

At this point, I stopped participating in this project to focus more on the Lilypad Therapy project.

My Takeaways

This project was the first time I got to try any UX skills outside of a classroom. It was very rewarding in that sense, but it was also a bit chaotic. When I joined the team, they had already decided to start sketching some early designs. We started off by making a lot of assumptions based on the prior research. We tried to use these assumptions to create some designs, but struggled to justify most of the choices we made. So, we had to step back and do research of our own. This experience really helped demonstrate to me how important user research is to the user-centered design process.

Through the course of the project, Dr. Marcu had our team present our work to our research lab many times. Initially, we struggled to explain the full scope of our project concisely. There were many additional questions and points that needed further explanation. We had already created the personas and empathy maps, so we decided to use those in our presentations. At this point, I didn’t think there was much use for personas in general. We created some use case scenarios for each persona and presented them to the lab. This new method seemed to greatly increase the lab members’ understanding of our project. Our team eventually used these personas to present our project to a board of researchers at UMSI. They said the personas were integral to their understanding of our project. While I don’t often create personas now, these experiences helped me see how useful they can be in presenting to stakeholders.