Chore Galore Game - Human Centered Design
With everything is going on the world right now with the pandemic, we want to create something that helps support parents during shelter in place. We interviewed a lot of users to find answers for our big question “How Can We Best Support Parents During Shelter in Place?”
Team Project:
Teammates: Kristy Shio, Eleanor Bemis, and Megan Wang.
My Role: User Experience Design,
User Research, Prototype, User Testing
Time:
3 Months
Application:
Figma, Adobe Suite
Challenge
Using Tensions, Contradiction and Surprises Model, as well as using the Say, Do, Think, and Feel model to help us gain more perspective on our user. Holding interviews and asking the What, How, and Why questions to determine their needs and wants.
Solution:
We designed a board game allows parents and kids to step away from technology.
Process
User Interviews
•
Define Needs
•
Prototyping
•
User Testing
•
Iteration
Big Question
How Can We Best Support Parents During Shelter in Place?
Interview
We’ve conducted interviews with six parents, including the mom and the dad. We asked open ended question to understand more with the situation that the parents were facing during shelter in place. Our team has three people, and each one of us have different roles in the interview. There were one interviewer who focused only on asking questions, an observer who observe the behavior of the interviewee, and one recorder who records and take notes throughout the interview. I was the recorder of the team. The following are 3 most representative feedback we received from the user interview.
Liz Kennish
A mother of 2 sons, whose husband is under the chemo treatment. Liz also started her own business during the pandemic
SAY
“Usually they wouldn’t mind not having a big birthday but this quarantine it was a bigger deal.”
“My husband is in chemo.”
THINK
Liz thinks it’s important to give kids connection on quarantine.
She thinks her family needs to stay alive in quarantine.
DO
Liz threw her son a birthday party with extended family, we had all quarantine beforehand.
Liz took care of her husband and the family.
Liz started a Doula Business.
Set rules in her household.
FEEL
“For a little while, I feel like I was just the cook or a housekeeper, everyone wants to talk to me when they want something to pickup, or want food.”
Liz recognize the importance of community.
Liz had to balance between ensuring the safety of her husband, while also wanting to give her kids the birthday celebration they deserve.
WHAT?
Liz gets email telling her how good of a job her kid is doing at school.
Liz started her own non-profit business.
Liz was getting involved in politics.
HOW?
The email was sent to her.
Became a certified doula.
Talk to people who either don’t have an opinion or don’t really understand politics in general.
WHY?
Realized kids weren't getting the appreciation they received at school for their work at home.
She knows what this feels like because she rarely is appreciated for her work, that’s why it resonated.
Doula business lightened her load?Because it gave her things that were lacking (mentally) even though physically it was more work.
The business is a disconnect from her own life, it is an escape.
Why does that matter to her? Is it important to be a healer, a caring person or is this a way to get a sense of control over uncontrollable things?
The idea of able to derive fulfillment from her life again ?
An outcome that she can influence.
If she could have helped her husband in someway she would have, you can control your voice, if you have a voice, so use it.
TENSIONS:
She felt like the housekeeper of the family but then she went in and started a business that's all about nurture → does that ground her more?
Helping moms gives her back that sense of motherhood rather than caretaker.
CONTRADICTION
Not many contradictions she was so level headed and honest it was hard to see any discrepancies between how she felt and what she was saying.
SURPRISES
She started a non profit and became a certified doula in quarantine while her husband was in chemo.
She's very spiritual and into mindfulness, she put on a “new moon” celebration for her kids.
She went into a profession that requires heavy care for others and yet her personal life is full of caring for others.
Claudia Shannon
A Christian mother of 2 daughters.
SAY
She doesn’t want to become involved with politics or the news. She emphasized that she’s reduced her TV time, social media usage, and news listening to a minimum.
She believes her faith is what has gotten her through this shelter in place and has grown closer to her faith since the beginning of quarantine.
“The chaos isn’t from god”
“You have no control over it (the pandemic).”
THINK
She believes that news and politics contradicts her faith in the sense of keeping her away from the church and political tension that doesn’t necessarily align with her values. If she doesn’t listen to the news or express her opinion in politics, then her faith will grow stronger.
DO
She still somehow continues to keep up with the news because she expressed her disagreement with the shelter in place regulations that kept the churches from re-opening.
She tries to stay connected to her church community, she goes it when it’s open, she mentioned that was her way of
practicing self-care.
FEEL
She feels that the news and politics are the source of mental distress and takes away from her faith.
It’s stressful because she doesn’t trust any of the news anymore.
“Everything is so much chaos, my faith and my church, that’s where I get my peace.”
TENSIONS:
Spoke about how well daughters have been doing when family tension clearly exists/been at an all time high.
CONTRADICTION
Spoke about how she wants to avoid all news and politics because she doesn't want to get involved with it BUT then she spoke at length about politics and the news.
SURPRISES
Indicated she was very unfiltered and was more reserved in the interview.
Reconnected with piano (hasn't done this since kids were born).
Spoke about having an easy time with daughters and gratitude for them.
Jana White
A mother of one son. Partner of a correctional officer.
SAY
“You’re the only one we’ve got.” (referencing her son)
“I have no time for myself.”
THINK
I need to protect this life.
I need to put my needs behind everyone else’s (include correctional officer partner’s needs and son).
DO
They didn’t go outside for a while, son was very scared when they did.
Hasn’t taken a bubble bath in years (proves the point of having no time for herself).
FEEL
After second adoption process fell through, it heightened importance over sons role in their lives.
Personal needs aren't as important as those she cares about (even self care revolved around son/family, not herself).
WHAT?
“Online school isn’t equitable”
HOW?
Teachers are all trying to adapt in different ways.
Felt overwhelmed by what the school system had to do.
Their school principle broke down at a staff meeting.
WHY?
It’s hard when some teachers are incredibly versed in technology while others really struggle with it.
Online learning is very challenging for kids.
Teachers are also trying to adapt to working with kids personal situations at home while teaching the subject matter at hand.
On top of this kids are missing social interaction which makes learning even more challenging.
With her son, the french barrier makes keeping up with homework even harder for the parents.
I was getting parents just contacting me telling me “I can’t do this, I have 4 kids, one device, I’m working from home, my husband is working from home, one computer, we are sharing with multiple people.
TENSIONS:
Tension between her sense of duty to her family and attempts at self care
Son developed separation anxiety and was afraid of going outside, is there a tension between that and getting him adjusted into the new normal?
She is trying to be a leader in all facets of life (among teachers and family) but what does she do when overwhelmed?
CONTRADICTION
Said she couldn’t imagine what it's like for parents who don’t speak French to help their kids, yet she doesn’t speak French so how does she help jessie?
Spending time in the house vs spending time with Jessie (her son would say why don’t you spend time with me, and she would explain she was with him every minute and yet there is no time for them to connect because they’re both
on zoom)
SURPRISES
Son is in a French immersion school, neither parent speaks French
Interesting story: Her Grandma passed over spring break, couldn't go. Zoom funeral. She was born 1919 during the last pandemic, Spanish flu, and she passed away during the next pandemicin 2020. Not passed away with covid.
Was in the middle of trying to adopt another child when the pandemic hit.
Define
After analyzing the research we received from the interviews, our team decided to move forward with Liz’s problem and needs.
Pain Points 1: Taking care of the family all on her own, she is the sole care taker.
Pain Points 2: Liz wants to take back “control” in her house rule and her life.
Need: Liz needs to feel connected with her family.
In a world where the pandemic has isolated individuals. Liz, a mother of two with a husband undergoing chemo has to become the sole caretaker of her home and start her own business in order to keep her family alive.
But that’s all about to change…
Because Liz is about to go from feeling alone and under appreciated to feeling fulfilled and reconnected with her family.
Liz’s story.
How can we approach Liz’s needs?
Brainstorm:
We want to tie in something that can make kids to feel immerse in the experience. We came up with different concepts, such as physical game board and digital app. We were sold on the idea of creating an adventure theme digital app that would allow Liz to track how her kids are doing on chores, on family time, and physical activities, while also make it a fun experiment for the kids.
Prototype
Our first prototype was really simple. We wanted to show an overview of the basic function of the app. For example, want to show that there are two versions of the app, one for kids, and one for parents. The message of “Agent Oliver,” “code clean,” and “mission complete” shows the idea of an adventure app. The theme we were showing is a spy theme.
Feedback:
We did a user testing with some of the parents we interviewed previously, and it turned out the parents actually wanted more buttons to click and interact with, so we created a better prototype.
Surprising feedback !!
After we built out our more detailed prototype, and conducted the user testing with the parents we interviewed before, they started to express concerns on kids spending too much time on the digital devices, and they are also concerning on the lack of interaction between family members.
One parent mentioned that during the pandemic, we are spending too much time on virtual and digital world. Our eyes have been looking at the screens every day, and it would be better if we can step away from technology.
We brought up the board game idea we initially had in our brainstorming phase, and it turned out this is what parents preferred, and this is how they wish family can play and interact with each other.
Solution and Lesson learned
Finally, we designed a Chore Galore board game that has magnet and could be placed on the refrigerator or on a wall. The parents will be able to physical write down the task they want their kids to do, and whole family could participate together. The winning prize can be customized by each family, and the game allows parents and kids to step away from technology.
What I have learned from this experience is that the importance of user testing. What we think might work, does not mean the users will have a good experience with it. User testing and iteration are a common practice in design, and as a designer, I should always be able to look back at different ideas when the current one does not work.
