Brian Kaufmann
Assistive Tech for 3LPlace
Role - Project Manager
Duration - 3 months (ongoing)
"3LPlace supports individuals with intellectual and developmental challenges who are on a journey of life-long learning." I'm working in a multi-disciplinary team of students to develop assistive technology to assist 3LPlace faculty in instructing life skills to their members.
Background
3LPlace is an organization in Somerville, MA, that "supports individuals with intellectual and developmental challenges who are on a journey of life-long learning." 3LPLace provides programming, lessons, and a sense of community for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families in the greater Boston area.
Many of these individuals have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and learning, using, then retaining functional life skills is a challenge for these individuals. Activities such as preparing a sandwich for lunch or cleaning up after oneself are multistep processes that require positive encouragement and many different forms of support from person to person.
Teaching and instructing life skills to individuals also differs substantially since these individuals each have their own unique disabilities, varying needs and schedules, and differing responses to stimuli.
Challenge
How might we help individuals with autism learn, use, and retain life skills?
Problem Definition
Our client for this project was one of the executive directors of 3LPlace. I initially set up meetings with our client so that we could learn more about the problem from their perspective and the faculty's perspective, and to learn more about the organization. We realized very early on that there were many stakeholders that we'd have to take into consideration, and each stakeholder had their own view of the problem. We created the following stakeholder diagram so we could keep track of everyone as we progressed through the project.
Stakeholder Diagram
Stakeholder Map
After talking with at least one person in each stakehodler category, we started to list out their differing needs and gauged both their interest in our solution, and their level of influence within the organization. Teaching life skills to the members affects not only the members, but also their families and all of the faculty who schedules and plans each day. We thought it would be important to prioritize the stakeholders and create a stakeholder map.
Our problem statement had changed 3 different times after continuing conversations with stakeholders. We could have addressed the challenge by creating a solution for the members, for the educators and faculty, or for the parents. We decided to pick the stakeholder where we could make the biggest impact first which was the individual members, and keep our problem statement intentionally vague until we could gather more information.
Problem Statement Iteration 1:
Young adults with autism spectrum disorder at 3LPlace have the problem that difficulty with motor planning and discomfort with straying from routine prevent them from practicing life skills when family members and personal providers find it easier to perform these skills themselves.
Our solution should deliver a way to empower young adults with autism at 3LPlace to practice life skills and protect their mental and emotional safety and comfort.
I scheduled additional conversations with the executive director, the founder of 3LPlace who is also a parent of an individual with autism, and educators and therapists in order to gather more information. My team then decided to pivot and focus our solution on the parents and personal providers of the members, since we thought they would have the greatest impact to help their kids learn and practice life skills outside of 3LPlace.
Problem Statement Iteration 2:
Families and personal providers have the problem that breaking down life skills for young adults with autism at 3LPlace into discrete, manageable tasks is time-consuming and requires substantially more effort than doing the tasks themselves when at home.
Our solution should deliver an engaging way for young adults with autism at 3LPlace to practice life skills while assisting families and personal providers to support learning at home and complementing 3LPlace life skills programming.
From this problem statement, we decided the best way to gain feedback and narrow in was to begin ideating solutions, where we could gain initial feedback from the 3LPlace staff.
Initial Ideation
I led a brainstorming session with my team where we went through an individual 10-minute rapid ideation. Since "Life Skills" could apply to any number of skills, we decided to focus on the skill of making a sandwich, specifically at home, for the purpose of this exercise. After the 10 minutes were up, we put all of our sticky notes on a whiteboard and began sorting the ideas and building connections.
Rapid Ideation and Connection Building
Our ideas ended up sorting into three major categories:
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Instructional materials for parents
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Gamifying instruction for members
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Instructing members through visual and audio cues
Once we realized these categories, I set up a meeting with all the educators and staff at 3LPlace. Since the best way to explain these solutions was by having concrete examples they could see, we created 3 high-fidelity paper prototypes that we could explicitly show the 3LPlace staff.
Low-Fidelity Paper Prototypes
Paper Prototype 1
Resource Guide for Parents
Paper Prototype 2
Toy Sandwich to Help with Motor Planning
Paper Prototype 3
Interactive Interface for Sequencing
We went into the meeting with these low-fidelity prototypes, and I asked the staff to critique them, working to minimize response bias as best as possible. Since the staff and educators have much more experience in working with the members and their families, we worked together to build off these prototypes and see what needed to be changed. I emphasized the importance of "yes and..." and we then began brainstorming and building on each others ideas.
Since every individual at 3LPlace has their own unique disabilities and needs, we decided that teaching a skill such as making a sandwich, doing laundry, or other skills might be too big of a jump from where many of them were developmentally. We decided to brainstorm how we could incrementally get to the point where members' could learn these skills and enjoy the process. In passing, the executive director mentioned the fact that many members want to help out in various tasks, but struggle with communicating "how can I help?" This stood out to me, and I decided to dig into that concept a little more.
Through more discussion, we decided that creating a solution that would allow members to easily communicate both "how can I help?" and "I need help" would help members to start incrementally helping out around both 3LPlace and at home. This would also help them to easily communicate when they start to get overwhelmed or need assistance.
Problem Statement Iteration 3:
Young adults with autism spectrum disorder at 3LPlace have the problem that difficulty with communicating and regulating emotions prevents them from offering to help contribute to everyday tasks that their family members and personal providers are used to doing for them.
Our solution should deliver an easy way for young adults with autism at 3LPlace to communicate their desire to contribute help to their family members, personal providers, and staff at 3LPlace.
We decided to scrap together some rough prototypes to show the 3LPlace staff. We needed to start finalizing idea paths and this way, we could hear some immediate feedback and start putting together some physical items. We ended up choosing one idea to focus on, a bracelet where members could easily communicate their transition between different states of being.
Final Prototype Designs
Iteration 1
Iteration 2
Iteration 3
We are currently in the process of 3D printing and assembling these bracelets. We are putting together a testing plan and hope to go into 3LPlace in the coming weeks to collaborate with the staff on writing and developing a lesson plan around the bracelets.
