Didi
Helping to Answer the Question, “Did I Take my Medication this Morning?”
My Role -
Researcher, Strategist, Designer
Personal Project
Brief
Design for ageing often focusses on the home. This thoughtlessness restricts users by subtly prescribing to them what their life should be like. Inspired by the age-neutral design focus of the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, I asked, "how can we support an active lifestyle for the elderly through design?"
The current market for medication tracking focusses on helping users to remember to take the right pills at the right time. However, after this user-touchpoint, another question arises:
"Did I remember to take my medication earlier?"
In cases when a double doses could have serious consequences and tablet trackers cannot be checked, how is this question answered?
Solution
Keys. The the only item which you will have for definite each time you leave the house (unless you lock yourself out). Didi is a keyring, connected to your medication tracker at home. When you take your medication, a subtle change of state in the keyring occurs. By looking at, or feeling Didi in a pocket, a user can instantly tell if they remembered to take their last dose of medication, providing reassurance when out and about.
Key Skills - User Research, Concept Generation and Age-Neutral Design.
Research
I began this brief by asking how to empower older users to feel in control of their medication journey through the design of medication tracking boxes. I conducted interviews within my family and friendship circles and conducted extensive market research.
The key research strategy for Didi was auto-ethnography. I mimicked behaviours in my own life by trying to remember to take several vitamins at set times throughout a day for a month.
Though supermarket medication trackers are small and light enough to be taken out and about, I never chose to do this unless absolutely necessary. Medication trackers are taboo, to be hidden away, but conversely have a loud, unmistakable rattle.
The research highlighted a pinch-point in the user journey which created feelings of vulnerability and lack of control: when a user couldn’t remember if they had or had not taken their medication. The distress was exacerbated when the user was out of the house and unable to check their medication box. This issue stands for all users but is more common in older user groups susceptible to dementia which causes memory loss.
Design
The design uses pre-existing plastic medication trackers widely available at chemists and supermarkets. Within each compartment will be placed a Didi pebble. When a user takes their medication, they interact with the pebbles, moving them aside to retrieve thier tablets.
The keyring is modelled from a hag stone which has a hole through the centre. The interaction with the pebbles triggers the hole through the stone keyring to become mechanically covered: a subtle state change. The hole being covered signifies that the medication has been taken. This can be checked throughout the day by touching or looking at the keyring to provide reassurance. A gauge on the keyring can be used to change the reset time if the medication has to be taken more than once daily.
