Mia and the Orb : Using multi-modal interaction design for an intimate UTI home-based test experience

Abstract: Medical technologies are increasingly moving into the home-setting, and they need to take potential users' experiences into account doing so. This paper explores how interactive point-of-care medical technologies can support and reassure potential users in their waiting during nighttime. Using Research through Design, it presents Mia & the Orb, an interactive home-based for detecting Urinary Tract Infections (UTI). The interactive test incubator guides the user's breathing and provides warmth, orbiting around moments of waiting during nighttime. Using Participatory Design Fiction to unravel user values and a material directed design approach on the physical prototyping phase, it was found that making medical technologies soft, warm and comforting opens up new opportunities to help during painful and helpless moments of waiting.