Day Master - Redesigning a planning board for people with cognitive disorder

Abstract: In assistive technology, there are mainly two different users that needs to be taken into account when developing products. The first, and most important, is the end-user who requires the product in order to function and live a normal life. The second is the support person who, for some products, needs to assist the end-user by preparing it to be used. This report presents the master thesis project conducted by Mattias Bygge and Sofie Strand at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. The client was Abilia, a company that research, develop, manufacture and sell assistive technology to people with impairments. This main goal of this project was to redesign a cognitive planning board. The product is used as a visual aid by people who has difficulties in planning daily activities and keeping track of time. In order to develop the product in a suitable way, a literature study and interviews with Abilia’s employees laid the foundation for the user studies that were conducted with end-users and support people. Several concepts were generated and five were evaluated against the original product and presented to the company. The two concepts that received the highest ranking, (1) Extra Hours and (2) Extra Hours Bistable, were further investigated and were eventually developed into one single hybrid concept. The final design proposal is Day Master, a flexible planning board intended for people with a cognitive impairment that impedes their ability to plan daily activities and keep track of time. The product visually displays time and weekdays by using coloured LED lights, which support people may program without difficulty to fit the end-user’s preference. The amount of hours is changeable with a range of 12-18 hours of daytime and with the remaining hours distributed to night-time. The accessories that have been developed for this products are a simple protective cover, and two holders, one for images and one for whiteboard markers. All accessories attaches to the planning board with magnets.