Understanding the affective space

- Example
 Informing technology design for
remaining active despite chronic pain

Example 1
Problem brief
Final design
What did technology offer?
Literature and commercial products review:
• Rehab in the form of game  more fun, more adherence
• So why is it not working for chronic pain?

RehabMaster, Hanyang University BackDoctor

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Does current technology address
these barriers needs/strategies
USER’s NEEDS Chronic Pain Case
Autonomy The game directs the exercise. It does not teach to learn to
direct physical rehabilitation, for example when one to decide
when they have done enough or not enough.
Does not help to learn to address psychological barriers

Competency Increased physical capabilities if the exercises are done, but

does not address FEAR, exercise is avoided

- no increase in self-efficacy and ability to function in social

contexts
- support to learn competency related to one’s life…

Relatedness Does not lead to accomplishment in one life role.

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Question: What barriers to physical
activity do people with chronic pain face?

Aim Method Participants

Familiarizing • Role-plays (we couldn’t Physiotherapists (PT)
with the do authoethnography),
problem • Blogs forum
Deeper • Interviews tied to experiences People with CP &
understanding (rather than general thoughts) physiotherapists
Stay close to • Use of probes to expose Iterate the design of
experience people to experiences probes through quick
rather than • + diary to firm memories of prototyping
general experiences
questions
• Follow up interview to dig
deeper into those experiences

Singh, A. et al., Motivating People with Chronic Pain to do Physical Activity: Opportunities for Technology Design, CHI
2014.  Singh et al., HCI journal, 2016, Singh et al., CHI 2017
Capturing physiotherapist’s strategies

- Videoed a physio
session for chronic Follow up interviews with
pain physios queued by videos
- Took annotations events
- Sentences they
used
- Actions they did
Thematic analysis for strategies for reducing FEAR:
don’t instruct …. Increase positive awareness [while moving]

“If we tell the patient 'Next stretch you’re gonna have

to bend forward', for example, you might already
trigger some areas in their brains that go, ‘Ooooh,
bending forward is really bad’,
but

if you just start doing it and then talk through it as

you’re doing it, …… as we bend …
“I used the continuous tense ….. “[e.g.] we are reaching
the knees ….… because it enhances the sense of being in
movement …..

 then here’s something that says to them, 'Oh, actually I

am bending'” (Physio4)
Building
From probes
themes to design from
directions
interviews
FRW Barriers Strategies Design directions

Physiol Attention Bring attention back to Sonification of movement: HCI

literature shows that it facilitate
ogical grabbed by movement  verbalize
movement (re)learning motor patterns
pain
Pain signal
Augment proprioception Create new sensory feedback
danger despite coupled with the poor
no danger (knowing where the body is) 
verbalize progression through proprioception to enhance it
Decrease
proprioceptive the movement
Sonification:
feedback - as pleasurable perception of
Fear, anxiety movement
- sense of progression through
movement
- calibration to assign meaning
to progression
- sense of accomplishment by
enhancing reaching
completion of movement
Exposing people to novel
Wizard of Oz triggered

experiences
• Use of probes
• Disruptive ones trigger reflections

VIDEO WITH PATIENT USING PROBE

Controlled studies to understand inform sound design

Perceived
self-efficacy
“With the shape sound, it seems like I was
climbing a mountain ….. After passing the top
position, I would know that I have passed a
certain level and it just encouraged me that I
might be able to do a bit more than that. But
without the sound, you have no idea [where
you are]”.

“With the up and down sound, I can hear more

clearly how I am doing.”

Self-report and use of

movement sensors to
measure quality of stretch
Contrasting

• Game vs wearable
 Questions:
Can the device help engaging with
functing during daily activity?

Studies Participants
10 - day use of the 4 patients
prototype in the
home

Using the device within functional everyday activity

 VIDEO
(if interested see lecturecast slide-
video: prototype being used by the
patient)

Home study: A VIDEO DIARY

Singh et al. Supporting Everyday Function in Chronic Pain Using a Wearable Device.
CHI2017
I’m hesitant about [leaning
forward]. I find reaching for
the washing machine painful.
However, I realised [with the
sound], I could use the roll-
down [Pilates exercise] to load
the machine, which relieves
my back.

Home study: A VIDEO DIARY

Singh et al. Supporting Everyday Function in Chronic Pain Using a Wearable Device.
CHI2017
HOME STUDIES (2 weeks)|
Recalibration strategies

ANTICIPATION – Sound range calibration based on expected capabilities:

“I can bend without getting anxious up to 25 degrees, and I’m not going to try to go
beyond 40 degrees”

Singh, A., Berthouze-Bianchi, N. L., & Williams, A. (2017).

Supporting Everyday Function in Chronic Pain Using a Wearable Device. CHI’17
(http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1534672/)
HOME STUDIES (2 weeks)|
Recalibration strategies

CONNECTING - Realizing I can do more and change sound range calibration:

“The sound ends much earlier than I thought I could bend … I can calibrate for a larger
range of movement”

Singh, A., Berthouze-Bianchi, N. L., & Williams, A. (2017).

Supporting Everyday Function in Chronic Pain Using a Wearable Device. CHI’17
(http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1534672/)
HOME STUDIES (2 weeks)|
Recalibration strategies

APPROPRIATING - Calibration according to functional activity: “I want to use the sound to

understand how I move when I do functional activity and pace myself better”

Singh, A., Berthouze-Bianchi, N. L., & Williams, A. (2017).

Supporting Everyday Function in Chronic Pain Using a Wearable Device. CHI’17
(http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1534672/)
Informing technology design
sustainable use of wardrobes

Example 2
Probe: an disruptive digital
wardrobe to experience
unused clothes
Exposing people to unused clothes A digital wardrobe as (Miro-board)
rather than simply interviewing
them

Everyday – supported by reflective

prompts
- Choosing an unused clothes
- Building the digital wardrobe
- Building an outfit
- Wearing it

Fill in the Miro Digital Wardrobe

Probe
What affective factors (all levels)
- may hinder use
- may facilitate use Active exploration of their
- may lead to more wardrobe to trigger reflections
sustainable purchasing and more insightful interviews
Probe: a disruptive shared
digital wardrobe
A shared digital wardrobe as (Miro-board)
Exposing people to
experience
P4
P3
Rediscovering your
unused wardrobe

Building outfits with

unused clothes P2

Sharing and co-building P1

outfits

Wearing and going out

with outfit
Common spaces
Active exploration of their
for sharing and
wardrobe to trigger reflections
co-creating
and more insightful interviews
 Probing: understanding
digital through physical
Experience, contrast physical vs digital

Method: Experiences, mapping,

love/break up letters instead of
diaries
App as a probe
Prompts for: Dress-X
Identity formation
Distinct meanings
Social purposes
Multisensory vs unisensory
experience
Movement feedback
Take on message
• Expose people to experiences …. Even disruptive one

• Do not to simply identify the emotions people go through or would

like to experience

• Don’t ask general questions but ask questions about those

experiences

• Gain an in depth understanding of those experiences, needs,

strategies ----- by going deeper in the details

• Translate insights into initial design directions … rather than simply

designing by guts feeling

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See related material
Chronic pain example
• Full slides and videos providing more details of this
example on chronic pain design can be found in the
Mini-Project material section on Moodle