Role
- Industrial Designer
- Producer
Duration
- Sep 2016 - May 2018
Project Type
- Product Design
- Brand Identity
- App Design
- Commercial Production
Tools Used
- Solidworks
- Sketch
- Premiere Pro
- After Effects
My Role
- Lead design strategy and decisions.
- Responsible for User Research, Ideation, UI/UX Design and IxD.
- Create the brand identity and produce the commercial.
Background
“No matter who you are, you’re going to get hurt in your career and you have to be patient to get through the injuries.”
Injuries, although frequent, can be an avoidable part of sports participation. Enthusiastic athletes are the largest group of sports participants and the most susceptible to injuries. Patients are more likely to seek treatment for severe or traumatic sports injuries; as a result, scientific diagnosis and treatment are primarily focused on these types of injuries, while intermediate injuries and following rehabilitation are often ignored.
If a systematic health assistant is introduced to enthusiastic athletes, they can recover more efficiently, prevent repetitive and overuse injuries, and recognize the risks of sports injuries on their long-term health. A methodical approach that includes identification of injuries, proper self-treatment, and re-injury prevention can enhance and extend athletic participation, and foster a lifelong love of the active lifestyle.
Inspiration
A personal connection
Since I was a kid, I am an energetic person and love playing all kinds of sports. However, I’ve suffered from two major sport injuries, chronic dislocation and torn ACL. I had to undergo shoulder join surgery and ACL repair surgery. Many young athletes have similar experiences. They often take risks during sports participation, with little thought about the long-term impact on health. Unattainable proper medical care means that many teenagers live on with permanent damages.
Project Objectives
What were we trying to achieve?
- Provide a systematic and ease to use solution for Physical Therapy
- Integrated smart technology for the future of PT
- Maximize efficiencies for injury recovery
User Goals
What are the users trying to achieve?
- Accelerate the rehabilitation process
- Frictionless experience for Physical Therapy
- Understand their recovery and be educated about the regimen
Constraints
What restrictions did I have to consider?
- Technology and mechanical engineer limits
- Tangible product for launching
Responsibilities
What was I responsible for?
- End-to-end hybrid product design
- Collaborate with experts in the multi-discipline industry
- Create the brand identity represents the product
SCOPE OF WORK
What I have done in this project
Product Design
From research to implementation, I led the product design process and make decisions based on human-centered design principal.
Mobile App Design
I designed the companion app that not only supports the functionality of the hardware but also improves the user experience of the whole system.
Brand Identity
I established the essential system for the brand identity, the design system, and produced the commercial to demonstrate the product concept.
From Hippocrates to
Data-driven
Prevention care
Physical therapy has been used since 100 B.C. when Greek physician Asclepiades initiated therapeutic treatment for patients using baths, massage, exercise, and music. Coming into the 21st century, the field of sports care has been developed by the fast growth of research and technology. In the world of professional athletes, trainers have started to use monitors and tracking to study the patterns and data of athletes’ bodies, to the connection of their performance.
However, there haven’t been too many changes in the rehabilitation process. Therapists are still using similar equipment, such as whirlpools, elastic bands, and treadmills to help patients. At the same time, recreational athletes can hardly get access to the advanced rehab equipment that is being used by professional athletes.
Market Research
Physical therapy dilemma
It takes a lot to train a physical therapist. One needs medical knowledge to understand human mobility patterns and the individual’s range of motion. Though physical therapy is beneficial for sports injuries, especially in post-surgery and the recovery phase. The high cost and long-lasting physical therapy has stopped people from adhered to physical therapy regimen.
Source: American Physical Therapy Association
Cost for 15 minutes of physical therapy session
without co-pay insurance in California is up to $135
The adherence to physical therapy intervention
is getting as low as 15%
Pro athletes recover an average 2.5 times faster
than enthusiastic athletes.
Observational Research
Understanding the users from the observation and interview
To gain empathy and understanding of how patients get through the rehabilitation interventions, I transited my research to observational and interview study on stakeholders in the process. I directed my research aiming the physical characteristics of recovery after injuries, exploring the behaviors and mindsets, that happen after injuries, and during rehabilitation interventions. I conducted the research with the following supporting questions:
- Who is using physical therapy? Why did they stop adhering to the rehab program? What kind of interactions do they have during rehab training?
- What characteristics and features attract people and cause them to become attached to their training program? What benefits do they gain?
- How different would the future rehabilitation and physical therapy be from the traditional ones? What are the trends in physical therapy and the rehab industry?
Insights
Misunderstanding and different expectation in between Patients and Therapists
After I conducted more than 20 qualitative interviews and 140 effective replies on the questionnaire with two different groups in the rehabilitation process: therapists and patients, I noticed the huge gap in the understanding between two groups.
Patients:
- The patients have little control on the rehab program and expectation on the recovery process.
- Patients want the regimen to be more convenient, require minimal equipment, environmental change, time and planning.
- Social activities, especially sharing experience, help them more adhere to the program.
Therapists:
- Therapists can hardly get accurate and timely information they need to make right assessment.
- Therapists spent a lot of unnecessary time to encourage patients adhere to the program.
- Due to lacking accurate tracking and examination equipment, most of therapists are still depends on their experience and knowledge.
Cognitive Mapping
Shortage of mental support and motivation lead to drop out
Mental support is extremely neglected in rehabilitation. The long and tedious rehabilitation not only stops athletes’ adherence to the regimen but also destroys their confidence and motivation for recovery. Even fully recovered, 67% of the injured athletes expressed their fear of re-injury. The shortage of mental support and motivation not only leads to drop out of rehabilitation but also causes the negative emotions of rehabilitation when they injured again.
My Vision
If a systematic health assistant is introduced to enthusiastic athletes, they can recover more efficiently, prevent repetitive and overuse injuries, and recognize the risks of sports injuries on their long-term health.
Brainstorming
Generating ideas by collaboration creation workshop
To generate ideas based on the rehab experience of the users, I invited the potential and experienced users to the brainstorming workshop to generate concepts for the problem. From the collaborating creation workshop, ideas were combined with the insights gathered from previous primary and secondary research. By summarizing the possible solutions, key pain points, and insights, I created the following criteria for design:
Product Accessibility:
The target users for the product are recreational athletes and young athletes. Currently, they don’t have the same resources as professional athletes. The solution needs to be available and affordable for the general population.
Promote Communication:
The product should become the bridge to better communication between health care providers and patients. As one of the key insights, faster responses, feedbacks, and examination will lead to faster recovery. Introduce a more convenient communication channel to patients and therapists will improve the efficiency of physical therapy.
Positive Mental Support:
Patients are giving up the rehab regimen due to a lack of mental support. The positive support for patients not only helps them attached to the rehab program but also motivates them to set the course for returning to the field.
Accurate Examination:
Physical therapists need years of experience to accurately exam patients. How to use technology to improve the accuracy of the examination and report valuable statistics for therapists.
Ideation
Preliminary approaches
As the early stage of ideation, multiple concepts were generated with co-creation process with users. I also created mock-ups for various directions and tested with users. Those preliminary approaches, though aren’t promising result to solve the problems, helped me narrow my scope and refine my solution.
Mechanical Implementation
Applying EMG and motion sensing technology
To implement the ideas to the solution, I studied the possible technology that can be applied. I used EMG, which stands for electromyography, to evaluating the electric signal of skeletal muscles and detecting their muscle performance. By using surface and intramuscular electrodes, the sensor can be simply attached to the skin and read the signal underneath. Meanwhile, I used the motion sensor to detect the body position and motion of range.
With help from the electric engineers, I used MPU-6050 breakout boards with Arduino Uno and Mini to combined all the sensors and systems. By using point-to-point reference, the system can detect specific body position, or it can be expandable to full body. Using a central reference point and computing unit on the back, the system significantly lowered the total sensors required for valid measurements.
Concept Development
Developing from sketches to prototype
After I designed the mechanical structure, I started exploration in the form design. Rounds of iteration were flushed out and prototypes were built for user testing and feedback. By applying the test results in the final design, I was able to achieve the goal of functionality, ergonomics, and user friendly.
Final Design
The ACESO rehab system
By integrating all the insights from research and user testing, the final design, the ACESO rehab system, is implemented together as a whole ecosystem. The main hardware consists of two main part, the central backpack and the pad module. The system is expandable to up to 15 module pads for full body assessment. Each pad module can collect the specific muscle performance and movement data and send to central unit. Even without the pad module, the central unit are still capable of basic movement and activity tracking.
FUTURE OF PHYSICAL THERAPY
Aceso empowers patients to foster a lifelong love of an active lifestyle.
Accurate Training Data
The product tracks and analyzes the training data for each body part. Automatically generated reports help therapists manage the regimen and help patients understand the process.
Reliable Warning System
Avoiding unnecessary second injuries and warning patients for fatigue body status empower patients to identify of injuries, proper self-treatment, and re-injury prevention.
Friendly Ecosystem
Timely feedback from therapists and mental supports from the community enhance motivation for rehabilitation and extend athletic participation.
Brand Identity
Creating a brand identity connect to users
A trustworthy brand identity is the essence of user communication. This requires the brand to respond to users’ stories and experiences. The product is named after the Greek goddess of the healing process, ACESO, which aligned with the product core value, Reliability, Encouragement, and Smart.
Commercial
Promote and share the story
Collaborating with Mobolade Ajomale, the Canadian Olympic medalist and sprinter, I produced the commercial telling the story of rehabilitation and how Aceso rehab system can help with the process. The commercial demonstrates how users interact with the product and the user experience using the product in the scenario.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks for everyone helped in this project
Dedicated to all who helped in this project development, and to those who work hard to reduce sports injuries and improve physical therapy treatments for enthusiastic athletes.
Thanks to my thesis instructors Ted Renteria, Shizunori Kobara, Jim shook, and Scott Lempert for their guidance and challenge.
Thanks to Jon Yonago, Mobolade Ajomale, Alan Tsao Hisashi Imura, Yue Wang for their expert knowledge and perspectives.
Thanks for all other interviewees and participants for their supports and hard work to this project.