Stanford University, Spring 2010CS377v - Creating Health Habitshabits.stanford.edu

Weather or NotA conceptual design by

[Leslie Wu]

Design Challengeto encourage moderate sunscreen & Vitamin D usage

Stanford University, Spring 2010CS377v - Creating Health Habitshabits.stanford.edu

Weather or Not

Persuasive Purpose To encourage a moderate increase sunscreen usage on

especially sunny days and Vitamin D tablets on particularly rainy/gloomy days

Industrial Design

cc-by http://www.flickr.com/photos/93033713@N00/2845037002/http://www.flickr.com/photos/fdecomite/320686077/

textmsg

Stanford University, Spring 2010CS377v - Creating Health Habitshabits.stanford.edu

User Description

• Stanford dorm RAs and PHEs (peer health educators) are motivated to help encourage health habits in their communities

• They are likely a few years older than their student peers, 

• Use cell phone text messaging but not necessarily Twitter,

• Concerned about health but very busy with other concerns

Stanford University, Spring 2010CS377v - Creating Health Habitshabits.stanford.edu

Weather or Not

The text message will tell her about the weather in local terms (it's super sunny on Wilbur field!) and have a bit.ly link to let her e-mail her residents

On an especially dreary/rainy day, the system may (or may not) remind her to provide Vitamin D to her residents, and to make things really random...

Grace wants to be a helpful RA and PHE but she's inside studying all the time

Fortunately, she has signed up for the "Weather or Not" service on her cell phone, that works a little like a slot machine

When it is an especially sunny day, the system will text message Grace in the afternoon at some unpredictable time reminding her to suggest sunscreen to her "kids"

At most once a quarter, the system will pick one RA, and have the other RAs "bomb" them with excessive sunscreen after fountain hopping

Stanford University, Spring 2010CS377v - Creating Health Habitshabits.stanford.edu

Prototype of "Weather or Not"

it's really sunnyout there, 74and brighton Wilbur!Put on sun-screen? bit.ly/sx

Stanford University, Spring 2010CS377v - Creating Health Habitshabits.stanford.edu

Features/Functionality

• The system keeps track of weather over the weeks, and detects positive (especially sunny) and negative (especially rainy / cold) anomalies in the nearby weather

• The system will then with some probability issue a text message at some period during the afternoon

• The text will contain a bit.ly link facilitating sharing information and the service with friends / residents

Stanford University, Spring 2010CS377v - Creating Health Habitshabits.stanford.edu

Theoretical Justifications

• In both gambling and game design, as well as learning theory, things are well learned if they occur at random intervals (when message is sent) and have unexpected rewards (sunny vs. rainy)

• To make this part of the Stanford culture, the text messages are localized, and there is a random element of the sunscreen bombing after fountain hopping to make it a memorable/peak experience

Stanford University, Spring 2010CS377v - Creating Health Habitshabits.stanford.edu

Other Research

• Background investigation into the ethics of encouraging sunscreen use:

• http://bit.ly/on-sunscreen

Stanford University, Spring 2010CS377v - Creating Health Habitshabits.stanford.edu

Shortcomings of Design

• Not clear what period/intervals work well, Twitter would be useful here but otherwise would require txt messaging infrastructure

• Will RAs/users eventually discontinue service?• Not tied into a particular life trigger,

piggybacking off of txt messaging trigger

• Not everyone has smartphone to consume bit.ly link on mobile device

Stanford University, Spring 2010CS377v - Creating Health Habitshabits.stanford.edu

Expansion - What else is possible?

• Other form factors or ID possibilitieso Sunscreen applicator implement subscribes to Twitter or text

messaging feedo Use of e-mail vs texting vs IMo Sunscreen bottle attaches to backpack / Vitamin D to umbrella?

• Other features and interactionso If enough people subscribe to the service, then there are more

gaming possibilities beyond randomly getting texted / sunscreen bombed, for example assigning sunscreen "targets" to users like the Assassins game

Stanford University, Spring 2010CS377v - Creating Health Habitshabits.stanford.edu

Next Steps in Design Process

• Contextual interview at RA's room, discover existing health practices / attitudes towards automatic texting

• Set up automatic randomized texting on a small group with weather data to understand annoying factor

Stanford University, Spring 2010CS377v - Creating Health Habitshabits.stanford.edu

Evaluation of Design Project

How well does the idea reflect concepts from class?

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How well does the design match the design brief?

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How viable/convincing is the proposed solution?

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Stanford University, Spring 2010CS377v - Creating Health Habitshabits.stanford.edu

Evaluation continued…

How well could this solution scale to reach many?

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How well does this document communicate?

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Bonus Points

How insightful is the proposed solution?

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Stanford University, Spring 2010CS377v - Creating Health Habitshabits.stanford.edu

Additional Comments:

Overall remarks or additional comments here