Using design research to create robots for senior care

UBTECH, typically known for education, and hospitality focused robots, created an R&D office in Pasadena to explore new markets. We established healthcare, specifically senior living as a significant market opportunity. We were then faced with a series of design challenges:

• What problems need to be solved?
• How can robots help?
  

I supported, soup-to-nuts. This included everything from market research to UI design. I worked closely with product and engineers to help identify and define the best ways for robots to support and engage with seniors and staff in assisted living facilities.

Approach

It was clear Human Centered Design methods were needed. Contextual research allowed us to translate assisted living environments into features. Moreover, the research corroborated various findings from earlier market research. For example, we found a clear need for robots that fulfill social functions.

Various tools such as card sorting helped us prioritize features with seniors. Moreover, the approach allowed us to make some strong inferences about how different 'kinds' of technology would be received; for example, seniors were clearly sensitive to tools that appeared to replace, rather than augment, their own abilities.

Results

In under a year we went from nothing to a suite of prototyped robots. This involved several layers of definition, from audio and sound requirements and robot speed and NLP. We achieved all this and more, in time for the larger business to productize further.

Activities

• User Interviews
• Market Research
• Academic desk research
• Card Sorting
• Survey design and analysis
• In-situ contextual analysis
• Requirements analysis
• Interaction design

Work samples