Developing interactive interfaces for people with developmental disabilities to be used in Snoezelen environments
(2014) TNS820 20141Certec - Rehabilitation Engineering and Design
- Abstract
- Much of the equipment used in Snoezelen environments today is not interactive, and the equipment that is interactive can be hard for the user to access. By having interactive equipment in Snoezelen environments the user gets to experience and hopefully better understand the concept of cause and effect.
The purpose of this master thesis has been to develop an interactive interface that can appeal to a wide range of users. The target group has been adults with developmental disabilities and sensory deprivation. By a small effort they should be able to get a response from the interface.
To do this different methods have been used, such as qualitative research methods and bodystorming. The work was developed following a user-centered... (More) - Much of the equipment used in Snoezelen environments today is not interactive, and the equipment that is interactive can be hard for the user to access. By having interactive equipment in Snoezelen environments the user gets to experience and hopefully better understand the concept of cause and effect.
The purpose of this master thesis has been to develop an interactive interface that can appeal to a wide range of users. The target group has been adults with developmental disabilities and sensory deprivation. By a small effort they should be able to get a response from the interface.
To do this different methods have been used, such as qualitative research methods and bodystorming. The work was developed following a user-centered design method and an iterative design process where Snoezelen users from two different Snoezelen institutions in the Öresund Region participated. There were four visits to each place to get to know the environment, the staff and the users, and to perform tests with the users and the interactive interface.
The interactive interface is called Glownado. It is quite small and allows the user to interact in different ways, it can be approached, put into motion, and it has different tactile structure that the user can touch. This makes it easy to interact with Glownado, in a way that suits the user’s needs and abilities, which makes Glownado fit a wider range of users. The feedback the user gets is in form of wind, sound and light, and creates a multisensory stimulation localized to one area, which reduce confusion for the user. Depending on how the user interacts with it, it has different behaviors to respond to the specific action. It was important that the user got an immediate response to their action, to understand that they were the ones making it happen. Wind has never been implemented in interactive Snoezelen equipment before. It created a surprise moment, which made the users curious to continue explore. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/5266144
- author
- Svensson, Pamela LU and Viklund, Charlotta LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- TNS820 20141
- year
- 2014
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Snoezelen, Interactive Design, Arduino, Qualitative Research Methods, Multisensory Stimulation
- report number
- 2:2014
- language
- English
- id
- 5266144
- date added to LUP
- 2015-06-24 14:04:15
- date last changed
- 2015-06-24 14:04:15
@misc{5266144,
abstract = {{Much of the equipment used in Snoezelen environments today is not interactive, and the equipment that is interactive can be hard for the user to access. By having interactive equipment in Snoezelen environments the user gets to experience and hopefully better understand the concept of cause and effect.
The purpose of this master thesis has been to develop an interactive interface that can appeal to a wide range of users. The target group has been adults with developmental disabilities and sensory deprivation. By a small effort they should be able to get a response from the interface.
To do this different methods have been used, such as qualitative research methods and bodystorming. The work was developed following a user-centered design method and an iterative design process where Snoezelen users from two different Snoezelen institutions in the Öresund Region participated. There were four visits to each place to get to know the environment, the staff and the users, and to perform tests with the users and the interactive interface.
The interactive interface is called Glownado. It is quite small and allows the user to interact in different ways, it can be approached, put into motion, and it has different tactile structure that the user can touch. This makes it easy to interact with Glownado, in a way that suits the user’s needs and abilities, which makes Glownado fit a wider range of users. The feedback the user gets is in form of wind, sound and light, and creates a multisensory stimulation localized to one area, which reduce confusion for the user. Depending on how the user interacts with it, it has different behaviors to respond to the specific action. It was important that the user got an immediate response to their action, to understand that they were the ones making it happen. Wind has never been implemented in interactive Snoezelen equipment before. It created a surprise moment, which made the users curious to continue explore.}},
author = {{Svensson, Pamela and Viklund, Charlotta}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Developing interactive interfaces for people with developmental disabilities to be used in Snoezelen environments}},
year = {{2014}},
}