TUNE PALS

Musical Pals who encourage movement in kids with limited physical abilities

COLLABORATION WITH

Rhode Island School of Design

MIT Engineering

MIT School of Management

MY ROLE

Product Designer, UX Design Lead

MEET RAFI

Rafi is a 14 year old boy who loves to listen to music (Ed Sheeran to be exact),  goes to school, and has physical therapy (PT) every day. Rafi dislikes PT and does not find it enjoyable at all. There are few pieces of equipment that can help make PT more fun, however, according to his teacher, those products cost around $2,500

CHALLENGE

Design a product for children with quadriplegia to interact with in a physical way that provides excercise, fun and builds confidence. 

SOLUTION

Musical Pals who encourage movement in kids with limited physical abilities.

Lights up when interacted with to affirm and encourage

Sensor eyes to detect motion

Speaker facing user

Rounded and weighted bottom to not tip over

Bright colors and playful shapes

PROCESS

Research & Discovery

1

RESEARCH

existing products & conduct interviews

04

INSTITUTIONS

USERS

EXPERTS

33

16

2

create concepts and ideate the best ones

CONCEPTS

100

SKETCHES TO ADDRESS USER NEEDS

15

INTEGRATED CONCEPTS

3

PROTOTYPES

1

TUNE PALS

3

USER TESTING

test MVP prototype with users

Gain feedback from the user at every step. We received verbal comments on initial concepts and tested minimal prototypes.

Decisions driven by testing:

- shape

- attachment method

- game concepts

- additional features

Testing sensors and sound

Talking and testing with users like Rafi answered all of our questions on form, attachment, and additional features. Some conclusions that we drew:

1. SENSORS NEED TO BE RAISED OFF THE TABLE

2. OBJECT MUST NOT BE ABLE TO FALL OVER ( weeble wobble inspiration )

3. ADDITIONAL FEATURE: APP TO PERSONALIZE & COMMUNICATE BETWEEN CAREGIVER AND PARENT

4. MOVABLE OBJECTS  ( users vary greatly in level of physical ability )

4

FORM STUDIES

exploring shape and form

We explored forms though sketches, physical clay, blue foam & Rhino modeling. 

Blue foam for quick life size prototyping

Quick drawings to mimic where sensors would be

Cutout to fit a real speaker on the pal

Weighted bottom using clay to test "weeble wobble" effect

5

FINAL PROTOTYPE

form exploration, 3D-printing, and wiring

Final prototypes were modeled in Solidworks and 3D printed, sanded and painted to mimic the look of an injection molded piece.

Final prototype being tested with Rafi

MEET THE TEAM

Alex Breton

Beth Cholst

Elyud Ismail

Georgia Van de Zande

Lillian Krieger

Lily Fan

Mimi Tsai

Mounir Ouhadi