Mask Adherence Design Research
Academic
Increase mask adherence for elementary and middle school-aged children who have physical and mental disabilities.
Project
Taking Northwestern University’s Design Research class, I worked in a team of four students to conduct research aiming for understanding the issue of mask adherence among children who have physical and mental disabilities.
Methodology
Initial interview
“[Students] NEED that visual and need to be able to imitate that visual in order to make those sounds.”
“The parent is concerned with sending him on the bus without a mask, and what other students or families will think.”
“Kids with autism have sensory needs - so they need a totally different mask design.”
social listening
“[I] let my son pick out masks or decorate a face shield. He loves his masks if they have the things he enjoys.”
“My son who is 4yrs old can’t wear a mask so he wears a shield. I spoke to the pediatrician and she wrote me a letter for the school.”
“Every day I work with [my son] on [wearing a mask], and...it does not work. When we do leave the house, I am at his hip with a mask ready to hold it gently as I can over his nose and mouth when we get at all near others. There are definitely stares and even comments.”
“Mine doesn’t wear one because he doesn’t. I tell people that he has autism and his sensory issues won’t allow it!”
Insight
Prototype
Physical Prototypes
Digital Prototypes
user look
The disability category includes a very diverse set of people with diverse needs, confirming the usefulness of customization.
Teachers and caregivers are actually responsible for limiting oral fixation habits, so a pacifier device inside of the mask didn’t have as much design energy as we had originally thought.
Parents and caregivers have used their own "workarounds" to teach disabled children mask-wearing education and practice since the start of COVID, but there is an opportunity for continued educational platforms that could lead to widespread adherence.
Needs Assessment
Solution
Mask customization website
Social story character selection
Family receives the mask prep toolkit and watches the social story together
Mask adherence social story
After watching the social story, the child practices wearing masks while his dad tries on a clear mask
Reflection
We were only able to interview one child with disabilities. If we could do things differently, we would find ways to interview more children who are disabled in order to get a more well-rounded sample.
In an ideal world, we could have started problem solving for this very early on in the pandemic. That way, the tools the students needed to help them could have been utilized right away, and not after they had already learned about dealing with mask issues.
The category we chose included children with a variety of needs, which made designing a specific solution difficult. In the future, we could further limit the scope of the intended users.
MEET THE TEAM
My Roles:
Designer Researcher
Illustrator
Responsibilities:
User Interviews
Secondary Research
Social Listening
Insights Ideation
Design Research Frameworks
Final Solution Drawings
Social Story Animation