Table of Contents

• Preliminary Research
• Low Fidelity Prototype
• Medium Fidelity Prototype
• Final Product

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Preliminary Research

Domain Space

I have chosen to explore and tackle how both parents can improve their interaction with their child this improving the mental health of the younger person. This can be done by refining and making it more accessible to the general family members. Specifically, the domain space I am trying to solve is to create an environment that makes it easier for people in divorced families to communicate and interact with their children. This can be through the parents themselves or with the inclusion of extended families.

Research

Towards the start of the assessment proposal, almost all my preliminary research come from desk research into research papers, academic studies into the target audience, and existing solution linked to the problem space. From this research, a more thorough understanding of the domain space as a whole was gained which helped build an initial design for a concept.

In grasping the domain space, a research paper by the Australia Institute of Family Studies was extremely beneficially in determining 3 aspects of research:

• Background research and demographic (1.1, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2)
• Communication and relationship during separation (3.3, 3.4, 3.6)
• What children found to be of assistance when dealing with parental separation (5.0)

Click this link to access the paper.

Existing Solutions

As a starting point in wrapping my head around possible solutions in the space, I analysed closely a study paper which analysed what can be learnt from experiences of people who interact and participate in social technologies of this demographic. Specifically, they conducted peer-to-peer evaluations as for individuals’ reasons to not participate in these kinds of social technologies. Although this paper does not explicitly handle with divorced families, the demographic of people who have somewhat been isolated is the same; being the child and elderly. Overall, since this is a domain that is very private, one of the hardest design decisions is making the application trustworthy for these families.

Concept

From findings from analysis of research papers, I have created a concept design which will act as a sociotechnical intervention which creates a personalised space for divorced families to share photographs and videos of each other’s lives. This will include posting events in their life, live streaming with their child if they live far away, and personal messaging. This can be a space for all parties (children and parents) to communicate and share what activities they are doing on a daily basis. This is an idea that can reduce the amount of separation the child has with their parents. Over time, this would strengthen the friendship of parents which would cause the child to feel less negative mental health effects.

Since this a concept built on very little feedback from interviews, I have conducted myself, the UX design will likely change in evaluations of the prototype.

Low Fidelity Prototype

Below is a link and visual representation of the low fidelity prototype. Right now, there is no functionality that has been created. In designing this prototype, my main aims were to show the 3 main functionalities of the application. This being:

• The recent posts and activity page
• Live streaming
• Posting your picture/status

Furthermore, being a low fidelity prototype, there is currently no interactive element such as buttons.

Prototype Images

UX Design

Overall, there are several factors that describe user experience. It defines the usefulness, usability, credibility, accessibility, desirability, and findability of a given product (Morville, 2020). In this space, the usefulness, credibility, desirability are huge factors in helping the concept succeed.

To have an effective user experience, goals were set to ensure the user experience is efficient and effective. Some of these goals are outlined below:

• I want to post and add photographs and messages to my activity page
• I want to see and reply to other people’s activity
• I want to invite multiple people to a video call
• I want to personally message someone on the application

Evaluation Method

For the first evaluation method on the low fidelity prototype, I used a TAM survey accompanied by a post survey interview. I decided to use this since it is a good starting point for any evaluation process and is a very quick and easy way to gain accurate data on the design of UI elements and effectiveness of the app. For the post survey interview, it was a chance for the tester to give any extra feedback on how they felt using the prototype. This was accompanied by questions I designed before the session.

Design Directions and Insights

From this round of evaluation, it found a number of different commendations and frustrations within the app:

• Firstly, look further into production of the app, one of the interviewees stated that it could be a very empty space having only 3-4 people interacting with it. From this, after some research, the target audience has been extended to include other family members such as grandparents or people living overseas or far away. From research, it was found that ‘extended family, particularly grandparents, were identified as playing a potentially vital role in supporting children and young people during their parents’ separation’ (AIFS, 2018).

• Looking at the distribution of results from the TAM survey, the answer given in the perceived usefulness 5 area was scored low by all participants. This being if the mobile app enables me to make better decisions in utilizing communication with my parents. A possible solution to this issue is to possibly add some sort of achievement activity system. Somewhat like daily bonuses or rewards or interacting with the application daily. This interactive element could be used to help people have a positive attitude towards using the application.

Medium Fidelity Prototype

From the above evaluation and analysis and more, the UI elements and functionality of the prototype has been improved with working buttons and links. Some changes that were made include:

• Creating working buttons
• Creating more pages of the app
• Update navigational bar

Interactive Prototype

Final Product

For the final prototype for the application, there was no physical evaluation process that took place such as a cognitive or heuristic walkthrough. This was mainly due to unforeseen time constraints. Therefore, during production of this prototype, finishing touches to the application was applied such as more colourful UI elements. Furthermore, all of the main buttons are functional.

Final Prototype