In order to validate my first prototype idea, our lecturer Birgit Bachler encouraged me to get in touch with a nearby interest group in Graz: Institut für Epilepsie IFE.
In the course of a 45-minute meeting, I was able to demonstrate my paper prototype on site and ask questions about my research results and the experience of my contacts. Regina and her colleague were very interested in my project.
Starting an alert to bystanders
Speaking from experience, Regina and her colleague told me that working with sensors to detect an aura before a seizure is much more feasible for a person who is going to have a seizure. Many people do not recognize the onset of a seizure, and when they do, it takes too long to manually activate an alert in the open app. Examples of such inputs are Fall Detection and Brainwave Detection.
Visibility of wearable devices
Some of the studies I found suggested making electronic devices less visible. Contrary to what I found in my literature review, Regina and her colleague never met people who were reluctant to wear conspicuous devices for fear of stigmatization. Instead, they are happy to have them.
Advancement: Expressing gratitude to bystanders
Regina and her colleague responded positively to my planned feature that would allow people to reach out to their supporters by leaving contact information. They had never seen such a personal approach in any device and thought it was a nice idea for human relations.
Advancement: Tailored emergency information
Throughout the conversation, we talked about different types of epileptic seizures, especially those that are not really addressed by technological solutions. They explained that tonic-clonic seizures are most associated with spasmodic movements, but seizures that are expressed through confusional states are often overlooked. When I explained my idea for an individualized feature, Regina and her colleague were excited about the idea: Allowing people with epilepsy to view emergency information tailored to their own form of epilepsy could potentially provide more targeted first aid.
Choice of medium
When I asked my contacts about an appropriate medium for my endeavor, they confirmed that a mobile application is indeed appropriate from their point of view. It doesn’t require anything more than a smartphone, which many people already have. Also, most of the people they treat are used to the existing technological solutions, which in most cases include a smartphone. In fact, they gave me a printed version of a seizure care pass where people can write individual instructions for their own condition. The downside is that this document can easily be overlooked by first responders and the content is less appealing to read.
Log feature
When Regina and her colleague mentioned that some users would appreciate having a log where they could see past incidents, I showed them the feature in my paper prototype.
Conclusion
In the end, I was provided with a lot of informational material, a warm handshake, and the possibility to always reach back to Regina and her colleague. Overall, this step was really valuable to me and it did not take much effort to get quick and useful feedback, even when using a low-fidelity paper prototype to demonstrate ideas.
Next steps
Next, I would like to incorporate the feedback I received from the Institut für Epilepsie into the development of my prototype and possibly contact them if I need more expert opinions.
