This week it all came together.
Our need: To help physical therapy patients form a self training habit.
Our Niche: Working individuals with wrist ailments.
Since the object needs to help people form a habit we realized that the object would have to have a trigger (singling people to start training), that it would have to be part of the subsequent behavior of training (like a weight or a resistance ball), and that it would have to create the immediate perception of a salient reward (perhaps tactile feedback or maybe displaying training stats).
But how would we accomplish this? That’s where deciding that it was a product specifically for the wrist and used while people were working at their desk with computers in the office really helped.
From speaking with physical therapists we gleaned several tips on how to increase the chances patients will train. First they recommended to incorporate the training into daily tasks, ie. if a patient needs to do laundry, provide them with an exercise that can be done while folding. Next they said to make the training short, easy, and accessible.
With this in mind we decided that the object would need to be with patients while they are working on their computers in the office or at home for the entire regular working experience. We decided the best way to do this was for the object to first be a support to be placed under the wrist while working to reduce pressure and tension (similar to padded mouse pads and wrist braces). Since this object will be used at work we didn’t want it to disrupt the workflow and decided that the training trigger would only activate in moments where it recognises a person isn’t working. Next, we wanted to incorporate the object into the training itself as a weight and/or pressure ball during the common wrist exercises, while it records data on repetitions. Finally, we wanted to provide immediate feedback once a person stops training and returns to work; a short questionnaire that can be sent to the physical therapist and maybe some sensory feedback from the object.
Having this new niche and scenario enabled us to finally come up with the following Form Factors:
Small, Portable, Chargeable, built to optimise wrist support while typing or using a mouse (working), Attractive enough to sit on a desk in a modern workplace, Soft resistance - similar to elastic sand or rubber exercise balls.
And with this brainstorming session the wriSet was born!
wriSet an object that sets and resets physical therapy training habits in the work environment.
