This week we focused on reframe! We worked to scope down our problem and problem space to a specific How Can We from our research insights. The key insights that will be driving our design process forward are:

1. Speed can be acquired, but comfort and durability is essential to achieve that.
2. The ability to put on and remove the device as well as change out the writing utensil in current solutions requires fine motor control that the users most likely do not have.
3. Necessary to help users pick up and choose a writing utensil to work with.

We came up with the following short/medium/long term goals for the semester:

1. Short term goal: ability to sign your name
2. Medium term goal: ability to write a whole page/paragraph at once
3. Long term goal: every one of us should be able to use it to take notes for a full class period (!!!)

as well as a few more quantitative measures of success:

1. Device can be used with at least 3 writing utensils
2. User can switch out writing utensils in a minute
3. Affordable – should be less than $30
4. Portability – it should be able to fit easily in a backpack/average sized purse
5. User should be able to put on and remove in 2 minutes

The biggest assumption that we’ve made so far, which we will have to test in order to measure the success of our (future) idea is that writing with the use of your wrist is comfortable and feasible in of itself (provides the range of mobility, etc.). By testing this ourselves as an empathy exercise and working with possible users, we should be able to get a better idea of whether writing with your wrist is reasonable.

Based off of our insights and measures of success, we reframed our problem space with this How Can We:

How can we create a durable, comfortable, modular device to assist users without the use of their fingers to write efficiently?