This week, the ADDA team worked on defining the project scope and the prior knowledge surrounding ADHD. We identified the magnitude of the problem, including how it impacts our users’ daily lives and how our solution would be able to apply to other similar communities, like other mental health illnesses. Then we focused our attention on the current knowledge, researching on statistics, assumptions, questions, personal experiences, connections, and any easy solutions. We unearthed a lot of assumptions surrounding ADHD symptoms, like how it is only exhibited through hyperactivity, and thus only present in boys, and how it isn’t a “real” disorder, but rather a combination of someone being lazy and unmotivated. 

This influenced our understanding of the problem, by fleshing out the many nuances of ADHD and how we should proceed with clear facts and statistics backing our decisions. It is important to go through this step mainly so we establish a clear baseline understanding of the problem, especially since the team members are not entirely familiar with ADHD from a personal standpoint.