HELLO
“Practice in the virtual world, succeed in the real life”
Project Description
The name of the app is Hello and it’s a tablet app for higher grades elementary-aged children (9~12yr) who have mild Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
The main goal of our app is to help children with autism develop social interaction skills. It could also be used to help children with autism practice basic life skills (how to take public transportation, etc.), and help them develop personal interests/hobbies (drawing, etc.).
By providing different scenarios that children may encounter in daily life, children could learn how to behave appropriately in social life. It also reduces children's fear of socializing since they can practice at home by using the app.
Target Audience
The target audience of our app is higher grades elementary-aged children who have mild ASD and need to practice social interaction skills. It’s also targeted at special education teachers who would like to use our app as a teaching tool in classrooms.
Children with mild autism don’t classically hit all the criteria but they have some of the symptoms. They may only have a little language developmental delay, but still facing difficulties in communicating with others. Therefore, our app is helping these children do better in the areas they still struggle with, especially helping them to practice social interaction skills in this context.
Some of the children with mild ASD may still have a little trouble reading text and expressing themselves. Therefore, many audios, child-friendly visuals, and voice recognition features are being used in the design.
Main Features
2 Main Features: HELLO WORLD & HELLO ME
HELLO WORLD
HELLO ME
In HELLO WORLD, users will learn how to communicate with others appropriately and develop multiple life skills like how to take public transportation and use money.
In HELLO ME, users can develop their interests, practice their social interaction skills, and save what they draw or any other works they did to the My Gallery feature.
switch between two games easily
game map and each mission in the game is customized based on the user's experience shown in survey results (survey will be done at the beginning of the gameplay
Game Interface
voice command for users to select answers by reading it out loud, it is a way for users to practice communication
star collections are rewards, larger reward can be exchanged with more stars
voice reader function throughout the whole game
choices for response are created based on appropriate or not very good responses in real life situations
progress bar showing game progress
Other Features
personalized interface settings to increase accessibility and usability
places for keeping personal and game information
share game data for teachers or parents so that they can monitor children's behaviors
Interactive Prototype
This is a high-fidelity prototype that users can interact with. Click through the prototype for more experience with different features of the HELLO app.
Background Research
Researches show that children with ASD have difficulty with social interaction behaviors, including establishing and maintaining relationships, reciprocating social interaction, and communicating with others.
Many children on the autism spectrum need help in learning how to act in different types of social situations. They often have the desire to interact with others, but may not know how to engage friends or may be overwhelmed by the idea of new experiences.
Some effective methods to help them is to practice new social skills with them in different places and with different people. Links the skills to real life examples is helpful.
Storyboards
HELLO WORLD
In this storyboard, the main character is a little boy who has mild autism. He wants to go outside to play with other children, but he doesn’t know how to interact and communicate with them. His parents are very worried about him and one day his mom brings him a really interesting app. By using this app, he is able to go outside virtually and practice his social interaction skills.
HELLO ME
The little boy also would like to find his interests/hobbies. In this case, he figures out that he really likes arts after virtually visiting an art museum. The interests in art are further developed and he is able to create amazing artworks now!
Information Organization
4 main stages in the HELLO app: Login, Survey, User's Profile (Home), Hello World, and Hello Me games.
User's Feedback
Due to the covid-19 situation, this app was presented to college students and the class instructor. Feedback is collected from the viewers.
"Really nice interface design looks kid-friendly enough with the pastel colors and cartoon-inspired icons."
"I thought your abundance of interactions made the design seem so well thought out"
"I think it might even be a good activity for schools' special education programs to incorporate into their daily routine!"
"A little confusing for the user was figuring out the difference between "hello world" and "hello me"."
"Have you guys thought about including a monitoring feature for parents to monitor their children's progress and even more so, their physical location?"
"Could this app be updated to have questions about identifying facial expressions or understanding tone from voice, as some people with autism struggle with this?"
Application of Usability Heuristics
Visibility of system status - User's Profile (My Mission, My Star, My Gallery, Myself), user's location on the map, progress bar, real time gaming instructions.
Match between system and the real world - closely related to children's real life environments, missions based on real life situations, information appear in a natural and logical order.
Recognition rather than recall - real time gaming instructions, changes in the game are saved and visible to the user.
Help users recognize diagnose and recover from errors - feedback on decisions made in the game, explanations for understanding wrong moves that direct user to right moves.
Future Improvements and Expansions
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New user tutorial
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The level system in the game
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Alternative reward systems
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Incorporate in special education classrooms
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Augmented Reality (AR), implement real environments in the user's community