Handly
A hand and wrist rehabilitation assistant application.
Overview
My capstone project for the final year at ATU (Atlantic Technological University) Sligo. I created a physiotherapy assistant application called “Handly”, which aims to provide a gamified rehabilitation experience to patients who are recovering from hand wrist injuries.
Role
UX/UI Designer, UX Researcher
About the Problem
Research revealed that there is an existing issue surrounding patient adherence to prescribed treatment exercises. This mean that a great deal of patients never fully recover from their injuries, and will live with the pains and mobility deficiencies for the rest of their lives. There are several reasons why this issue is observed, however, the main addressable causes are:
Difficulty in maintaining patient engagement.
Difficulty in understanding how to perform exercises.
Difficulty in maintaining an exercise schedule.
Traditional physiotherapy is expensive.
Goal
Build an engaging and informative application with positive reinforcement that is equitable for users in a wide range of ability and socioeconomic status.
Ideation
Various sketches were made after conducting research. These sketches touched upon the use of different technologies, such as VR/AR, gyroscopic, and camera-based technology. While these approaches had potential to solve the problem, they were not equitable solutions. These designs would not work for users with lower incomes who could not afford VR/AR devices, or phones with advanced sensors.
It was clear that the best solution was going to be the simplest one. The final design took inspiration from the previous ones but focused on making the user perform movements in the hand and wrist in an engaging manner rather than the technology that tracks the movement.
Final Product
The final product was built using custom assets in Figma. The screens were linked together to create interactions. The prototype covers the main features of the application, including a brief stretching session and game session as well as all other necessary screens. The final product is a simple, usable and enjoyable application that utilizes the bare minimum of smartphone technology in order to create an equitable experience for all users.
