Boombox: Strengthening Social Ties in the Midst of Social Distancing
Our project seeks to address social isolation among Sree Narayana Mission Home (SNMH) residents through the use of technology. At first glance, it might seem peculiar that residents in a home would feel isolated. There is an assumption that the physical presence of other seniors in the nursing home equates to each resident having a robust social network. This is a misconception.
Through our project, we hope to raise awareness about this forgotten group's social needs and design an actionable solution. Using Design Thinking principles, we developed a device to facilitate meaningful social interactions among residents and staff within the nursing home as well as with their family members and friends outside of the home. We call it the Boombox.
What were the motivations behind this project?
We started this project as a group assignment for CLC3303 Community Leadership. The assignment required us to identify and define a social/community issue and to design a sustainable and impactful solution in collaboration with members of the community.
As we searched for a community to work with, Niki suggested SNMH as he had been volunteering with them and noticed that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the opportunities for face-to-face interactions between senior residents and volunteer groups ceased, and social interaction between these groups were reduced and have remained virtual since March 2020. We wanted to leverage the team’s assets to address this issue.
With the Design Thinking principles that were taught in CLC1101 Engaging and Building Communities, and Niki’s training in NUS School of Engineering’s Innovation & Design Programme (iDP), our team was keen to harness the capabilities of technology and artificial intelligence to address SNMH’s residents’ social needs, and by extension, develop solutions to address social isolation in elderly care facilities in Singapore.
Were you able to achieve your initial goals?
Given the time constraints of the 13-week semester and restricted visits to SNMH due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we were only able to produce and pilot a prototype with the residents and staff members, and along the way, raise awareness of social isolation among seniors living in nursing homes as an under-served and growing community. While our initial plan to roll out a large-scale implementation of the BoomBox in SNMH was not achieved, we were able to identify relevant technology tools, such as artificial intelligence-aided exercises and touch-screen cognitive games, that would engage volunteers and residents in activities, in remote settings. This at least allowed us to meet the objective of our assignment.
Tell us more about the Boombox!
The Boombox is modelled after a computer and has simplified functions for seniors to communicate. What sets it apart from other similar devices in the market is that we have customised it to the suit needs of the residents of SNMH and designed to complement existing programmes within the home.
During the ideation stage, we followed the principles of Design Thinking and spent time understanding the residents’ likes and wants before investing time to create something for them. We had rounds of discussions with nurses and residents, before embarking on this initiative.
Once we developed a prototype, we engaged staff and residents of SNMH with the prototype and received valuable feedback that allowed us to further tweak the device to better meet their needs. The engagement also flagged areas that we may take for granted. For instance, the space bar is the only button on the keyboard that is not labelled, and through testing the prototype with the residents, we realized that some of them do not know what the space bar is for because it is not labelled. We then made sure to label or provide prompts for different parts of the device.
Were you able to apply concepts that you learned in class to the practicum? If so, how did you do so?
Through CLC3303 Community Leadership, we learned techniques for leadership within group settings and did in-depth reflections on our own personal styles of leadership. These reflections helped our group breeze through the initial rocky phases of starting group work, allowing us to efficiently work on solving our identified issue. We also learned some valuable theories on negotiating with other parties that we used in our solution generation with SNMH staff.
Team Members:
Alyssa Hoon Su Ying | FOS, Life Sciences '22
Andrea Ang Si Min | FOL, Law '21
Willoughby Niki Lee Yan Xing | FOE, Electrical Engineering '22