Prototyping self-care technology for people with hand osteoarthritis

Abstract

Osteoarthritis is the most common joint disease worldwide. Millions of people are suffering under its burden facing a continuous worsening and no existing cure. Hand osteoarthritis is one type, affecting hands and fingers, and thereby challenging an individuals daily life. Given the high prevalence within population and the pressure put on health systems, those are less capable of delivering adequate care within their financial boundaries. This situation demands a shift to a self-care approach, focusing on people empowerment. Technologies have already shown their benefits in supporting this shift and giving people capabilities to take care in their own hands, having the health system as a supporting and guiding instance. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to investigate and gain understanding of the challenges people living with hand osteoarthritis experience and therefrom derive the opportunities and implication for possible application of self-care technologies. An adapted user-centered design process was applied, with focus on user research and prototyping. During user research in-situ interviews were conducted with 6 participants, a focus group took place with 5 participants and a workshop was conducted with 8 participants. The resulting records were examined via thematic analysis. Based on the analyzed user research results, within the design process a persona, scenarios, design implications and a prototype were created. The results provide insights into the daily life with hand osteoarthritis from the individuals perspective, show symptoms, daily activities and coping practices, and further indicate gaps in the practice of self-care and technologies. Based on these results, we conclude that understanding the needs of individuals living with HOA is fundamental to build helpful technologies.