Healthcare visits fall into the category of either Emergency or scheduled visits. Post-pandemic, a significant number of people are avoiding their scheduled and routine healthcare visits due to perceived risk of infection. Any delay in treatments could potentially lead to their condition worsening. The demographic of people avoiding their healthcare include people with reduced mobility ( wheelchair or crutch users) - who experienced a shortage of accessible transportation, people with per-existing conditions who were in-fact the most susceptible to contagious diseases, and lastly unpaid adult care takers. Our current mobility options, which include private vehicles, shared services such as Uber and public transport fail to cater to the unique accessibility and hygiene requirements of patients. This lead me to ask if it was possible to address this gap and create a new solution for a very specific purpose ? My research included understanding the pain points of users with a varying degree of mobility, such as the elderly, who found it challenging to enter vehicle with low ceiling and wheelchair user, who found transferring to the car seat tiring or sometimes impossible without assistance. Users also described how frequently touched surfaces, small enclosed areas with poor ventilation and crowding present in shared/public transportation was a cause of concern and lead to anxiety. During my process, I had used a combination of 3D models, tape drawing and projection mapping to ideate, validate and arrive at the final result. The end product was Neon- a non emergecy on demand mobility service designed to bridge the gap between home and healthcare. It is designed to have a minimal footprint on the road (smaller than a compact car), without compromising comfort of the passengers. Neon has a high ceiling and low floor, so that it’s easy for people with limited mobility to enter and exit the vehicle. In the interior, seats are designed to face each other, in order to provide comfort and security for the patient and also enable the caregiver accompanying them. Neon is wheelchair accessible, with an ejecting ramp that meets at curb height. At the center of the vehicle, a rotating pedestal orients the wheelchair user to their seats, and an innovative locking mechanism secures them in place. During their journey to the healthcare center, patients can have an on-route check up with the medical staff. Depending on the condition of the patient, the medical staff can activate the ‘Emergency mode’, where a blue cross illuminates on the exterior. With its many hygiene and accessibility features, Neon provides a seamless experience for the first mile of healthcare.

In my thesis project I explored the possibilities to enhance playful development in early childhood through physical-digital play experiences. During the research phase of this project I had the chance to learn from parents of young kids, experts in early childhood education as well as industry professionals from my collaboration partner Stokke. I found out that especially in the first years of early childhood, the abilities, interests and personalities of children change rapidly. Children tend to outgrow one-dimensional play experiences and unused toys pile up fast as parents constantly try to offer new playful learning experiences for their kids. While I established in my research that technology introduced in the right way can have great benefits for playful development in early childhood, I also found out that tech-enabled products for the youngest often get stigmatized as harmful and have to be designed in a child-friendly way so that parents can introduce them without feeling guilty. I discovered that kids develop best during play activities when other humans are involved. But shared play experiences for families are rare as both kids and parents live busy lives that often leave no room for free and expressive play together. My concept the Stokke Playpad builds on all of these research findings and offers a wide range of different play activities in one single product platform. Placed on the floor it creates a versatile play surface, where pressure sensors embedded in the textile work as input for different play experiences and visual (LED) as well as audiofeedback (speaker) help to facilitate playful interactions that children can understand. The Playpad is designed to fit the life of young families - it is portable, flexible to use, easy to set up, child-proof in its materiality, washable and convenient to store away after play. As it creates a spatial play environment it enables both shared play with others as well as independent solitary play. Activities can be chosen by the parents based on the kid‘s age, interest or playing situation and children can also choose, change and play independently on their own. The variety of play experiences this mat can offer keeps it attractive to play with throughout childhood and the play disc system allows parents to upgrade and buy new activities over time, so that they can offer their kids more play with less toys. The different play activities range from free and explorative play for the youngest to musical experiences or preschool learning games. This variety of activities brings great educational value through cognitive, creative as well as physical play. The spatial setup leads to more body movement during play which can have positive impact on health and development of young children and creates new opportunities for shared play that deepens the relationship between kid and parents. The Playpad is a multifunctional play platform that can grow with the changing abilities of children during early childhood. It bridges the gap between analog and digital play and provides a vision of how technology can enhance playful development during early childhood if integrated in a meaningful way.

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The purpose of this study is three-fold: First, to use the foot as a site for a study of form, materials and joints. Second, to investigate the form by studying it as a transformable group of component parts. Last, to ask the question, how does a product become malleable and changeable in terms of intent,transportability and its relationship to the body? / Master of Science