>> So next up we have Fuzzy Bird. A buddy for autistic kids that supports them
in good and bad times. This is Delft University of Technology, from the
Netherlands, and I'll switch you over to their presentation.
>>
Thank you.
So we're Delft.
My name is Max.
>> And I'm Sophie. And we would like to present to you the Fuzzy Bird, which
is a buddy for autistic children in good times and in bad times. This is a
photo made during the exhibition where we presented the Fuzzy Bird at Delft.
Our other teammates are Joseph and Astrid, and in the middle you can see Thomas,
who unfortunately couldn't make it. We are in our first year of our master
program called Design for Interaction in Delft, and we learn to design for real
people. But again for this project that turned out to be quite a challenge. In
America, one in 68 children is diagnosed with autism, which is a wide spectrum
of disorders with a shared set of symptoms. Thomas, the eight-year-old boy,
he's one of them. He's diagnosed with highly functional autism. He really
likes repetitive behavior, structure and order. And he really likes to feel and
squeeze and touch different kind of textures and materials. But in daily life,
he sometimes has a hard time with social interaction. And Thomas has a fear for
uncertainty. During this project, in the context of inclusive design, we tried
to design for the 1 percent, but see how all the new insights we gained could
also benefit for us all. So, like, for Emma, who is a very shy girl who doesn't
dare talk to other people, or Noah, who is just very nervous for his first day
at school. But let's pretend I'm Thomas, and I feel very tense. So I'll go to
my Fuzzy Bird and I'll start interacting with it. I will start squeezing and
touching, and when I squeeze the left green wing, you will see the Fuzzy Bird
tilt his head to the left and green lights will start to glow. It's a very
direct and understandable reaction for Thomas, which is very nice because
otherwise it would confuse me and now it reassures me. When I start hugging the
bird, the bird will start vibrating, and this cuddling movement will comfort me.
And by petting the head [chirping] the bird will make a happy sound. It will
make him very lively and friendly. I will trust the bird and I will even find
myself mirroring the bird. And after interacting with the bird, Thomas feels
comforts again, comfortable again.
>> So now if you met the Fuzzy Bird and you've met Thomas, I will go a little
bit more into detail about the process and tell you about the insights. So our
process is quite a roller coaster. It had some good times but also some bad
times. So we started off at a project with Eggy. Eggy, yeah, Eggy had some
flaws in the way it interacted with the user. Its movement was quite
unpredictable. And that caused a lot of stress amongst the user. So that led
to the insight that we shouldn't only focus on what the product should do and
also what it shouldn't do. So developing our concept, we decided to lay the egg
back in its nest to see what would happen. So we waited for some time and
suddenly Fuzzy Bird was born. [laughter] So also with this I can give you an
answer to the age-old question, what came first, the chicken or the egg?
[laughter] So with this concept, we went to see Helma, Helma Van Rijn, sorry,
Helma Van Rijn. She's a Dutch award-winning designer who is designing learning
toys for kids that are diagnosed with autism. She gave us a pretty
straightforward advice: You are not designing for the kids you were used to be;
you're designing for the one percent and you should really know your target
group. Because autism has such a broad spectrum, some things work at certain
people but don't work with other people. So you have to simplify your concept
to see what works and what doesn't. So that led to a little trouble. When
you're designing and you're doing research it's sometimes hard to synchronize
the way of conceptual thinking with the way of programming and broadening your
design. It's always important to test out your interactions to see if they are
working. So sometimes you have to simulate or mimic the technical part in order
to see if it's working. That led to our final, or not to a final, but led to a
working prototype which we tested at a primary school in Delft. It had some
kids with special needs, including Sam, who is highly functional with autism.
So we would like to share this impression with you that we made and I really
would like to point out the change over time of the facial expression of Thomas
or, sorry, Sam, and see how he interacts with the Fuzzy Bird. So Sam is
normally quite closed and shy, trying not to have eye contact. He starts to
explore what he can do with Fuzzy Bird. He starts hugging. That comforts him.
And he dares to speak up. We really think that user testing is one of the most
rewarding things in research and design, because you can really test out your
concept and see how it works. So I would also like to quote one of the teachers
who told us that when Bob was going back to class after playing with Fuzzy Bird,
he started interacting with other kids, telling about his experience with the
Fuzzy Bird. So we do not only think that the Fuzzy Bird can have an effect on a
short term but also maybe also on a long term. So here we are now with the
Fuzzy Bird here in Redmond. But we also want to take a look into the future to
see what the Fuzzy Bird can do. So I would like to quote one of the
psychologists who stopped by at our expo in Delft, and she told her -- she told
us that the Fuzzy Bird reminded her of a transitional object. That's an object
used by therapists to gain the child's trust and to make him open up and tell
about difficult events. So with these insights of inclusive design and
designing for the one percent, we can try to find insights that can help us in
designing for the rest, and to create a benefit just not only for Thomas but
also for Emma and also for Noah. So I would really want you to come to our
showcase and experience the Fuzzy Bird yourself. Thanks.
[Applause]
>> Thank you. That's a great picture.
Wednesday. So who would like to start?
That also happened between Monday and
>> You guys know you're doing well with this. I don't need to tell you. I
think -- I don't know, I need a Fuzzy Bird. Sometimes work gets kind of
stressful. And so it seems like a rather complicated issue, right? So you're
user testing and what you guys -- how many people have you actually tested?
>> We've tested with eight different kids.
of five to ten.
Boys and girls varying from the age
>> Very interesting. It's all kind of in the results, right, for what you're
going for here. And so a lot more testing, a lot more iterating would be great.
I think this concept is really, really strong. It could probably keep going.
There's probably quite a bit of innovation, quite a bit of additional features
that you could keep adding and a lot more that you can do with it. So that's
very exciting and what a great -- this is a platform. Look at this platform.
What an awesome platform. So, lovely, lovely. I'll leave it to you for some
critique.
>> Sure. Great job, guys. I think this is probably the most complete concept
out of all the kind of work we're seeing. I love the journey that you're
getting here, the fact that your prototype is fully functioning and you pulled
off the presentation and demonstration of it really perfectly. That's very
commendable and that you subjected this to user evaluation and really learned
through prototyping. That's all like just total magic for me in terms of just
getting out of the theory, building it and really learning from the hard knocks
and the experiences of seeing it in the hands of your target audience. Totally
commendable. Love the work. Great job.
>> Yeah, very thoughtful. Great storytelling. Beautiful job of putting the
story together and telling it and talking about the bits that were a bit, didn't
work. Like Eggy, just wasn't there. And the story, it was very neat and very
nice. I think the only thing that I would have liked to have seen, just because
you've done such a good job, something else, was thinking about other forms for
this. I know you went from Eggy to bird. But I kept kind of feeling a little
unsure about the form and the bird and the audience you were going for, even
once you get to school, would you take that to school with you? And, so, kind
of thinking about the world of stuffed animals and what was going to work for
people and it being a platform, basically. So that's just kind of next steps
really, like what else could you do. But a really nice project.
>> Thank you.
[Applause]
>>
We have time for questions from the audience.
>> Hi. Really interesting project. I'm very curious if you were able to
identify which aspects of Fuzzy Bird the children were responding to? Was it
the form of the interaction? Was it the physical shape and the presence of a
face or no face or did you have a way of testing that to find out?
>> I think they're reacting on both. We did not test how they reacted if it
was not a recognizable animal, bird without a face, so that might be very
interesting if that's actually necessary. But the direct feedback that the bird
gave and I think definitely the features of this softness and somewhere
cuteness. I'm not sure if you need the face word, but the movement, that
reaction.
>> Also the interaction with the bird is sort of human like in a small way.
you're touching it, you're trying different stuff. You're cuddly. That can
help in things that have to deal with autism.
>> Okay. Thank you so much.
[Applause]
So