Design for Digital Media: The Shield Bracelet - Essay Example

The Shield Bracelet: A Case Study Introduction Over the past few years obesity has become a major area of concern especially for the developed world. Obesity is not just a physical and cosmetic consideration but can also lead to various medical problems such as blood pressure and heart diseases. Although, obesity can be treated using drugs, such drugs have severe harmful side effects (Eckel 2003). Therefore, most experts recommend using exercise and diet to overcome this problem. However, keeping a tab on the daily calorie intake and other health related issues can become a tedious process. In order to solve these problems, the author proposes the use of shield bracelet, which enables a person to keep a count of his or her calorie intake. Furthermore, this device would also ensure to forward health-related information and statistics to the concerned caregiver, thereby, ensuring timely resolve of any disease. Also, such a device would be enormously helpful in case of emergencies, as the user can directly coordinate with his or her caregiver and seek the right medical treatment. In this study, the author proposes to discuss in detail the efficacy of such a device and its usefulness in the modern day healthcare system. The essay would also delve upon the cons of the device and address concern areas such as data sharing problems and privacy policies. Further, the report would formulate a business case for the product and create an effective marketing strategy after conducting a small market survey regarding the product. The report would also look into the human-machine relationship and how technology has become an integral part of human lives. This would help in analysing whether the device would be accepted as a part of our daily existence or would only be regarded as a technological device. The shield bracelet: A boon or bane The bracelet aims to help a user in self-monitoring his or her behaviour related to food habits and lifestyle changes. Further, the device would track the trend of the person’s behaviour and send a consolidated data to the caregivers for proper guidance to the user. Thus, the bracelet would help the user to not just self monitor his or her behaviour but would also collate the information regarding the user’s calorie intake and exercise regime. Although, the device is a convenient method for the user to control his or her behaviour and seek real time advice from the caregivers, the data transfer technology might result in breach of privacy policy if not monitored properly. Thus, this section aims at understanding whether the shield bracelet is a boon or a bane for the users. This bracelet is designed in a manner that it does not produce any skin irritation, which helps the user to wear it for a longer period of time. Further, it is water-resistant and light weight, which makes it comfortable to wear it without any problems. Weight and size of a person are also taken into consideration by the bracelet in order to make it compatible for groups. Also, the bracelet is not just inexpensive; it helps in tracking various activity of the user as well. For instance, the user can not only track the time of his or her exercise but can also send his calorie intake for the day to his dietician and seek real time advice. The device also comes with the features of calendars, calculators and event reminders to help the user to remember or track important events. Such a device is especially useful to track changes while modifying behaviour or undertaking any new activity. For instance, if a person is changing his or her exercise regime or eating behaviour, and would want to track the efficacy of the change, this device can help in easily monitoring the change and can give a comparative data to help the user make the right decision, The aim of this device is to help a person accomplish behavioural change goals. It helps in tracking calories, food consumption, nutritional intake, daily diet, fluid intake, exercise regime etc. and gives a comparative figure tracking the daily behaviour pattern by the end of every week or month. These figures are then discussed with the caregiver or dietician to gauge the progress and suggest the future course of action. However, such devices have a few problems as well, as they are heavily dependent on technology and software. In case the software gets corrupted, the data would be lost and the user has to start all over again. Also, such devices require batteries or additional output features to function accurately. Additionally, most of these devices have very little memory space and one need to constantly take back-up for the data. Also, as these devices are small in size, chances are one may loose it or misplace it. Therefore, it is imperative to create such a device at a low-cost and make it flexible so that it can adapt to behavioural changes very easily. The biggest problem faced by the user of such a device is data sharing issues. Healthcare is generally provided to the people through a network of collaborative efforts between local caregivers, insurance companies and hospital networks. Wireless technologies such as these kinds of devices although help in sending the information at real time to the concerned people, it also pose the problem of misuse of such data. As most of these technologies are fairly new and the caregivers are still getting used to them, most healthcare organisations find it difficult to handle so much of data and often overlook policies related to data sharing and patient privacy. Thus, it is imperative for the healthcare organisations to not just provide a means to send the information to them but also take care of issues such as patient privacy, data security, providing timely advice and good quality of care. Such a device needs to the monitored, especially electronic data sharing needs to be well regulated (Liu et al 2009). Eminent expert Baudrillard has rightly said that often too much of information also create problem. In his book ‘Simulacra and Simulation’, Baudrillard said, “We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning. Consider three hypotheses. One that information produces an inference or a meaning, but not enough to make up for signification loss in every domain. Two, information is not linked with signification. It is another entity, possibly another order’s operational model. Or three, all things are just on the opposite, on the contrary, which implies that there is a strong link between the two, so much so that information imposes a direct destruction on signification and meaning, almost to the point of neutralizing them (Baudrillard 1994). Thus, one clearly needs to be weary of the problem of plenty and should be able to weed through the plethora of information to select only the important ones and analyse them accordingly. In case of this device as well, the caregivers need to study the case history of the user carefully and check the statistics to arrive at a conclusion rather than getting overwhelmed by the amount of information presented by the device. Although, the device might have several shortcomings, these can be easily addressed through careful monitoring and regulations. And if regulated well, such a device can be a boon for the user and many can not just self-regulate their behavioural patterns but can also get timely advice incase of emergencies. Business case In this section, we would undertake a small survey to understand the acceptance of the product among its target audience and find out whether this product would generate business for the manufacturers or not. The survey would help in establishing the factors that influence a customer to buy such a product and whether such products are seen as a part of their daily lives or just another gadget. This is the most important part of the survey as the device aims to modify a person’s behaviour and therefore, it is essential for an user to establish an emotional connect with the device and not just consider it as a gadget or gizmo. The survey would be conducted through a questioner, wherein the users would be asked certain questions regarding their preference for such behavioural modification devices and their decision to buy such devices. Once the data has been collected, the researcher would analyse it to find out the correlation between the product and the customer. Data collection is the most important part of this research, as wrong data set can give wrong interpretation and therefore, wrong hypothesis. Thus, the researcher needs to be very careful while conducting the interviews and should only survey those people who either own or intends to buy such devices. The researcher would use qualitative research methodology for undertaking this thesis, as qualitative research is significant for investigating this correlation between the product and the customer. A qualitative methodology is appropriate for this subject matter, as it helps the researcher in providing an initial understanding of the underlying reasons and motivations of the consumers to buy a particular product. Qualitative research helps a researcher to understand how and why people feel in a certain way, as the research deals with collecting in-depth information about why people behave or think in a certain collective manner (Denzin 2005). The qualitative researcher aims to gather information that helps him or her to understand human behaviour, as well as find reasons behind their acting in a certain manner. The researcher through qualitative methodology tries to find out why and how a decision is arrived at, what were the reasons that made the person to make such a decision, as well as when and where that particular decision was taken (Loseke 2007). Additionally, qualitative research provides detailed information about complex issues such as understanding the pattern of human behaviour, emotional stress level, and perception of a human being about such devices. The survey findings revealed that such devices connect emotionally with the people. The survey especially tried to understand the relationship between the latest technological revolutions of ipods with human behaviour. As ipods are also a device that depends on human behaviour and mood modification, it was a closest match for the shield bracelet. In the survey, the ipod users conveyed that they perceive ipods not just as a gadget or gizmo, but it has become a part and parcel of their lifestyle. Ipods have become synonymous to their favourite music and according to their mood for that particular point of time; they listen to their personalised play list. Thus, ipods became the reference point for all such behavioural modification devices. On probing further, the survey also revealed that most ipod users connect emotionally with their devices. In this age of personalised services and products, ipods are a perfect example of a flexible device that moulds according to a person’s mood or behaviour. This theory can also be transposed upon the shield bracelet as the bracelet also aims at modifying the behaviour of a person through personalised programmes. The survey also helped in profiling the potential customers, mostly from the middle-income and higher-income brackets, who are more conscious of their diet and exercise regime and pay regular visits to the gyms. Most of these people were keen to know more about the product and especially the feature wherein, they can send their details to their respective dieticians or caregivers. They perceived the product as a part of their life and not just another gadget, which can play an important part in the marketing initiative. The manufacturer should keep this in mind while formulating a marketing campaign and should establish an emotional appeal of the product to the customer. Furthermore, the campaign should also focus on advertising the many features of the product, especially the data transmission, highlighting the benefits of such a feature. However, the campaign must also take care of the data security aspect and assure the customer that their data would not be misused (Thomas 1993). Therefore, the survey revealed that the product due to its innovating features such as connecting directly with the caregivers and getting real time advice and information would help in creating a niche for the product. With the help of intelligent marketing efforts and clever advertising strategies, taking into account the above mentioned suggestions, the manufacturer might draw a profitable business plan to market the product to its targeted audience (McGrath 2004). Man and the machine The relationship between human beings and machines is aptly described by Steven Johnson in his book “Interface Culture: How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate” in these words: "There's a funny thing about the fusion of technology and culture. It has been a part of human experience since that first cave painter, but we've had a hard time seeing it until now." He further talks about the “unnerving gap between raw information and its numinous life on the screen”, which is controlling our emotions through computer screens and softwares. Johnson in fact talks about the ramifications of such dependence on machines for the human existence. He traces the emotional connect between machines and human being. He suggests that the connection between a machine and human being is not merely that of convenience but machines have become such a part of human existence that it has also gotten seeped into our culture (Johnson1997). For instance, our dependence on search engine google has given rise to the term ‘googling’ for any information gathering activity. Now, most users instead of saying searching for data, use the term ‘googling’ for information. Thus, Google has become much more than a search engine, it has become a part of our life, our existence. Therefore, the line between machines and men is getting blurred day by day. Even eminent expert D. Bell is of a similar opinion. In his book, “Cyberculture Theorists: Manuel Castells and Donna Haraway”, Bell opined, “I like to corral all kinds of things together in cyberspace; not just computers and software, but also digital devices such as MP3 players, or BlackBerrys, or new medical imaging technologies, cyberpets, digital animations and simulations of all kinds - and so the list goes on. All these things, and many more besides, are connected together, in some way or another” (Bell 2007). The inter-dependence between the machines and men is evident in the above quote. Such devices are no longer any fancy gadgets but have become a part of us, a lifestyle that defines our individual taste and style (Raskin 2000). Conclusion The research reveals that the shield bracelet is not just a device for self-assessing or self-monitoring behavourial changes, but it is also an emotional connect between the efforts of the user and the results analysed by the device. Further, it has a good market amongst its targeted audience, who are especially allured by its data sharing functionality. However, the healthcare experts should be careful about data sharing policies and should not breach customer confidentiality by disseminating personal information of the customer to the third party. If the data sharing functionality is well regulated and monitored, the product can become a revolution in the market due to its unique design and technique. References Baudrillard, J. (1994). Simulacra and Simulation. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Page 79. Bell, D. (2007). Cyberculture Theorists: Manuel Castells and Donna Haraway. Routledge. Denzin, Norman K. & Lincoln, Yvonna S. (2005). Introduction: The discipline and practice of qualitative research, In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research (3rd ed.). Pages 1-32. Eckel, R. H. (2003). Obesity: mechanisms and clinical management. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Johnson, S. (1997). Interface Culture: How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate. HarperEdge. Liu, Xia, Liam Peyton, and Craig Kuziemsky (2009). A Requirement Engineering Framework for Electronic Data Sharing of Health Care Data Between Organizations. Springer. Pages 279–289. Loseke, Donileen R. & Cahil, Spencer E. (2007). Publishing qualitative manuscripts: Lessons learned, In C. Seale, G. Gobo, J. F. Gubrium, & D. Silverman (Eds.), Qualitative Research Practice: Concise Paperback Edition. Pages 491-506. McGrath, M. E. (2004) Next generation product development: how to increase productivity, cut costs, and reduce cycle times, McGraw-Hill Professional. Raskin, J. (2000). The humane interface: new directions for designing interactive systems. Addison-Wesley. Thomas, R. J. (1993). New product development: managing and forecasting for strategic success. John Wiley and Sons. Read More