CODING, PHYSICAL COMPUTING, UX/UI
Meddy: Child-friendly pill dispenser
A digital pet companion designed to help kids develop medical adherence.
TEAM
Irene Justo, Sara Khalil
ROLE
Builder, Designer, Programmer
TIME
Oct-Dec 2024
TOOLS
Arduino, Figma, ProtoPie
Background
Chronic illnesses don't discriminate age. An estimated 10-30% of children suffer from chronic health problems, often having to take regular medication. Medication adherence is the ability to stick to a prescribed medication routine, however, a study found that 50-88% of children have trouble with this.
What's the Problem?
Pills are the most common form of medicine, but the products currently on the market to increase adherence aren't suitable for younger users at all—being either too complicated or lacking features to reinforce positive behaviour.
Market Insights
According to a WGSN forecast, the market for automated pill dispensers is estimated to grow at rate of 9.5% reaching a value of $4 billion by 2027.
An Opportunity:
The lack of a solution for pediatric medical adherence paired with the projected growth and demand of automated pill dispensers presents an opportunity to address the gap in the market by creating an automated pill dispenser that is designed for the needs of children.
Meet Meddy!
“Meddy” is a combination of “medicine” and “buddy”—a digital pet companion that functions as an automated pill dispenser. It takes into consideration the behaviours, preferences and cognitive levels of children.
Its conceptual and UI design borrows market trends from WGSN, while serial data communication using Arduino and ProtoPie work together to create gamified process that makes medicine-taking less intimidating for kids.
FUNCTIONALITY
How Does Meddy Work?
Medication Times Setup
Parents would set up a time range for when the child is expected to take the medicine.
User Detection
Using a sensor, Meddy will detect if the child has walked by within that time frame and activate a jingle to catch their attention.
Interaction and Dispensing
Meddy will communicate with the user asking if they're ready to take their pill and dispense it if they are.
ADHERENCE
Keeping Kids Engaged
The two main parts to increase medication adherence is gamification and companionship.
Every interaction with Meddy will feel like talking with a friend. Missions will also be given out by Meddy which the user can complete by taking their medication. By completing missions, the user is under the impression that they're helping out Meddy which reinforces companionship as it will feel like they're helping out a friend. Being able to see how close they are to the goal of helping Meddy will make the child look forward the next interaction.
PROCESS
The Journey
The project was broken down into phases following the Double Diamond:
