A little less stress...: Designing a stress monitor for employees with autism

A little less stress...: Designing a stress monitor for employees with autism

Van Hoevelaak, J.

Christiaans, H.H.C.M. (mentor)
Van Rijn, H. (mentor)
Van Abel, B. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

Industrial Design

Master of Science Integrated Product Design

2010-05-26

For people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) it is usually hard to find a job and stay employed: only few of them have a paid job. Often a person with ASD is capable of performing professional activities, but encounters problems with the social context of a job environment. People with autism have impairments in socialization, communication and imagination. These lead to problems with social interaction, misunderstandings and reduced empathy. In a professional context this might cause tension between employees with autism and their coworkers. Furthermore, these problems lead to a lot of tension in the person with autism himself. This tension decreases the level of functioning and reinforces the impairments. When tension builds up people with autism might respond in an undesired way, which eventually might lead to them getting fired. To stimulate job participation of this group, the Leo Kannerhuis started a number of projects. This graduation project, executed at Waag Society in Amsterdam, covers the design of a stress monitor for employees with autism. The stress monitor should raise awareness on the stress the user experiences during a day at work and it should help the user to deal with this stress. This project explored the technical possibilities to measure stress as well as the user’s context in order to develop an appropriate design proposal. Experts were involved in the fields of autism, stress, physiology and sensor technology. Furthermore, clients of the Leo Kannerhuis were involved as representatives for the target group. In multiple sessions their context and wishes were explored and finally the concept models were evaluated. The involvement of all these people was very valuable in this process and helped to develop a design proposal. Heart Rhythm Variability (HRV) turned out to be the most reliable indicator of stress. From user studies it became clear that it is important to the target users that the solution is not stigmatizing. Some employees with autism do not even want their coworkers to know that they have an ASD. Integrating an electret microphone in a wrist watch is proposed as a solution to measure HRV in a non-stigmatizing way. From HRV the user’s level of stress is deduced and the user is informed on high levels of stress using the ‘pebble’. The pebble is a stone-shaped object that attracts the user’s attention by means of a vibration signal and informs the user on the stress measured by means of colored lights. Furthermore, it provides the user with a breathing pattern in order to relax in times of stress. The user is also provided with the possibility to respond to the measured stress level by adjusting the stress color according to his feelings. On the long term, this self-reflection might even help the user to identify indicators of stress himself. The design of the pebble allows the user to choose the preferred way of using it. The pebble can be put in the user’s pocket to avoid a stigmatizing effect, or it can be placed on one’s desk to involve coworkers in dealing with stress. All stress data is recorded and can be accessed via a personal reflection website. Most people with autism have a job coach that visits them at work regularly. The visualization of stress data can be used in these meetings to identify problems and reflect on them. In the long term it might even help to try and avoid stressful situations. An appropriate job increases self-esteem and contributes to the perceived quality of life. This report presents a design proposal as a direction for further development. Hopefully the continuation of this project will help people with an ASD in their daily work.

Autism
Stress
Biofeedback
Job participation

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:092aa18a-cf58-486d-a4d3-f4e8917bd7ce

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2010 Van Hoevelaak, J.