Cada Paso
Role: UX Designer
Methods: Generative Research, Qualitative Research, Participatory Design, Community-Driven Design
Team: Milan, Dario, Sarah
Context:
Cada Paso is a weekend walking program for families in East Harlem, formed in partnership between Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Service and local health providers.
Cada Paso’s year-round evolving curriculum of walks are tailored to address parents’ health concerns. By combining the physical activity of walking with educational content, conversation with allied health professionals, social networking and on-the-spot access to health resources we endeavor to empower families with the tools to preserve and enhance their health and achievement. Our families also participate in neighborhood transformation initiatives, to promote health and achievement for the whole community.
OverView
The Project
How might we educate and engage with children while their parents learn more about health resources that they have access to in the community?
The End Goal
To create interactive, affordable, seasonal activities for the Cada Paso community that engages both parents and children while educating them on the natural resources around them.
The Audience
1. Children ages 3+
2. Parents with multiple children
3. Single parent
4. Families of the Cada Paso community
Design Process
1
Observe
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Interviews
2
Brainstorming
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Design Questions
3
Ideation
+
Prototype
4
Test
5
Final prototype
observations
A lot of children participate in these walks with their parents or older family members.
Kids were not interested in the conversations between the health professionals and the adults.
Often times we would meet at a playground so the kids could play, but this would become a distraction for some parents trying to keep a careful eye on their kid(s) while listening to the healthcare professional.
Brainstorming
On post-it notes, my team and I wrote down everything we observed from the 2 walks we participated in.
From there we started mind mapping and grouping together post-it notes that fell under similar categories.
Design Questions
As a result of these mindmaps, we were able to hone in on our area of focus and form our design questions.
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How do we keep the children engaged?
How can these activities foster education-based interactions between parent and child?
How can these activities be educational?
How can these activities be cheap and sustainable?
Ideation+
Prototyping
Flexing our design chops we started to create basic sketches capturing our ideas of activities that would engage both parents and children.
Knowing that this program is a seasonal-based program we thought to have our activities reflect the seasonal changes!
Holloween
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Thanksgiving
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Takeaways
This and the 'Monster Bag' activity were successful in terms of the child-to-parent interactions, affordability, and education.
The educational element lies within the materials for each activity. For these activities, both child and parent need to find and use natural resources: sticks, leaves, etc. By getting participants to search for and use these materials it reveals how we can recycle materials for purposes of play!