JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Home adaptation processes enhancing persons’ occupational engagement rely on identifying environmental barriers, generally during costly and time-consuming home visits performed by occupational therapists (OTs). Relevance of a 3D representation to this work of OTs has been attested but a convenient and low-cost technology to map the home environment is currently missing. For instance, such technology would support exploration of home adaptations for a person having disabilities with and without an OT visit.

Objective:

Document the development of a 3D mapping technology optimizing its contribution to the work of OTs conducting assessments in which home representations are essential to fit a person’s needs.

Methods:

A participatory design led by researchers where users are seen as partners not as subjects is reported based on Vandekerckhove and colleagues’ review. Occupational therapists, engineers, designers being either clinicians, researchers or students, as well as older adults and their relatives contributed by providing ongoing input at a varying level of creativity using 14 tools or techniques, notably demonstration, think aloud, usability testing, questionnaires and prototyping. Outcome measures relate to system acceptability as conceptualized by Nielsen after drawing conclusions by integrating data deductively.

Results:

Twenty-six stakeholders had a significant contribution to codesigning of the technology named MapIt during predesign, early design and post first prototype phases over a span of four years. Codesign anchored in the desire to enhance MapIt’s acceptability involved 11 iterations leading to a mobile application to scan a room and produce its 3D representation in less than 5 minutes. The app is available on a smartphone and paired with a computer software. While scanning, visualization and automatic measurements are possible on a smartphone equipped with a motion sensor and a depth perceiving camera, and a computer software facilitates visualization and allows manual measurement of architectural elements. Stakeholders’ perception was favorable regarding MapIt’s acceptability, testifying about its usefulness, meaning its usability and its utility. Residual usability issues as well as concerns about accessibility and scan rendering need to be addressed to foster its integration in clinical context.

Conclusions:

MapIt allows for quick and simple scanning of a room providing a 3D representation from images taken in real world settings. It allows remotely but jointly exploring home adaptations to enhance a person’s occupational engagement.