How do we want to deal with medical devices in our daily lives?

How can we de-stigmatise daily medication and the pill box? How could we provide a proper medication management? MEMO is an approach to provide a safe medication by guiding and notifying the user and, what's more, turning daily medication into a more pleasant experience.

The pill dispenser guides the user through a proper medication by showing different behaviors through light, motion and sound. Compared to nowadays pill dispensers that use typography and displays, MEMO is an ambient display itself to notify when necessary but giving the user his/her freedom and independence.s

How do we want to deal with medical devices in our daily lives?

How can we de-stigmatise daily medication and the pill box? How could we provide a proper medication management?

Medicine saves lives but taking medication the wrong way or simply forgetting taking your medication may have fatal consequences. MEMO is the result of a 10 day workshop in collaboration with two students from the Interaction Design Program and two students from the Advanced Product Design Program at Umeå Institute of Design, Sweden. The workshop was part of the Industrial Sound Design Projectin which students worked on topics where sound may be implemented in the final product.

The motivation of the project started with the common issue of forgetting to take your daily medication. When depending on taking medication several times per day, MEMO acts as a notifying assistant, reminding you when and what medication to consume. The approach of the project focused on how to create a more pleasant experience when taking medication while at the same time keeping a safe and clear communication between the product and the user.

As people come of age and the tendency of forgetting things increases, relatives or caregivers might have to deal with reminding and dispensing the person's medication. MEMO stands as an element in between the two, reminding the user when to take the medicine but notifying the responsible persons if the medicine is not taken in time. This way their stress can be reduced while the individuality for the user can be strengthened.

Medication management is still a stigmatised subject and the act of taking medication may provide an unpleasant experience. MEMO is focusing on de-stigmatising the process both through its way of communicating with motion, light and sound but also through its aesthetics making it a product fitting any place at home.

Through a process of ideation and sketch models,Wizard of Ozuser tests were conducted with focus on how users experience motion, light and sound. The goal was to create a product thatnotifiesthe user without being stressful and alarming. The tests provided valid information for the final design and interaction of the product. A final model was built which included programmed Arduino components to add sequences of sound and light. The model was used in the documentation of MEMO in form of a short movie explaining how the product works in its context with the user.

MEMO consists of one medical dispenser, "the vase", and seven pill boxes for one week of medication. Each pill box includes four compartments for the daily medication. Each of the seven pill boxes is differently coloured in order to better differentiate the week days. The vase is able to identify the position of each pill box and when it is time for medication motion engines set the pill box in motion. This allows the responsible person and the user to put down the pill boxes in any position in the vase. A battery in each pill box enables light for each of the pill box compartments that lights up when guiding the user which compartment to take the medicine from. The battery charges through induction when standing in the vase.

MEMO is an approach to simply turn daily medication into a more pleasant experience.