SNASK - Empowering the child to make his own food choices.

What if you had to plan every single meal based on the carbs? This is the daily routine for children with type-1 diabetes, an incurable lack of insulin production. Diabetes is one of world's most growing child diseases. It results in a high level of glucose in the blood due to the body's inability to produce and keep insulin. In short, it means that the body cannot regulate its own blood sugar and the patient needs to be closely monitored and undertake daily insulin injections.

Deciding what to eat is based on the carbs contained in each meal. For every 10 carbs, an intake 1 unit of insulin is needed before eating. Young children are too inexperienced to understand what and how much they should eat. Therefore, an adult always needs to be present in order to calculate carbs. When parents are away from their child, they worry about the case of hyper(hypo)glycemia, since 75% of children with type-1 diabetes usually fail to achieve the recommended blood sugar level, when they are not supervised.

We are introducing SNASK, a monitoring system for children with diabetes, that allows for easy flow of information between parent and child. SNASK uses infrared molecule scanning technology to provide nutrition data about carbohydrates and gives personalised recommendations regarding insulin intake. The child scans his food and receives instant (light&audio) confirmation from his parent that he can eat. Before eating, he can make his own insulin injection by pressing the button on the scanner.

The child also wears a patch that keeps track of his blood glucose levels and injects insulin when needed. It combines a glucose monitoring device (cgm) and insulin pump. All the data from the patch and the food scanner are sent to the parent's phone, enabling him to keep track of his child's health, even from a distance.The child's doctor is also able to examine blood sugar level records, and give personalised nutrition coaching.

SNASK, aims to empower children to make their own food choices and gradually give them the power to monitor their diabetes. As for the parents, they can feel more relaxed and keep track of their child's health even when they are far away.

JOURNEY

EMPATHIZE

We began our research by mapping out the complexity of type-1 diabetes. We found that the connection between parent child is put at a major stress when parents are constantly supervising their children, making them feel disempowered. To understand their relationship better, we sketched and acted out several scenarios.

IDEATION

Almost all existing products are solely aimed at adults. We wanted our design to be aimed at children, 6-9 years old. We envisioned it to be something that the child would be proud of and want to show to his friends.

EXPERT INTERVIEWS

We had several one-on-one interviews with nurses and specialists at Umeå University Hospital. The most valuable feedback that we got when showing our concept, was that its purpose should be to encourage the child to be more autonomous in regards to his condition.

PROTOTYPING

Our next step was to explore different sound design techniques, followed by Wizard of Oz testing. We 3D-printed a model of the scanner and programmed various light and audio interactions using Arduino. Finally, we built an interactive mockup of the application that is to be used by the parent.

EXPERT FEEDBACK

We got extremely positive reactions when we showed our concept film and prototype to nurses, dietists, children and parents at Umeå University, Hospital Diabetic Unit. Many thought that if produced, our product would be quite beneficial for both parents and children.

BENEFITS

Today parents fear of letting go of control, not even trusting other adults to take responsibility for their child. For example, a mother we met told us that she is too scared to let her son go on summer holidays with his friend's family.

With SNASK, parents can receive valuable information while at work, on vacation or when their child is at his sports practice.

The child can have the scanner always with him and send updates to this parents throughout the day, while the patch on his arm regulates his blood sugar level and makes the necessary insulin injections. In order to shorten the child's learning curve and empower him to be responsible for managing his diabetes, he actually chooses when to do an injection by pressing the button on the device.

LIGHT AND AUDIO FEEDBACK

The light and audio feedback is key part of the SNASK system. The four different colours indicate different modes, scanning, rejection, food approval (based on the carbs) and insulin injection.

QUOTES

"The most important factor is the child's own learning curve. The child needs to learn how to monitor his own disease, and make his own injections. With this tool, he could do this even when the parent is not there."

This project was a two week collaboration between two Master programs at the Umeå Institute of Design; MFA Interaction Design and MFA Advanced Product Design. Want to have a closer look how we approached the project? Check out our process video.

SNASK means sweets in swedish.

This project was a two week collaboration between two Master programs at the Umeå Institute of Design; MFA Interaction Design and MFA Advanced Product Design. Want to have a closer look how we approached the project? Check out our process video.