Radical Applications with Radical Connections
By Justine Walker (M.A. Music & Culture) Carleton, Pallavi Sodhi (M.A. Human-Computer Interaction) Carleton, and Manya Kakkar (M.A. Human-Computer Interaction) Carleton
Our READi Action Team was paired with Radical Connections to assist in the design of a mobile application that can be used by People in Care, either independently or in collaboration with a recreational coordinator, to book an interactive performance with an artist from the Radical Connections roster. Our central goals are to create an application that is accessible for a variety of individuals who have intersecting disabilities and to foster agency and independence through ease of use while also focusing on points of connection and collaboration between the artists and people in care. One interviewee emphasized that…
The personalities of the artists and their willingness to be involved is really meaningful. There are several people in care who are artists or they are arts inclined, so having an individual experience with another artist was really meaningful.
Our team’s work with Radical Connections was facilitated through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council funded CREATE-READi program (Collaborative Research and Training Experience-Research and Education in Accessibility, Design, and Innovation), an interdisciplinary research project that assembles students from Carleton University, UOttawa, and Queen’s in three small cohorts. Our team’s assignment was to collaborate with different local organizations to assist with the design of an accessibility-focused project that would benefit the organization and their community.
The initial stages of our project involved an environmental scan to gain a clearer understanding of the existence of other similar applications, what they already provided, what could be improved upon and what should be added to our final design based on the needs of our client. We had the benefit of interviewing a resident, a recreational therapist/coordinator, and a performing artist to gain more insight into how the current booking process works and how this could be transformed into an accessible application. The common-thread from our three interviewees and one of the most compelling takeaways was an emphasis on connection, collaboration, creativity, and accessibility. Some of the many elements we discussed with our interviewees were the size of the buttons, icons, colour contrast, app flow, facilitating communication between the artist and the Person in Care, and an avenue to send thank-you videos or voice notes after a performance. Currently, our Action Team is creating personas and user journeys and then prototyping the application. We hope that our project will help to facilitate deeper connections between people in care, caregivers, and artists.