Instructable

We also made an instructable on how to make the product. Because of this, people will be able to make their own customized spoon.

Link to the instructable:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Customized-Spoon/

Reactions on the instructable:

Movie Final Result

(The text is written in Dutch)

Group picture

Today (12/05/'16) we also took a group picture with Brenda and our finished product. Tiene could unfortunately not be with us due to unexpected circumstances

Prototype 26

Prototype based on "Prototype 14" and "Prototype 24"
This is the final product of our spoon. The textile is attached too the wood with buttons and can be removed for the washing machine. Because of the plastic spoon inside the wooden handle, we don't need an extra coating. The pattern we used for the textile is from the K3 rainbow dress because Brenda is a huge fan of Studio 100.

Test (12/05/'16)

Expexted positive:
- When the textile is around her hand, it didn't fell off (we couldn't film it)
- She's not irritated so it isn't too tight either
- Doesn't harm her teeth because it is a plastic spoon
- Spoon is hygienic (textile can be removed and put in the washing machine, the rest can go in the dish washer).

Unexpected positive:
/

Expected negative:
/

Unexpected negative:
- She was too tired to be interested (it was 9 o'clock and she had just eaten, so she didn't really understand what she had to do with the spoon)

Score: We couldn't really get a score because Tiene was not able to meet us this morning and Brenda was too tired to know if she really recognised the K3 rainbow colours. But next time we will go on the eating moment (when we will also do the movie).

Prototype 25

Prototype based on "Prototype 25"
This is also a spoon we bought from the "Casa", but with a deeper and smaller spoon surface. It's made of plastic and therefore it shouldn't have an extra coating layer, because her teeth can't be damaged. if this spoon is okay, we need some kind of clicking system, so this type of spoon can be clicked into the right handle.

Test (29/04/'16)
Expected positive:
- Made of plastic
- Strong enough plastic
- Spoon surface is deep enough

Unexpected positive:
/

Expected negative:
- Spoon surface is a little bit too small
Unexpected negative:

Score: Brenda/ Tiene gave us a score of 6,5 / 10

Prototype 24

This is a plastic spoon we bought from the "Casa". It's plastic and therefore it shouldn't have an extra coating layer, because her teeth can't be damaged. If this spoon is okay, we need some kind of clicking system, so this type of spoon can be clicked into the right handle.

Test (29/04/'16)
Expected positive:
- Made of plastic
- Strong enough plastic
- Spoon surface is deep enough
- Spoon surface size is perfect

Unexpected positive:
- They already use spoons like these for some other chlidren at the clinic.

Expected negative:
/

Unexpected negative:
/

Score: Brenda/ Tiene gave us a score of 7,5 / 10

Prototype 23

This is a spoon we bought in the "Kruidvat" to know which surface we should use for the spoon. It is a spoon that is normally used for children to learn how to eat. Therefore it has the advantage that it won't need a coating layer to be sure that her teeth won't be damaged. If this spoon surface is okay, we need to make some kind of clicking system, so this type of spoon can be clicked into the right handle.

Test (29/04/'16)
Expected positive:
- Made of plastic
- Strong enough plastic
- Spoon surface is deep enough

Unexpected positive:
/

Expected negative:
- Spoon surface is too large

Unexpected negative:
/

Score: Brenda/ Tiene gave us a score of 6 / 10

Prototype 22

This is a spoon we bought in the "Hema" to know which surface we should use for the spoon. This spoon is normally used for little children and is therefore very good for her teeth. It certainly doesn't need an extra coating layer to be sure that her teeth won't be damaged. If this spoon surface is okay, we need to make some kind of clicking system, so this type of spoon can be clicked into the right handle.

Test (29/04/'16)
Expected positive:
- Made of plastic
- Strong enough plastic
- Spoon surface is deep enough

Unexpected positive:
/

Expected negative:
- Spoon surface is too small

Unexpected negative:
/

Score: Brenda/ Tiene gave us a score of 6 / 10

Prototype 21

This is also a spoon we bought in the "Action" to know which surface we should use for the spoon. If this spoon is okay, it has the advantage that it is very easy to make a fitting handle (clasping it into the spoon). This spoon is normally used for parties so people can eat with their fingers (see picture). A disadvantage might be that it's not very stiff.

Test (27/04/'16)
Expected positive:
- Made of plastic
- Good size of spoon surface

Unexpected positive:
/

Expected negative:
- Even more fragile than "Prototype 20", therefore it will break too easily, because Brenda uses a lot of force when biting of her food.

Unexpected negative:
/

Score: Brenda/ Tiene gave us a score of 3 / 10

Prototype 20

This is a spoon we bought in the "Action" to know which surface we should use for the spoon. If this spoon surface is okay, we need to make some kind of clicking system, so this type of spoon can be clicked into the right handle.

Test (29/04/'16)
Expected positive:
- Made of plastic

Unexpected positive:
/

Expected negative:
- Will break too easily, because Brenda uses a lot of force when biting off her food.
- Surface of the spoon is way too small.

Unexpected negative:
/

Score: Brenda/ Tiene gave us a score of 2 / 10

Prototype 19

Prototype based on "Prototype 16"
This prototype is made with the same materials as "Prototype 16", but with a different form to check if this would be better. The inside of the pillow is foam (PU) to keep the form and it is filled with the stuffings of a pillow.

Test (25/04/'16)

Expected positive:

Unexpected positive:

Expected negative:

Unexpected negative:

Score: Brenda/ Tiene gave us a score of ... / 10

Prototype 18

Prototype based on "Prototype 5"
Another pillow we made to see if this form will be better. This pillow doesn't have any foam inside.














Test (25/04/'16)
Expected positive:
Unexpected positive:
Expected negative:
Unexpected negative:

Score: Brenda/ Tiene gave us a score of ... / 10

Prototype 17

Prototype based on "Prototype 16" and "Prototype 5"
The pillow is the same idea like "Prototype 16", with (hopefully) a better form so it will be more comfortable. It has some textile in it with velcro so her arm will stay in its place (just like "Prototype 5"). The pillow is attached to a wooden plate that has about the same size as her table plate. It has some velcro straps on it, so we can easily attach her plate on it to check if she could eat independently if her plate is fixed to her table (so it can't move).

Test (25/04/'16)
Expected positive:
Unexpected positive:
Expected negative:
Unexpected negative:

Score: Brenda/ Tiene gave us a score of ... / 10

Prototype 16

Prototype based on "Prototype 5"
This prototype is a new elbow support. This pillow should give more support than "Prototype 5" because it has foam (PU) inside. It also has some felt to make it more soft and comfortable. The big side should be under her armpit, so her elbow can't move towards her chest anymore.

Test (15/04/'16)

Expected positive:

- It fits on the table

- She didn't immediately dislike it, she gave it a chance to try

Unexpected positive:

/ 

Expected negative:

/ 

Unexpected negative:

- The pillow was too high, so it wasn't comfortable to rest her elbow on it

- The form wasn't ideal either

Score: Brenda/ Tiene gave us a score of 6/10

It's the kind of support she has in mind for the elbow, but it's not comfortable and it has the wrong height and form. 

This picture is an example Tiene gave us of what form the elbow support should really have (height, form of the hand, ...)

Prototype 15

Prototype based on "Prototype 5"
General idea: make an elbow support on rails so that she can move forward to get closer to her plate, but that her elbow can't move closer to her chest. We used the pillow of prototype 5 and attached it to some rails we quickly constructed with some mdf plates. For the first trial, we will attach these rails to her table with some clamps.

Test (15/04/'16)

We couldn't test it yet

Expected positive:
Unexptected positive:
Expected negative:
Unexpected negative:

Score: Brenda/ Tiene gave us a score of ... / 10

Prototype 14

Prototype based on "Prototype 10"

This prototype is actually a better version of "Prototype 10". We used a spoon she is used to and stayed away from the ductape. The handle is now made with textile and filled with the stuffing of a pillow. Because Tiene told us Brenda is a huge fan of K3, we have put some K3-stickers on the handle, in the hope that she will be more enthusiast to use the spoon.

Test (15/04/'16)

Expected positive:
- She was really enthusiast about the K3-stickers on the spoon, she really wanted to use it
- The handle of the spoon makes sure that she doesn't lose it when she loses her concentration for a few seconds
- The handle is a good fit: she doesn't get annoyed by it because it's too tight, and it didn't fell off because it was too loose

Unexpected positive:
- She didn't want to use her old spoon anymore because of the K3-stickers

Expected negative:
- The surface of the spoon is still not deep enough to scoop up food

Unexpected negative:
/

Score: Brenda/ Tiene gave us a score of 8 / 10 for the handle; it's a good idea because of the handle, but we need to work it out with materials that can be washed (hygiene). For the general concept she gave us a 7 /10 because the surface of the spoon still needs to be deeper (if she scoops up food now, it falls off her spoon before she reaches her mouth)

Prototype 13

Prototype based on Prototype 12

Changes since 12:
- Adding rubber band to retract the spoon and 'reset' the movement
- Changing of positions and dimensions to place the spoon better
- Adding nut in the pulling cord to stop the bar from bumping into the head
- Putting the spoon on a rotatable axis, bounded with a rubberband to scoop food better
- Putting the whole system on a plate, so it would fit on Brenda's table

Personal test (6/04/2016)

After this test, it was ready for Brenda

Brenda's test (7/04/2016)

Expected positive:
- Fits on the table

Unexpected positive:
- Tiene likes the system ("With this idea we could help all the children here who can't eat on themselves")

Expected negative:
- Scooping food would be dificult
- Brenda might not like it (hopefully she does)
- She doesn't understand what happens (she doesn't have the cognitive knowledge)
- She can't choose which food she scoops up

Unexpected negative:
- Brenda didn't understand it
- Brenda didn't like it

Score:

Brenda/ Tiene gave us a score of 7 /10

Tiene really liked the effort that the prototype has taken, but Brenda doesn't understand the system. Now we know all types of external systems won't help (the armswing, prototype 7 and this prototype). Tine says we need to look more for something to support her ellbow and doesn't take away her level of independence by making external structures who grab the food for Brenda.

Prototype 12

Prototype based on Prototype 7

The armswing annoyed Brenda a lot, this gave us the opportunity to think about external helps. By this we would exlcude the problem where Brenda really dislikes to stuff that's around her.

When thinking about this idea it seems not 'human worth'. It would make the eating process a psychologic hell








This was another way of seeing the eating process, by not focussing on her dissability There was an opportunity by getting around that problem. Using a working action to get the desire countre-reaction.









Personal test (5/04/2016)


















Test (07/04/'16):
I tested this prototype on my own to quicken the prototype phase

Expected positive:
- System works
- Looks like an easy handling

Unexpected positive:
- Not that much power needed

Expected negative:
- Cant scoop any food (angular problem)

Unexpected negative:
- Top bar bumped into my head (not good)

Prototype 11

Prototype based on "Prototype 5"
Changes:
- There's a wooden plank and some cords attached to the pillow. We will use these to fix the pillow to the table.
- We also added some more velcro on the bandage, to have a stronger force. This way the velcro will come off less easily by the force of her arm.

We didn't change the kind of textile used for the bandage, 'cause we did a test if it would hurt her (by putting our own arm in the prototype and giving a lot of force), and it doesn't hurt.

Test (07/04/'16)

We couldn't test it yet

Expected positive:
Unexpected positive:
Expected negative:
Unexpected negative:

Score: Brenda/ Tiene gave us a score of ... /10

Prototype 10

Prototype based on "Prototype 4"
In this prototype, we changed the idea of working with loops. Tiene suggested that we could use something like the fork we showed her (see post of "Prototype 4"). This gives less tension to her hand/ fingers than "Prototype 4". The surface of the spoon is also smaller, because Tiene said that the surface of the spoon we brought last time was too big for Brenda's mouth.

Test (07/04/'16)
Expected positive:
- Smaller surface
- She can't lose the spoon

Unexpected positive:
- It's easy to remove from her hand (although she can't lose it), so she can still drink between her meal

Expected negative:
- Brenda doesn't like the ducttape, so she didn't want to eat with it
- No plastic for the spoon surface (Tiene prefers coated metal)

Unexpected negative:
/

Score: Brenda/ Tiene gave us a score of  8 / 10
Suggestion from Tiene: make a spoon like this, but with wood and maybe K3 on the band (because Brenda is a huge fan of Studio100) and she'll be more enthusiast to eat with it.

Prototype 9

Prototype based on "Prototype 8"
Tiene recommended using a flat handle, so the spoon wouldn't twist in Brenda's hand. We used the same loops as "Prototype 8" (but a little bit bigger, because it was difficult to get her fingers in the loops). The surface of the spoon is a bit smaller, 'cause Tiene said that the surface of the other prototype was too big for Brenda's mouth.

Test (07/04/'16):
We couldn't test the prototype, but these are some comments we got:

Expected positive:
- Smaller surface

Unexpected positive:
/

Expected negative:
- Brenda doesn't like the ducktape
- No plastic spoons (Tiene prefers coated metal)

Unexpected negative:
/

Score: Brenda/ Tiene gave us a score of  7 / 10

General feedback from our 2nd visit

Tiene thinks we should work on "Prototype 5" (other textile and a way to attach it to the table), on "Prototype 7" (maybe other materials or another method, but we still need to see the result of how it goes now), and on "Prototype 4 or 8" (we might use the loops, but think of some other methods too, also keep in mind that the spoon needs to be coated, and that surface can't be too big).
We don't need to work further on "Prototype 6", because Brenda really didn't like that one.

Prototype 5

Prototype 7

Prototype 8

Prototype 8

Prototype based on "Prototype 4"
We did some minor change when we were visting Brenda. Because in the last prototype ("Prototype 4"), it was really difficult to get her fingers into the loops. So we cut away two loops so that she only needs to put 2 fingers into the prototype.
We couldn't try it yet today (because she didn't want to eat anymore), but Tiene was gonna try it out this week and she's gonna send us a movie with the result.