Developing a Mobile System for Children and Teenagers with Scoliosis to Improve Therapy Adherence

This project aimed at developing a mobile support system for children and teenagers in scoliosis bracing therapy. The system comprises multiple sensors measuring the individual wearing behavior and a smartphone-based application which serves as the system’s user interface. The app has been developed following a user-centered design approach and by integrating participatory design and ethnographic methods. At the beginning, a special emphasis was placed on identifying the needs of the user group. Main operating functions as well as the interaction concept were iteratively refined and optimized by involving users in all stages of product development. For evaluation, we conducted a series of follow-up usability tests and a multi-day field survey. We report and analyze the challenges we were confronted with before and during of the product development process.