Jules ShermanHealthcare product design & research since 2012

Physical Product · 2012

Personal Electronic Response Systems (PERS)

A way to personalize electronic response systems for individuals who feel stigmatized by designs that unintentionally make them feel old, unattractive, or dependent, to improve user confidence and adoption rates.

Personal Electronic Response Systems (PERS)
Stanford University | Stanford, CA | 2012-2014

Problem

Personal electronic response systems, emergency call devices, work, but they often go unworn. Their designs can feel stigmatizing, unintentionally making users feel old, unattractive, or dependent, which undermines confidence and adoption.

“Personal electronic response systems have utility and functionality, but they are totally ineffectual if people don’t want to use them.”

David Jaffe, ME, Instructor, Perspectives in Assistive Technology, Stanford University

Solution

  1. A close-up image of a new design for personal electronic medical device which looks more like a jewelry pendent. A round metallic pendant necklace with a large yellow oval in the center, suspended from a silver ball chain necklace.
  2. A top view of a new design for personal electronic medical device which looks more like a jewelry pendent. A round metallic pendant necklace with a large yellow oval in the center, suspended from a silver ball chain necklace.
  3. A pendant necklace model that works as a personal electronic medical device.
  4. An elderly woman with short blonde hair and light blue eyes, wearing the pendent-style personal electronic medical device, sitting in front of a bookshelf filled with colorful books, in a library or bookstore.
  5. A fashionable bracelet rendering that acts as a personal electronic medical device for women.
  6. A fashionable bracelet model that acts as a personal electronic medical device for women.
  7. A fashionable ring rendering that acts as a personal electronic medical device for women.
  8. Close-up of an elderly person’s hand with a small fashionable ring model that acts as a personal electronic medical device for women.
  9. A fashionable ring model that acts as a personal electronic medical device for women.
  10. Silver bracelet with circular links and embedded diamonds, featuring a round central charm with an inscription around its edge--a personal electronic response device looking more like jewelry than a medical device.
  11. Silver bracelet with square-shaped links and a circular central charm engraved with a quote, featuring a heart design in the middle--a personal electronic response device looking more like jewelry than a medical device.

Research & Discovery

While I was a graduate student at Stanford, my grandmother was living alone, 3,000 miles away in Florida. When I asked why she didn’t use her emergency call device, she replied, “I’d rather wear jewelry around my neck than an ugly plastic call button.” That comment stayed with me.

Curious whether others felt the same, I began volunteering at Lytton Gardens, an assisted living community in Palo Alto. There, I learned that many older adults shared my grandmother’s resistance, not to the function of emergency call devices, but to their aesthetics and the stigma they carried.

Design & Testing

In response, I focused my graduate work on the women’s market, reimagining emergency call devices to be more appealing, wearable like fashion jewelry or a Swatch® watch, so they aligned with users’ identities. The project emphasized user preference, accessibility, and customization as core drivers of usability.

Final Product

Unique PERS accessories and “after-market” personalization options, pendants, bracelets, and rings that read as jewelry rather than medical devices, based on feedback from older adults.

Outcome

Concept work, not carried to manufacture. What it established is that older adults were not rejecting the function of an emergency call device, they were rejecting the object. Once the device read as jewelry rather than as equipment, the objection went away. Designing for dignity rather than for compliance is a principle I have carried into everything worn on the body since.