7 weeks
Skills: Secondary research, Behavioral design, Strategy, Concept development, Storytelling
Skills: Secondary research, Behavioral design, Strategy, Concept development, Storytelling
Entrepreneurs and City Health Tech co-founders Ibraheem Alinur and Irewole Akande (BS Engineering and Industrial Management, Illinois Tech 2017) launched Opal in 2020 to encourage proper hand hygiene. Opal is a small device that sits next to sinks and encourages 20-second hand washing by using interactive timed videos. It’s currently in use in some of the top private schools in Illinois, with aspirations to expand nationally and move beyond education.
In the school - Induction
Michael and Jenny learn to wash their hands in the school. The school is trying to prevent kids from being infected by COVID, flu and other infections. The teacher explains how important hand washing is.
The school introduces the new routine of hand washing, the new goal to check their hand-washing progress weekly by class. Each class decides their own goal for the week. The teacher asks kids to form hand-washing groups with 3-4 kids together.
Teachers in their classes write their names on the board. Michael and Jenny now know how to wash their hands properly, and they are grouping with other classmates.
~ ♪ - Wash your hands ♪ wash your hands ♪ - It’s time to wash hands before lunch. In the school, kids hear a song as a reminder before the first class, lunch and after the break time, as a way of habit formation. Once they hear this song, they go to a restroom together with the teammates and wash their hands.Children singing cause the brain to perform multiple tasks at once. This is a good technique to help develop memory.
Michael and Jenny also hear this song. Before having lunch, they go to a restroom and wash their hands.
They are about to wash their hands and Opal helps them.
Once Jenny starts washing her hands, Opal counts down from 20 seconds, and on the screen, it shows an animation with germs on the hands being washed out during the 20 seconds. Upon seeing the germs on the hand, Jenny tries to defeat them by washing hands.
When Jenny finishes washing her hands for 20 seconds, the screen shows a hero winning the battle with the germs. This hero is a feedback to kids showing that they did it properly and they gain a sense of accomplishment and confidence.
Screens of the device
Feature 1 -- Tangibility
1.When hands approach the device, it will show an animation of hands full of germs.
2.Once she/he washes one part, this part turns clean (germs died). Like scrub around thumb, germs in this area will disappear.
3.Once they rinse their hands properly, the hands in the device will turn perfectly clean.
Feature 2 -- Loss Aversion
Scenario: people who don’t wash their hands over 20 seconds.
1.Hands approach the device and start washing, the device will count down time.
2.Suddenly user stops washing ( washes hands less than 20 seconds.)
3.The hands on the device turns into a sad face, germs come back, stand on hands and say, "You lost the fight!"
At home - Imitation
Michael and Jenny wash their hands at home
Teachers with the help of parents encourage kids to continue the habit of washing hands at home as well.
Children tend to do things that make them feel like they are adults. They try their hardest and feel good about what they do when they feel capable. Making children in-charge of the task will make them feel equivalent to their adults and instill a sense of responsibility.
Jenny at home is the teacher, she teaches everyone at home how to wash hands the right away.
children detecting patterns in their experiences and constructing their conceptual knowledge of the world.
Jenny knows the drill and leads the family. After grocery shopping, kids ask parents to wash hands together.
Teaching is a great way of learning. An additional effect of this idea might be: spurring a conversation about personal hygiene and hand-washing at home, at a time when the child is most receptive to behavior change.
Kids get a circle in the notebook every time they wash their hands with family members.
Kids submit the notebook with circles and teacher praise kids. As a prize, they are rewarded with stickers and hero titles.
A sense of closure/ satisfaction of completion
