Chronic pain is an ailment that affects over 60 million people all over the world. It is a poorly understood condition by both clinicians and the society at large. Chronic pain manifests in many different forms and imposes immense physical limitations on the sufferer’s body. However, the social and mental issues associated with chronic pain are often overlooked. Although modern medicine alleviates the physical symptoms of chronic pain, it fails to address issues that feast on the sufferer's mental health. Moreover, awareness, acceptance and empathy towards the sufferers are lacking in the society.
On the other side is an interactive narrative that employs gameplay as a medium to induce empathy and awareness about social stigmatization and isolation that patients with chronic pain conditions face. The narrative transports the player into the troubled life of a chronic pain patient and their altered relationship with their own body.
Process
Intent
The intent of this project is derived from the social issues that chronic pain patients face on a day to day basis. It investigates how such issues ultimately force them into social isolation of varying degrees. This work focuses on the troubled relationship the patients have with their bodies and its manifestation into serious challenges in their relationships and their life in general.
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What is Social Effects of Chronic Pain?
Prior to determining an appropriate and conclusive design approach for this project, extensive research was conducted to understand the nature of chronic pain and how it affects the sufferers. The various forms of research undertaken are as follows.
Insights
A list of keywords and patterns were identified that characterised the troubled lifestyle of a chronic pain sufferer. Multiple instances were highlighted in the literature review and personal interviews, that exhibited the inability of patients to do things that they wanted to do due to pain.
Inferences
The key inferences that emerged from the research that depict the internal struggle and also the ways of coping up with it.
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How do I stage this as an experience to raise awareness and incite empathy?
To create an experience to portray the characteristics of chronic pain multiple concepts were dervied.
Explorations
Imagining pain as a ghosting character that always reminds you of your limitations through a fun gaming experience.
Narrative
The narrative presents the protagonist in a troubled relationship. The user is given choices at key moments in the storyline. The user’s choice will have personal or social impact on the protagonist’s life.
The story unfolds into various social confrontations and reveals the social issues related to chronic pain.
In order to formulate the narrative, the 3-act structure was adopted. In this model of storytelling, the story is divided into 3 parts namely, setup, confrontation and resolution. In the first act, the characters and their personalities are introduced. Since the main consequence of living with chronic pain is difficulty in making choices in everyday life, the narrative was designed to have multiple storylines that progress differently based on the player’s choice. This constitutes the second act and the final act is the reveal and resolution of the protagonist’sproblem.
Final Solution
The final design solution is presented as an immersive and interactive mobile experience that takes the player through the life of a chronic pain sufferer. The features of this application are as follows:
You can find the design paper
here
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Check out the live demo. (Currently designed for Chrome Browser on Android devices with screen size ~ 6 inches)
http://ajmalshah.azurewebsites.net/
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