June 2, 2010

Didget II

We have had the Didget rattling about the house for a while and I haven’t done much with it.

By design.



I opened it up read over the literature and handed it (the meter not the literature) over to Delaney. We laughed at the manual (Particularly the right side up part - Good Friend of the Blog Lorraine explains why in her review of the Didget) and then we watched Top Gear because that is what we do. After the Botswana Special, she played the game and announced it was a lot like Pokemon.

This information meant very little to me. What I know of Pokemon is the sum total this; before blood test strips, there were Pokemon cards all over the house. In fact for all I know there may still be Pokemon cards under the carpet of used strip we call the floor.

Anyway, I intentionally didn’t interact with Delaney as she used the Didget. I was curious to see what her reaction would be.

I think I should preface this next bit with - she is a few days from being a teen. I suspect that she is older than the target market for this meter-game combination.

After the initial, “It is cool!” her comment was, “It is huge.”

It is. Maybe not large enough to have it’s own moon orbiting it but I think it’s gravitational pull effects the tides.

I found it very interesting that when she discovered that the strips worked in the Contour USB she started testing with the USB. Then Connor stuck it in his pocket. Some where in this the Didget fell off the coffee table in the living room and nobody picked it up for a few days where it risked being layered into a geological strata with the strips and Pokemon cards.

My first test was this: Will the Didget hold the interest of an almost teenaged kid in my house?

No.

I think my baby daughter is too old and so experienced with meters that the game and the large meter form factor do not work for her.

So I poked around (get it poked around, diabetes, Pokemon?!? I kill myself with this stuff! - Ok ok you want to kill me too, I’ll knock it off.) I think there is a very distinct market for this thing. Connor was diagnosed at 9. Delaney at 7. We charted and used stickers as rewards for their testing the number of times they were meant to and all kinds of happy smoke blowing stuff like that. Still sticking sharp steel in their fingers got old before it became a habit.

This meter would have been crazy useful in helping build those habits and making the whole crappy newly diagnosed experience a little better - a little more of their world and less of the medical industrial complex's world.

A little then is a lot.

I am way in favor ever little bit.

With that big picture said, time fo I wish that some of the game / bonus parameters were user definable. As in Your Diabetes May Vary so how you would like to use the game interface to reinforce care behaviors may vary too.  Specifically I would like to have control over the target of 4 test per day to reach the bonus points. I would make the magic number a little higher. Say test before each meal two snacks and bedtime for the grand total of 6. Yeah that is a little nit picky but what the heck I am meant pick nits aren’t I?

From what I have read there are other aspects of the Didget ecosystem (stole that ecosystem phrase from Continua) that I hope to investigate in future post. 

Until then I am a fan of what the Didget is trying to do. Specifically demystify the freaking meter, make it common and accessible and encouraging kids to make care behaviors habits in their world.

I am fascinated but not suppressed by my kids’ using the Didget strip in the Contour USB and their little turf war over it. Bayer has stepped up their game in meter design. I love the creativity and kid appeal of the Didget and the adult sophistication of the Contour USB. Good design rocks!

I believe in options and markets that deliver choices to consumers.

If Your Diabetes May Vary so should the tools used to manage it.

Kudos to Bayer for getting that.


For more T1 parental perspectives on the Didget visit my friends and fellow T1 Bloggers:
Leighann - D-Mom


YDMV DIDGET posts:
http://www.ydmv.net/2010/05/bayer-didget-first-look.html

http://www.ydmv.net/2010/06/didget-ii.html
http://www.ydmv.net/2010/06/didget-iii-to-internet-and-beyond.html

1 comment :

  1. Hurray for another person who knows and loves Top Gear!!! And hurray for Hammond's Oliver :)

    ReplyDelete