MoodGems: Designing for the Well-being of Children with ADHD and their Families at Home

Paper in proceeding, 2024

Many technologies for ADHD children and their caregivers focus on symptom management rather than overall well-being, often without involving them as technology co-designers and co-users. To explore how to design systems that integrate into their home and routines, we contribute the iterative design of MoodGems, a situated, modular, and portable set of physical displays, that allows children to record and share their data with their families. We conducted an online formative evaluation (n = 22) with ADHD children, parents, therapists, and HCI experts. Our work demonstrates the potential of technologies affording both individual and joint tracking to allow children to navigate and reflect on their experiences and emotions, and support family communication and children's autonomy. The evaluation also uncovered necessary refinements in the system's design. We contribute design insights towards technologies that empower ADHD children and integrate into their homes, and discuss therapists' role in technologies that address ADHD families' lived experiences.