Ruby is a digital personal assistant intended for people with a light mental handicap. To improve their daily life.

This project was made in collaboration with the Amarant Group (a healthcare group) & Kai Rennenberg.

Project achievements:

• Finalist ICTalent awards
• 1+ year of research
• Won a pitch (best of 4)

My role in the project:

• Concept
• Design
• UX
• Research
• Prototyping

Project process:
We were challenged to invent a ‘solution’ for people with a light mental disability in a timespan of 4 weeks. At the end of the 4 weeks we had to pitch our ideas to the client, which was The Amarant Group. This was part of my study at the time.

In these 4 weeks me and Kai were able to come up with the idea of Ruby a personal assistant.

We came to this solution after spending most of our time researching what problems the target audience was facing on a daily basis. 

The most appearant problem being the accessibility of daily tools & tasks.

Once we had the idea, we started prototyping and sketching out our idea. And that’s how our mascot Ruby was born. 

After 4 weeks of research and prototyping we pitched Ruby to our client. Which resulted in us winning the pitch! 

The client wanted to continue the research and development of Ruby as they saw great potential in our project. 

So we started working with the Amarant Group and used our minor to research UX & accessibility for people with a light mental handicap. 

The research included:

• Multiple interviews with experts
• Research on mental disabilities
• Research on accessibility
• UX wireframing & prototyping
• Testing with the target audience

Our research was well received by our client and teachers.

And so we were invited to participate in the ICTalent awards. This is an annual competition at Fontys where students can participate with a project they’ve made. 

There were a few selection rounds where I had to pitch Ruby to a jury, who decided which ones were the best.

We ended up being finalists and I had the honour to pitch Ruby in front of a large audience and potential stakeholders. It was a great experience where I learned a lot and even got a course in pitching!

As of right now the project has been halted as Kai and I became busy graduating our study and there sadly was no budget for further development.