CMD student Batuhan Arican started the Foxfit graduation project at Digital Life
01-09-2020
Since September this year, our Digital Life research group has gained one graduate! Batuhan Arican is a fourth-year student in Communication and Multimedia Design (CMD). He will strengthen the team of researcher Annette Brons, which will be working throughout 2020 on a follow-up to the previously completed Foxfit study. This follow-up project to Simba has been funded by a SIA Top-Up grant.
Batuhan uses its expertise for five months to improve various parts of the Foxfit tool.
Instead of the extensive textual instructions for care providers, he makes a handy interactive manual that includes videos. This makes the instruction for care providers clearer and shorter. Batuhan also makes a version of this manual for the children and their parents.
In addition, he designs a solid 'casing' for the current hardware.
How exactly did Batuhan come into contact with Digital Life?
'For my graduation project I was looking for an assignment that was challenging and offers a solution for several people. I met Foxfit in the AUAS internship bank. The vacancy indicated that I could participate in a project in which children with asthma are helped to exercise more. Of course I thought that was very cool and I contacted immediately.'
What appealed to him in this graduation assignment?
'In my youth I also suffered from asthma. I know well how that can influence you as a child. I also tried to avoid a lot of exercise, which is actually not that good at all. When I saw that Foxfit was being developed for this, I was actually already very enthusiastic!'
To what extent does the assignment fit in well with what he finds interesting in his studies at CMD?
'I find it extremely valuable to use digital media for (social) problems. This is very broad, of course, but Foxfit is a good example of this. It offers a solution for a fairly specific target group, in which users are often not approached in the right way. The focus is mostly on "being sick". Foxfit does this in such a way that a child is motivated to exercise more. Even if they don't use the app!'
Digital Life is very pleased with the enthusiasm and unbridled commitment with which Batuhan is working on his graduation assignment. At the conclusion at the end of January 2021, we will definitely put him back in the spotlight!