Client: AYA ‘Jong & Kanker’ Platform
AYA’s (Adolescents & Young Adults) are young people between 18 and 25 years old, whom are told for the first time they have cancer. Suddenly their whole world is turned upside down. Such a profound disease not only has an impact on their body, but also on their social life. That is why the National AYA ‘Young & Cancer’ Platform, NFK and IJsfontein have developed the ‘Match’ app. ‘Match’ helps keep family and friends involved with the AYA (Adolescent & Young Adult with cancer) in a low-threshold way.
How Does it Work?
The Match app provides insights into the needs of the AYA by answering statements of which friends can see the answers. For example: If I am sad, I like it when you include me in activities. In addition, the app makes these needs implementable through activity cards.
Very simple. Feel like doing it or not?
This allows the AYA to be matched with a friend that feels like doing the same activity that week. In a chat they can make the appointment to go out together or to just get together at eithers home or – if that is not possible – to do the activity at the same time remotely.
“If I had this app when I was sick, I’m sure I would have kept more friends” – A recovered AYA-
Playing practical jokes in the hospital
The target group is involved as often as possible in order to be sure that the app is catching on and actually has an effect. In a first brainstorming session with eight AYAs, we discovered the needs of the AYAs and what keeps them occupied. It became clear, for instance, that everyone actually enjoys some dark ‘tumor humor’, or secretly likes to play practical jokes in the hospital.
Those were the kinds of things that we could not have thought of ourselves. We returned twice with paper prototypes, in order to take a critical look at the content together. Finally, five AYAs were allowed to test the app for three weeks, in order to perfect every detail of the app. As it wasn’t possible for the AYAs to attend at the same time, we asked them to give feedback via Whatsapp. This resulted in many great and spontaneous conversations:
“I love the activity cards. They have resulted in me listening to ‘wrong’ music, for the first time in a long time and even spending time with a friend (who I live together with in one house) by just watching a movie on the couch together. It gives me new ideas I would never had thought of otherwise.”- an AYA-
The app has been made possible with financial support from Zorg Innovatie Fonds, the VIOZ-fonds and Janssen-Cilag B.V.
Curious?
Do you want to use the app or just have a look at it? Download ‘Aya Match’ in the Google Play Store or iOS App store.
What can we do for you?
We have 20+ years of experience in playful learning and communication in Healthcare and other sectors. Do you have a problem? A challenge? A question? Send us an email or give us a call at +31 20 33 00 111.
