This project consisted of creating a product with a participant and focused on co-design in order to create a product tailored to our participant. This project was created for HCDE 315: Inclusive Design & Engineering.

Our design process focused heavily on a back and forth communication between the team and our participant.

Our initial meeting with our participant helped us derive many of our goals, ideas, and pain points that may occur. We learned that our participant had been designing an adaptable home for people with disabilities, this helped us in brainstorming a product.

Our brainstorming process led us to designing a key artifact of the home as our product.

Key components of our product include: A suspension system ladder, handlebars on rails, and a button system.

Our initial design pictured above.

To further ideate and co-design, we met with our participant multiples times. By doing so we were able to further develop our product so it fit our participant's needs. Our participant brought up many concerns such as material use and connectivity of our button system.

One way we envisioned a button system for our product is with a physical button that could help our participant lower the ladder when needed.

We also considered other ways for interaction:

• Voice Control- Our participants and other users could simply use their voice to operate the product, similar to Amazon's Alexa

• App Control- Another alternative that could be used is a simple app that has basic functions for controlling the product

  • NFC Technology- We also considered an alternative for people who may have difficulty with motor functions with the use of NFC to operate the product, by implementing NFC into a physical device or even article of clothing, the user could operate the product

Final Design

Our final design considered many of our participants needs and concerns. We came up with a ladder with a suspension system, it would run all throughout the house and would allow our participant to exercise and stretch out their muscles. The ladder's placement would also allow our participant to interact with other artifacts of the home in cases of fatigue. Built in for cases of fatigue, our ladder would have railed handles for our participant to easily glide when walking and stretching their muscles. Our design would also have multiple ways of interactivity with our selection of input devices, that can be accustomed to each user. We hope this product would help our participant make their daily life tasks easier.

Outcomes

An interesting outcome from this project was getting a better understanding of how to design physical products and given that all my previous projects had been digital products, this was valuable experience. An important skill I got to practice with this project was with co-designing. It helped me learn how to approach design through the lens of not only a user but that of a human. Lastly, I learned the importance of both universal design and inclusive design, and how it could be used in future projects.