This week, we had the privilege of hearing from some incredible experts to better understand the need for new designs. These experts not only listed the shortcomings of designs for their use, but also solutions they had created along the way. In particular, Robs countless stories reminded me of the “Make-It” mindset that revolves around quick prototyping. Throughout his life, Rob had created a multitude of quick fixes to make sure he could do what he needed to do from a wheelchair or on crutches. This is similar to the origin of Ingenium, as Arielle originally printed gloves for herself and her teammates, and honed in on the design just by starting to make!
This organized approach to meeting our experts and having informal time to interview them was very different from what I have done in other classes. In another design class, we were taught the methodology of human-centered design. Our group took the task of redesigning a shipping box to avoid pain points, such as difficulty to open for those with arthritis, lack of waterproofing, ability to be stolen, etc. For a look into this previous project, you can check out our “final project pitch” here. However, to gather information of pain points from the user group, we just used our own knowledge and created a survey based off of that. The limitations with a survey is that you have to know what to ask to get good information.
With a roundtable discussion like we had in class, the experts are able to explain their pain points themselves, and then the class was able to ask for a deeper dive on certain points to find the root of the pain point. It also puts a face to a problem. The experts we met were incredible individuals, and the fact that they encounter so many shortcomings with the designs of their tools draws on the empathetic nature of human-centered design. This empathetic mindset is crucial to solving a problem that does not impact you directly. With my previous box project, there were some pain points that I myself had encountered. However, with accessibility, I do not have personal experience so I need to draw on an empathetic mindset to be able to put myself in our experts’ shoes to design something that is not only useful but will be used.
Overall, after week 2 I am incredibly excited to start learning the tools we will be utilizing to create solutions for these awesome individuals. The ability to put our learning into action and create accessible public designs is an awesome change from my normal classes which focus on conceptual knowledge.
I agree that Ron’s story is exceptionally good in inspiring us. In addition to the “Make-It” mindset, I also thought of the “Iterate Iterate Iterate” one. I think it is inspiring to think of how Ron improved the original racing wheelchairs to many newer ones. His continuous effort in improving the racing wheelchairs to a cheaper, lighter, and more comfortable model is something that I think we all would like to learn.