Final Design

An overview of the final design is shown below. 

Product Development & Final Prototype

After the usability tests I developed Concept 2 and created a final prototype to show Elizabeth for feedback before I finalised the design.

Elizabeth exploring the final prototype. 

Elizabeth made the following statements about the final design prototype:

“It’s just so much more ergonomic than the original one”

“The new features are all good improvements”

“It also looks so much better, I would leave this out on the work top”

The final prototype had a number of new features to improve the users experience. 

• A stand has been included for users who want to keep the device on display; the top inner edge is chamfered for easy insertion of the device. 
• There are switches on top so that the user can select which buttons will be active, any combination is possible and this addresses the issue of variability of condition between hands and could be useful for stroke victims. 
• The screen is 30% larger than the orginal and the information is easier to read.

See Final Design blog post for full summary of the design features.

Prototype Usability Testing

I wanted to put the three concepts I had developed into the users hands to get real feedback and insights.

I set Elizabeth the task of setting the time and date on each of the three prototypes. For this I wrote a short script for her to follow which would simulate setting up the time & date on the real device.

Here is a summary video of the usability testing:

Elizabeth selected concept as the most comfortable to use for her and for people with a similar dexterity condition. This concept will be developed further.

Cultural Probe & Ideation

After the first meeting with Elizabeth I gave her the device and my camera and asked her to set up and use the device for a week. She took pictures and kept a note of anything that she found difficult, good, bad or interesting.

I used the insights I gathered from the first interview and cultural probe, along with my desk research, to create a wide range of different sketch concepts that might be usable and comfortable for people with dexterity and visual impairments. 

I showed the sketches to Elizabeth and asked her to comment on each of them about how comfortable they might be for her to use. I also asked her to select the three best concepts in terms of the design for her disability. 

I went away to developed the 3 designs and build foam prototypes for usability testing.

Empathic Research

Although I'm including users in my research and design process I decided that I needed to empathise with the user group that I'm designing for. As stated in previous blog posts the target user may have a visual or dexterity impairment. 

To experience what the user group go through when using the original device I 

• Put on a pair of short sighted glasses (I am long sighted) to simulate a severe visual impairment. 
• Had my fingers tied together with thick elastic bands to significantly reduce dexterity in my hands.  

I was disorientated immediately because of the glasses and couldn't see further than a couple of inches. 

Opening the box and trying to unpack the contents was a challenge. I had to think about every movement and action rather than doing things subconsciously. 

Setting up the equipment took a lot longer than the previous time when I did not have the simulated vision and dexterity impairments.

Setting up the time & date was very difficult and the posture I had to use to get close to the screen and to stretch my fingers was really uncomfortable. 

This was a very useful exercise for empathising with the intended user. It really helped to get into the users shoes and experience the product from their perspective. Everything was a challenge and my experience of using the product was completely compromised. Feeling how frustrating it was to use the product inspired me to create a user friendly device for people with visual and dexterity impairments.