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.