First of all, I am going to design three products for visually impaired people: a wallet, a watch and some covers for keys.
Why do I want to design products for visually impaired people?
In my last few years in Secondary school, I got involved in a lot of volunteer work, such as taking care of the elderly and mentally disabled children. I would like to know more about them and design some products makes their lives easier. Therefore, I choose to design products for visually impaired.
The products I am going to design are a wallet, a watch and some covers for keys.
 |
| Mindmap which helps me to brainstorm further |
1. Wallet
As I have mentioned in the previous post, I am inspired by a Hong Kong product design student. She designed a wallet especially for visually impaired people to check the banknotes. Since she has spent a lot of time with them, she knows the difficulties they are facing in daily lives. I wish to make a new one which is even more convenient and better. Therefore, I am thinking to design one which can check U.K. banknotes and coins.
2. Watch
I have done some research recently. I found that visually impaired people have a hard time checking the time, as it is not convenient to check their time by audio ones. Then, I did some research on watches for blind people. In the coming days, I am going to design a watch which can be user-friendly to visually impaired people. However, the problem is I do not really know much about them, such as the difficulties or inconvenience they are facing. Thus, I am going to do more research and ask my friends who are working as social workers and hope to see whether I can get a better understanding.
3. Key covers
I was thinking what else can I design for the people who lost their sight or have some vision problems. I tried to think about what would we normally do or use in daily lives, then the image of keys popped into my mind. Some keys look similar and even for non-disabled people sometimes would find it is hard to classify all their keys. Hence, I would like to design some covers for keys, so the target customers would find it a lot easier to get the right key and make the process a lot more convenient.
My individual project plan:
1. Design each product with two different materials
My target market is visually impaired, which means they are more sensitive to tactile sense. I would consider the texture of materials used for my product, to make sure it is easy to clean and comfortable.
2. Draw on the paper, then I would use Adobe Photoshop to make a design board
In this moment, I would draw a graph of each design, then I would try to use Photoshop to draw the final design and make a design board.
Things I have to do within this week:
1. Research on visual impairment
2. Watch Photoshop tutorial
3. Draw graphs of my design
As time is running short, I have to catch up the speed, especially I do not know much about Photoshop, it is going to take more time to try and learn how to use it. I will keep updating my process on my blog.
This is good. I like your ideas and the concept behind them; identifying a target market and users is very good. You have also identified that time is against you, so perhaps making a detailed plan of actions and time allowances would highlight what you need to concentrate on and how much time you have left. Good work!
ReplyDeletePlease include the screenshots of your experimentation with using Photoshop software so far, and add notes.
ReplyDelete