Design project

niallQ

I am a college student trying to design a kitchen utencil to suit people with disablities, and was wondering what is the most un user friendly kitchen utencil for a user with or without a disability?

Mental Mickey

niallQ wrote: »

I am a college student trying to design a kitchen utencil to suit people with dicibilities, and would What is the most un user friendly kitchen utencil for a user with or without a disability?

<snip>

SerialComplaint

Mental Mickey wrote: »

I think you need glasses first?

Glasses don't fix dyslexia.

niallQ wrote: »

I am a college student trying to design a kitchen utencil to suit people with disablities, and was wondering what is the most un user friendly kitchen utencil for a user with or without a disability?

The traditional tin opener is very difficult for many people, though most tin cans now have the easy-pull lid, which is much easier. I often have difficulties with opening juice cartons and milk cartons. They seem to keep trying new opening methods, many of which don't work for me.

Some good examples and case studies at http://universaldesign.ie/exploreampdiscover/definitionandoverview/examples

Mental Mickey

SerialComplaint wrote: »

Glasses don't fix dyslexia.



The traditional tin opener is very difficult for many people, though most tin cans now have the easy-pull lid, which is much easier. I often have difficulties with opening juice cartons and milk cartons. They seem to keep trying new opening methods, many of which don't work for me.

Some good examples and case studies at http://universaldesign.ie/exploreampdiscover/definitionandoverview/examples

Ok. Withdrawn.

niallQ

thanks serial complaint, This is a complaint i have heard from many people now!

NCBICFIT

Hi niallQ,

When you say disability you could be talking about any type of disability - physical, sensory, cognitive, learning etc. Design solutions will differ greatly, depending on what type of disability you are talking about.

So are you talking about a utensil designed for mainstream use, which is as usable by as many people as possible? Or are you talking about a specialised design solution for a specific disability?

There's no one solution that suits everyone, so it's impossible to answer which existing product is considered the most usable, but....

If you are looking for a mainstream design, the example most quoted for "universally designed" kitchen utensils would be the Oxo Good Grips range. SerialComplaint gave a link to the CEUD website above which includes some info on that range. Or you can see the full range at www.oxo.com. They have some information on their design process at that website.

It's Oxo's design process that I would highly recommend, as they really have tried to consider every size, shape and limitation of hands and fingers possible! Whether or not the resulting design of every single utensil is as usable as it could be, I cannot answer. But I can recommend their user-centred design process.

Another good source of design examples is the design competition iF Design competition which has a universal design category. There's a link to the universal design entries here http://www.ifdesign.de/exhibition_index_e?award_name=universal+design+award&list_awards=1&award_id=0&kategorie_id=-1&sprache=1. Though bear in mind that these are just design ideas evaluated by a committee of "experts". Whether or not the general public would have voted for specific designs is not known.

The best way to ensure you design something FOR people with a specific disability is to design WITH people with that specific disability. If you just want to make a product as inclusive as possible, then test it with as diverse a group of users as possible (people who cannot use vision when using a product, people who cannot use hearing, people who cannot read, people who cannot distinguish between colours, people who have limited hand movement, people who have only the use of one hand, people who have difficult remembering and concentrating, etc. etc. as well as older users who may have a combination of some or all of the above).

Interview users at the beginning of the process, find out what works and what doesn't work for them, learn from the way that people with disabilities have adapted mainstream products to suit their own needs, then adopt an iterative design process where you test some prototypes or mock ups with users. This user centred design approach will help get you to the design you want!

I hope this helps!

Mental Mickey

NCBICFIT wrote: »

Hi niallQ,

When you say disability you could be talking about any type of disability - physical, sensory, cognitive, learning etc. Design solutions will differ greatly, depending on what type of disability you are talking about.

So are you talking about a utensil designed for mainstream use, which is as usable by as many people as possible? Or are you talking about a specialised design solution for a specific disability?

There's no one solution that suits everyone, so it's impossible to answer which existing product is considered the most usable, but....

If you are looking for a mainstream design, the example most quoted for "universally designed" kitchen utensils would be the Oxo Good Grips range. SerialComplaint gave a link to the CEUD website above which includes some info on that range. Or you can see the full range at www.oxo.com. They have some information on their design process at that website.

It's Oxo's design process that I would highly recommend, as they really have tried to consider every size, shape and limitation of hands and fingers possible! Whether or not the resulting design of every single utensil is as usable as it could be, I cannot answer. But I can recommend their user-centred design process.

Another good source of design examples is the design competition iF Design competition which has a universal design category. There's a link to the universal design entries here http://www.ifdesign.de/exhibition_index_e?award_name=universal+design+award&list_awards=1&award_id=0&kategorie_id=-1&sprache=1. Though bear in mind that these are just design ideas evaluated by a committee of "experts". Whether or not the general public would have voted for specific designs is not known.

The best way to ensure you design something FOR people with a specific disability is to design WITH people with that specific disability. If you just want to make a product as inclusive as possible, then test it with as diverse a group of users as possible (people who cannot use vision when using a product, people who cannot use hearing, people who cannot read, people who cannot distinguish between colours, people who have limited hand movement, people who have only the use of one hand, people who have difficult remembering and concentrating, etc. etc. as well as older users who may have a combination of some or all of the above).

Interview users at the beginning of the process, find out what works and what doesn't work for them, learn from the way that people with disabilities have adapted mainstream products to suit their own needs, then adopt an iterative design process where you test some prototypes or mock ups with users. This user centred design approach will help get you to the design you want!

I hope this helps!

Good point.