Week 7

Excursion




Today was our second trip as a group to visit Life-Tec at New Market. It was refreshing to get out of the classroom for some more hands on investigative research. It was extremely beneficial to be able to hear from people there who know all about usability and user experience.  The trip was a great way to see some practical and innovative applications of electronic devices.  Although the centre is very focused on certain user groups and demographics that aren't necessarily relevant to our project, the principles and approaches are very much transferrable to us. I always find this centre very interesting to explore. It is amazing having a whole industry based on designing for disabilities, the elderly and different capabilities. There are some very clever products in the centre. Not specifically in regards to the project but more from a usability point of view, some of the products that stood out for me were; 



The cutlery with thicker handles and a bent in end to make eating much easier.
The simple adaptation of a key board to suit the visually impaired, high contrast keys for high visibility and larger letters. 
Suction container. A very clear idea which allows people with arthritis to use containers without difficulty. 

It was quite interesting to hear how the LifeTec staff spoke about the designing of the products in a usability and experience way but from backgrounds of occupational therapists. I found it was very similar to the ways in which we are taught as Industrial Designers. It's good that there are no significant differences or contradictions between the two. Health and design appear to work very closely and well with each other.




Activity:
In our groups for our project we were to;
Select a product from the store
Analyse it's design and attempt to redesign or alter the product to; 
Make it easier or more effective for it's targeted users
OR
Make useable for groups/purposes other than for those with disabilties or speical needs
OR
Relate back to class project 

Our group decided we may as well use the activity to relate it back to the project we are currently doing. As we are still in the concept stage, this task could help us expand or solidify our concept. 

What we came out with at the end of the activity was actually quite interesting.

The objects we selected were two ordinary looking balls. Inside the balls were some kind of bells or chimes. When the balls were moved, the inside components made noise. These balls are to assist visually impaired in playing sports. 


These products are quite simple and appear to have not much potential for improvements, as they serve their primary purpose. So from looking at the products from the perspective of our project, we saw plenty of opportunity. 

Our concept from the activity:

Working on the same theme as the concept we had come up with last week of: Communicating with friends/family on other sides of the world.

From this we also thought to consider people with disabilities, who are sick at home and aren't able to go out or travel. 
This concept involves connecting people through play. In particularly competition. When living away from people who you were once close with, a sense of competitiveness is something that is very difficult to achieve because of the distance. 

Using a ball (selected product) as the main working part of an arcade style game. the game enables two people living away from each other to compete. 

The first person picks up the ball, which is connected wirelessly to its partner. By giving the ball a shake, the accelerometer inside indicates the movement to the other person by making a noise (encased vibrator inside ball). This signals to the second person, that their friend is challenging them and wants to play!
A hand outline on the ball with pressure points in the fingers will recognise when both player are in position ready to begin the game. The two players challenge each other and shoot the ball into the hoop/hole as fast as they can. The game displays a count of how many points each player has scored. Red lights will indicate the player is loosing and green will turn on when they are winning. 




I feel like the activity we did today was very beneficial to our group. It prompted our thinking further and we now have another concept to think about. We are not sure whether will we change to the one we came up with today or the one we agreed on after the concept bombs. Perhaps we will end up merging them into one big super concept?