In the Their Shoes..

For our week three contemporary design class, we had the pleasure of having a guest lecture Rhona Hunt. Rhona works for Ostoform a company who produces medical devices. Rhona has worked with many different companies as a biomedical researcher and has contributed to the design of many great medical products. In her experience she has used various different techniques to go about researching for the products they design some of which have worked better than others. It really is amazing as a designer when you find which methods work best for you. This could be observing as a fly on the wall, using research surveys on an audience or even cooperatively working with the users themselves to generate ideas. One of the most successful of Rhona's methods was to try put yourself in the users shoes and use this to identify observations, problems and needs.

As an exercise, we had to split up into groups of four and put ourselves in the shoes of a disabled person. For this exercise, Killian in my group put himself in the shoes of a blind person for an hour. We wrapped my scarf around his head and gave him a stick. He had to go about his daily life carrying out regular tasks to experience the many struggles of blindness.

It was a really interesting exercise as there was so many different challenges to overcome that you might not think of. Such as, taking money out of a wallet, knowing where you are in the queue of a cafe or even finding a bin around campus. Another problem we encountered was that the stick he was using was too short that it forced him to bend his back in order to feel his way around the campus. The stick allowed him to feel if something was in front of him or if he was going up the stairs even if this may resulted in hitting a poor Asian woman along the way. I was particularly fascinated that Killian became far more aware of his other senses such as his sense of smell and hearing.

It was a very effective exercise in gathering some primary research which I know I will definitely try to use in the future. I was also amazed with what the other groups had come up with from the disabilities they chose to look into such as the use of one arm, using a wheelchair or even not being able to use your fingers.

It was a very eye opening experience. We really do presume that in this day and age, there are so many facilities for disabled people however, there still are so many unresolved problems. This is what we, as designers, must identify. It can be a scary, intimidating and vulnerable place for people with such conditions and I certainly am far more aware of this than I was before the exercise. It also made me very grateful for what I do have. I am very lucky for what I have, Life is certainly not as easy for these disabled people and there is a window of design potential to assist them in their daily lives.