Assignment 3 Understanding Impaired Users

Understanding impaired users is an important part of the design process. When designing for the impaired, there are particular physical and social issues that need to be addressed. Viewing the customer as equal in worth to a product, or service, is essential in co-creating value between parties. Designers need to be delivering products that ensure safe practice at all times, due to their loss of confidence, and therefore freedom, from their normal lives. An increasing, more affluent, impaired population has lead to significant demand for products designed especially for the impaired. Daily problems such as poor eye sight, balance and strength, limit the lifestyle impaired individuals can sustain. Products designed with consideration for the …show more content…
They vary in height, shape, reach, centre of gravity and strength. This means when designing products it is essential to consider universal design. “Universal Design is a movement that encourages the design of products so everyone can use them, without regard for physical or age differences.” (Kolko, 2007) Products considerate of universal design facilitate the impaired. They take into account several limitations, which would otherwise exclude them from the use of the product. For example, designers would investigate behaviour patterns such as; skill levels, tasks, goals and personas to influence the design process. (Brown Bear, 2007).Figure 1 shows the typical can opener shown on right and universal can opener left. When the user picks up the typical can opener and engages with it, the user twists the handle with one hand, while holding the opener with the other, and cuts through the lid. The entire process of opening a can with a typical opener involved complicated hand activities. The handle transfers human energy to rotate a gear which moves the can relative to the opener. In contrast, the universal can opener uses electrical energy to open the can at a push of a button while a magnet adds the functionality of exporting the lid away from the can. Both openers offer morphologically different provisions for “grasping” with one hand. (Shraddha Sangelkar, Nicholas Cowen, Daniel McAdams, 2011) When designers influence the design process through universal design there are a number of issues they may face. For example, designers have to ignore the wishes of outlying individuals in favour of the entire group. This means that products can potentially become bland and tasteless. Also the fact that everyone is unique and it is impossible to design something for peoples distinctive features and requirements. (Addison Duvall