Assistive Technology Final Project Report – Ariana Alvarez

a. Describe your partner

My partner is a very happy, and energetic woman. She has worked before in assistive technology workshops, therefore she already knows the dynamic regarding us trying to make a product that will help her overcome her difficulties. She is very eager to collaborate with the questions we ask her, and expresses her concerns freely. Every week she has been very participative in attempting to improve the prototypes we bring in for her to try on. She is very eager about the progress we have made with her umbrella holder, and her enthusiasm inspires my other partner and me to make the best of her experience. I am very excited to see her using this product in her daily life to improve commodities while going out in the street. As well as very eager to receive her feedback once she uses it under rainy weather conditions, that way we can improve it even further to make her user experience more satisfactory.

b. What are their desires/challenges/difficulties?

Since my partner uses a wheelchair, her main difficulty is carrying an umbrella when she is outside and it’s raining. This is due to the umbrella being too heavy for her to hold onto the whole time, and troublesome when it comes to controlling the wheelchair. Therefore, she desires something that will help her facilitate that process; an object that will keep her umbrella in place under any circumstance she may need. Further into details of the umbrella holder, my partner wants it to be situated in the middle of the wheelchair, that way it could cover the most area possible around her body. As well as, she wants to be able to store it in a convenient, accessible area, while it is not at use or necessary to take out. Another challenge she has, is going out at night or when it is dark, as cars cannot see her or identify her wheelchair in the dark.

c. What is your project? 

Our project idea has been redefined from the first concept that was introduced. It is a collapsable, stable umbrella holder that will be fixed onto the left side of our partner’s wheelchair. This holder is made out of steel and plastic, and contains many rotating areas so just as it provides support for the umbrella, it also adjusts according to our partner’s needs. This product will be secured with a velcro strap when not in use. When in need of use, the umbrella holder will be able to be detached from the velcro and moved towards the center of the users body, to protect as much area as possible of my partner’s body from the rain. This project is aimed to help our partner feel more comfortable when having to go out on rainy days, since she can use her hands freely, while being under her secured umbrella. In addition to the umbrella holder, we also have the idea of adding reflective stickers to her wheelchair. This part of the project is aimed towards helping our partner be visible for cars at night, so she can comfortably go out in the dark without fear of getting into an accident.

d. Development process. With photos and video(s)

Our prototype has developed through different phases based on different materials. We initiated creating a model in paper, in order to see where it has to be placed, around what size, and how the rotations will actually occur. Later on, we used the paper prototype to create a basis of how strong the tube should be, by using as an example a water pipe. This design was tested on our partner’s wheelchair, and later iterated with materials bought on Taob    ao for a steel holder.

     

  

After user testing two prototypes of steel holders, we noticed that both needed to be accommodated for our partner’s needs. Therefore, we created an iteration of the original idea, with different parts of both prototypes.

  

For this, we deconstructed the tubes, and placed them in such a way that the longer tube was aimed towards helping my partner have a more suitable umbrella height; whereas the smaller tube was used to fix the length of the product (the distance towards the middle that the umbrella would cover above my partner’s legs). We secured these new adaptations to the holder and the wheelchair through screws and hot glue.

  

Later on, my partner mentioned that she would also like the holder to be collapsable in a convenient way for her to access it at any times, as well as store it whenever not in use. For this reason we decided to situate a velcro strap on the side of the holder and chair, so she can find it more comfortable to carry around the product at all times.

  

The Final product iteration looks as following, however we further added an extra layer of reinforcement to the bottom part by drilling a hole and putting a screw to make sure it supports the weight of our partner’s umbrella.

 

 

We also added reflective stickers on the back and the side of our partner’s wheelchair. 

 

    

Final image of user with wheelchair and project.

e. What was your difficulties?

Our difficulties were mainly focused on the elaboration of the product itself, as even though we used objects preordered from Taobao, there were arrangements that needed to be made to them in order to adjust to our partner’s needs. For example, when the height of the umbrella holder had to be adjusted, we needed to make sure that while adding a new tube on the top, it would be just as stable as the rest. Another difficulty and probably the main concern  we faced was ensuring the umbrella holder would be able to hold and support the weight of our partner’s umbrella, as it was quite hard for it to stay in place at all times without moving to the sides. We fixed this problem by adding extra support to the length of the umbrella holder. However, we are still pending on our partner to give us feedback on how effective the umbrella holder is under different weather conditions.  

f. What did you learn from this 4-week workshop?

From this 4-week workshop I learned that if we set standard goals and continuously iterate ideas, then great products can be created as a mutual cooperation between users and students. I have learned that no matter how complex the technologies, whether they are interactive screens or adjustable holders, they can improve another person’s life by assisting them in their challenges. In the case of our partner, she actively engaged with us to make the best of the four weeks and indeed end up with a final product that hopefully will help her fully overcome her challenge. However, I do have to highlight that we had classmates who’s experience was not as satisfactory, as they had more challenges with their user either arriving or openly communicating with them. Therefore, based on my experience, I can state that my biggest reflection is upon open communication with the user; and how just as it can be one of the major difficulties, it can also become one of the greatest advantages, as it is key for a successful project. It is a mutual relationship/symbiosis of the students wanting to help, and the users being open, eager, and wanting to accept the help, that assistive technologies completely fulfill their aims. My partner and me delivered our project, and were very satisfied with it. We consider there is still room for improvement once a real-life testing with weather conditions is held. However, for the time being we accomplished the goal of delivering our user the product that will solve her difficulty to the best of our current abilities, and she was very happy with the outcome as well.

g. Presentation File Link

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1c8rkSclVnuvILxNL2SBONFhfhYq-gN0J-2rIKzg1IwA/edit?usp=sharing

Lamb Project Final Report by Kenneth

Lamb Group: Assistive Umbrella Holder

Partner Description

Our group’s partner Lamb is a seventeen-year-old girl. She lives with her mon and they live in the Putuo district in Shanghai. It is quite far and it will take a long time for them to get to our campus. She graduated from the special school in Putuo last year. Because of hypoxia caused by the lack of oxygen at her birth, she has difficulties in controlling her body and she can only use her right hand. What is worse is that the ability of her right hand is also limited. Fortunately, her intelligence is at a normal level. She was a participant in the Hackability event of our school this summer and she showed great enthusiasm and willingness to participate. She is an optimistic and outgoing girl. Even if she cannot speak fluently and clearly because of hypoxia, she loves talking to others. When we tried to communicate with her mother about her needs and difficulties, she was patient and she shared her feelings with us. Besides these descriptions about disability, I found out that she loves drawing and she was really kind. She worries about other people who have disabilities. She wants to help others even though she also suffers from disabilities. She is very warmhearted and participates in lots of public service activities.

Her Needs/Challenges/Difficulties

Lamb wants to go outside by herself. Now she can use her right hand to control an electronic wheelchair. But one thing is that she has no hands for opening and holding an umbrella in a raining case. So she cannot control a wheelchair and use an umbrella at the same time.

Another big issue is that Lamb and her mother cannot use almost all public transportation except the metro. They live far away from the metro station. Lamb’s mother needs to push the wheelchair 3-4km, using 1 hour and a half to bring Lamb to the metro station. However, if they can take buses, it won’t take them too much time.  However, they cannot take buses because it is hard for them to get on and off the buses because there are always a huge gap and depth between buses and buses station and between buses and the ground. It is very dangerous for them to get on and off the buses because the traffic condition is always condition and wheelchair and Lamb are too heavy for Lamb’s mom. So it is impossible for Lamb to go outside alone. Besides, because of the rainy weather and the extremely high temperature in summer, Lamb’s mom needs to hold two umbrellas when they are outside.

Project Description and Photos

Our project is an umbrella holder, which can be strongly attached to a wheelchair handler. Lamb’s family can help lamb setup the device if the weather report says that it might be raining when Lamb needs to go out with her electronic wheelchair alone. According to our research on Lamb’s daily route, She will not go out if it’s raining so that this project is designed special cases: it is raining and she is outside alone. After she goes out, if it suddenly rains, she can rotate the holder to a specific angle and make the joint tighter by spinning a turn-knob. Because Lamb’s mother says that she can open some light umbrella with her right hand. So after adjusting the angle and get prepared, she can open the umbrella. Also, she can ask for help on the street. 

It will be something like this: 

Development Process

First week:

In the first week, we wanted to design everything in automatic function. Lamb can click one button and the device can be automatically opened. Here are the first design:

 

and here is the video of our cardboard prototype:

Second Week

In the second week, we got the material we bought from Taobao. Unfortunately, Lamb took a trip to Hangzhou, so that we could not have a real user test on her. We wanted to use an automatic umbrella attached to the umbrella holder so that she can use the umbrella by simply press the button. When not in usage, the umbrella will be clinging to the handle of the wheelchair. When Lamb needs to use it, she just needs to pull it up and press the button. We planned to use an umbrella-like this in case she will get wet when closing the umbrella. Our challenge was how to fix the umbrella in that position after she pulled it up tightly and to make sure its safety. 

Third Week:

In the third week, we still could not have Lamb for the user test because she got a bad cold. Bad news. We got the automatic umbrella and the umbrella holder that we bought on Taobao last week. When we tested the automatic umbrella, we found out that the umbrella exerts a large force during the opening and closing process, which may be too dangerous for Lamb. 

Also, once the umbrella is opened and closed once, the user has to pull it back to the original position to activate the automatic mechanism again. But it needs much more strength to pull, which is impossible for Lamb to do that. It’s even difficult for us to pull it back. What is more, we realized that the joint of the holder for rotation is a little complicated, which may be too difficult for Lamb to rotate. Young suggested that we can try to use a guerilla pod as the joint, which may be easier to operate but also strong.

We tried to take the joints of stretchable sticks out and separate the legs of guerilla pods from their main body. Then we tried to install the joints to one side of guerilla pods’ leg so as to make the whole stretchable stick rotatable. We used a small pod for the first try. We successfully connected the joint with one side of the pod leg. But the leg is not strong enough to hold an umbrella. When we straightened up the umbrella, the leg bend, and the umbrella fell down. So the first try failed. For the second try, we used a stronger pod leg for rotating the part. However, we realized that the stronger leg was too big for the joint, we could not connect them together.  It seems that our prototype has been stuck. Also, because of the lack of communication and touch with users, we cannot measure the size of the wheelchair and test the capability of our partner, we cannot promote the progress by ourselves.

Reflection

So the conclusion is that we fail in making a real product for Lamb. But we have tried our best to communicate with Lamb and her mom. For me, it is an unforgettable experience. I realize that in the designing process, the user test is a really important section.  Because in the whole process, we don’t have our users with our designing and making the process, we cannot get feedback from them and we cannot event test our prototypes. So our designing process was stuck for sure. We cannot promote progress by ourselves. Without communicating with the user and observing the user, we are not able to know their real needs and empathize, which is the first step in design thinking. 

Assistive Technology Fall 2019 Final Project Reflection by You (Ian) Xu

Describe your partner

My partner is very quiet. When I first took a glimpse at him, I did not identify anything abnormal about him. He walks a little unbalanced, but that does not make him look strange. We started to ask questions and introduces ourselves to him. He seemed to have understood our words but only replies in limited voice and hand gestures. None of us understood it. Therefore, we found a pen and a piece of paper writing down our conversation. He writes comparatively slow, but the characters are clear to understand. After that, we had a long conversation with his mother. While we are chatting with his mother, I noticed that he is quietly listening and paying attention to our conversation. Later, his mother posted some questions on the paper, and he started writing the response. He even actively started writing a sentence to us while he is a little ignored by us. Therefore, I believed that he has a strong desire to join our conversation. However, the way to communicate is a big challenge for him.

Throughout our conversation with him this time in class, we notice that he relies much on his mother about everything. When we are doing user testing of our prototype to him, he responded indirectly to his mother, and then his mother translates the sign language to us instead of trying to communicate directly to us. Most of the time, he is sitting and observing our communication with his mother as an observer. We then decide to have a conversation with him without his mother. In twenty minutes, we type in sentences on the computer and ask him to reply on paper. The conversation carries out very inefficient since it is hard for him to understand the grammar of a sentence. Therefore, we need to paraphrase a lot to confirm he understand our words. Also, he has limited capability of writing Chinese characters and link them into sentences. We spend much time guessing the meaning by applying body senses. After the conversation, we still think he has a strong inner desire to communicate and experience the outside world more. However, since his mother cares too much for him, it seems that he always wants his mother to help him overcome all the obstacles. Moreover, according to his mother, he likes to play computer games and watch online series at home when he is alone.

After several conversations with him throughout weeks, our communication got even harder and less efficient. As he is now thirty years old, he has already get used to the lifestyle that relies much on others’ help. We think that even though he may have a passion for something, he has already developed a sense of “learned helplessness.” It is too hard for him to step out of his comfort zone and start over again. Because of this, we notice that he is not sensitive to new input from outside. He also blocks himself away from building a new connection to the world with humans and other objects cognitively. Therefore, we believe that even though we tried hard to communicate with him, we still fail to know better about him.

What are their desires/challenges/difficulties?

We got to know that due to the cerebral palsy, he becomes deaf. He is also insensitive and has a problem controlling his left side of the body, including his left hand, arm, leg, and foot. He has many challenges. Throughout our conversation with his mother, we noticed that he never goes out by himself but also with his mother because of the potential dangers on the road. Since he lacks a certain degree of the ability to control the left side of his body, it is tough for him to keep the balance. Also, he expressed his desire to have a romantic relationship with his mother two years ago, but his situation is not socially accepted. Furthermore, his mother is also concerned about his safety at home since he might open the room door for strangers. However, after all, we nearly forget that our target audience should be himself instead of his mother. We were chatting with his mother all the time instead of him. We then realized the most significant difficulty for him is the inconvenient environment of his communication with others. We could hardly communicate with him until his mother came.

When we are communicating with him, we notice that since he is used to relying on his mother so much, he is not comfortable communicating with us directly. He also has little language sense, especially for reading and writing. In our WeChat chat, his mother records and describes how he uses the computer to play games and watch TV series. However, he can hardly control the keyboard using his left hand. We categorize the desires/challenges/difficulties for him in the following points:

  1. Relies too much on his mother
  2. Lack of language senses to communicate with others
  3. Want to build a romantic relationship
  4. Computer sometimes crashes
  5. Difficult to click the keyboard with the left hand/arm while playing the game
  6. Most of all, lack the incentive to try and learn new things

What is your project?

  • Project 1: Portable Writing Pad (abandoned halfway)

At first, we intend to build a portable electronic writing pad attached to his body. In this way, he can carry it outside easily to communicate with others by writing everything down, only using his right hand and arm. We also intend to add instruction, either sound or vision, to notify the other to communicate appropriately with him. However, we abandon this idea after the first prototype and user testing since it could not engage him to communicate independently with others, as he says. Therefore, we do not have a final product picture of this project.

  • Project 2: foot-control keyboard

After the failure of project 1, by checking his needs listed above, we think addressing no.5 will be most helpful for him. We are thinking about to build a special keyboard for him to press the key using his feet instead of his fingers. For most of the games he plays, they require the use of four keys: “W,” “A,” “S,” and “D” to move the figure. Therefore, we intend to design a four-key keyboard with four direction keys. The keyboard should be on the ground and placed properly so that he can easily step on it. We also want the user to customize the key function to make it applicable to more situations.

Please refer to Nour’s blog post for the picture of the final product.

Development process

  • Addressing issues: communication

Our idea is generated during our reflection upon the interaction with our user after the class. We are always spending some time finding a pen and paper to write down words in communication. However, it is not always that convenient to have writing materials everywhere. Also, we did not aware that he is unable to hear and speak at first. Therefore, we came up with an idea to address this problem. So, the purpose of the device should enable him to communicate with others without any barriers in any situation. We still think writing and reading is the most effective, stable, and safe way for his daily communication.

  • Research for project 1

We find the existing writing pad online. It is designed by MI (Chinese Internet Corporation), a link to the product. It is convenient to carry, write, and swipe the previous writing. Also, it is very light to carry. The weight of this product is nearly the same as an iPhone. However, it is not initially designed for disabled people. Therefore, we want to build a device that makes the writing pad accessible to him. We need to figure out the following details in design by prototype and test.

writing pad

  1. Notify others about his lack of ability in hearing and speaking. We may use the sound notification.
  2. Attached the writing pad to his body but should not block his daily movement and make him uncomfortable. We may design a special bracket for him.
  3. Avoid two people writing in opposite directions or make their writing readable to each other. We may want to make the device rotatable.
  4. Make sure the pen will not be lost while walking. We may attach the pen to the device with wires.

To achieve these goals, we apply some materials in our design of the product. We design to use a belt that could attach the pad to his waist. We also consider that it may not be very convenient for him to have a solid pad in the front all the time. So, the belt also enables him to move it to the side of his leg while not using it.

belt

Then another problem is to make the writing pad standstill in front of him so that he can free one hand from holding the pad to writing. Our idea came from the mobile phone bracket that Didi (Chinese Online Ride-Hailing Platform) drivers use since they also do not have an extra hand to hold their phones while driving.

phone bracket

By applying the phone bracket, it also solves the problem to rotate the writing pad so that the two people do not need to read upside-down words.

Since a 10-inch pad is also not small, it may be stuck by his body while rotating the pad. We notice that the small table on the airplane seat can stretch out or fold. How about stretch the pad out a little to leave enough space for him to rotate the pad? Then, we also found a tool online that could make the writing pad movable along the track.

track

  • Prototype for project 1

We did not purchase the writing pad and other materials in the beginning in case it does not fit him well. To test the portability and stability of it, we made a simple prototype of our idea using cardboard and plastic tapes. We use plastic tapes to prototype the belt and the cardboard for the pad. We measure the size of the cardboard and cut it as the exact size of a 10-inch writing pad. Since it is hard to find alternative materials for the phone bracket, we designed another mechanism to prototype it.

project 1 prototype

  • User testing for project 1

During the user testing session for our user, we addressed many new problems. First, since we are using cardboard and tapes, it is very unstable. However, more importantly, we found out that this product may not necessarily address the issue of his lack of communication with strangers. Since his mother is taking the position of him to answer all the questions, we tried some ways to drive his mother out of the classroom for 15 minutes. During that time, we directly asked him when communicating with others, would he refer to his mother or using a writing pad. He gave us a firm answer: mother. Therefore, among our group, we had an argument about his sense of autonomy and to what extent are we eligible to address such an issue. It becomes a paradox that, on the one hand, the writing pad could enable him to take the autonomy and initiate a conversation that he never has the chance to do before. However, on another hand, he is used to his original way of communication by relying on his mother. His “learned helplessness” is blocking him to try using a new tool because it takes more effort while directly communicating with others. This product could arouse his awareness of active communication only under the condition that he is willing to communicate without his mother. After careful consideration, we decide to postpone this idea since it surely does not work in a short time.

  • Research and sketch for project 2

We notice that he likes to play online games. Based on our experiences, sometimes, the player must use both hands to control the game. We have a conversation in the WeChat group asking about what games he regularly plays. This is the website where he usually visits to play online games.

game website

We then visit this website and plays for a while. Indeed, some games require using the left hand to press keys and the right hand to control the mouse. Since most of the time, the player uses the left hand to control “W, A, S, D” to move the figure. Therefore, since he can use his right leg and foot normally, how about take use of it to substitute his left hand?

game shot

We refer our idea to an interactive Japanese game Dance Dance Revolution. It demonstrates that feet are indeed capable of controlling the game. After practicing and training, feet could also be used quite advanced.

dance dance revolusion

We first think about using a joystick bottom to replace the keys on the keyboard. Four directions of the joystick may indicate four keys. I tried to use my foot to test the bottom. I fear that I may break the bottom at any time. So, we believe that he may easily break it as well by stepping on the bottom too often.

joystick

We then searched online for some possible materials for the replacement of keys. We found a pedal that connects to the computer as a key. We then come up with the idea to apply four pedals and build a four-key keyboard on the ground by fixing them on a piece of board.

pedals

  • Project development for project 2

After we received the pedals, we programed the key information accordingly into the pedals by referring to the instruction. Now, these four pedals can work together as a special four-key keyboard. Since for some games, he may need to press two bottoms together, the problem is how to position them best? We open some online games and use only the right hand and right foot to try playing them. We adjust the position of the four pedals according to our experience interacting with it to find the possible best layout. Finally, we think the photo below shows the best layout.

layout

After finalizing the layout, we stock the pedals onto cardboard, waiting for the user testing. We manage to adjust the position of the keys according to the user’s experience and complete the final product.

pedals on cardboard

  • Feedback from the user

During our final user testing session, we tried to teach him to use the pedals to control the figure in the online game. Yanru did this by demonstrating it to him directly. After a while, he got a sense of controlling it. However, it is not easy for him to get familiar with the control of it. When asking about his experience of using the pedals, he told us that he prefers to use the keyboard than the pedals. We understand the difficulty that even for us, it takes some time to master the use of the pedals by foot. However, due to two reasons, we still think this is not an efficient solution to the problem.

user test

First, as the feedback of our project design says, even though we are designing products for him, we still need to consider the attitude of his mother since his mother plays an important role in his life. If his mother does not agree with the design of the product, she would probably take the initiative against the use of it. This time, we heard his mother’s voice that she is not agreeable to our design since it is complex to use. We also think that it does not reduce the burden of his mother. Instead, it has the potential to bring more troubles to his mother. Therefore, his mother probably will not support his use of these pedals at home.

Second, as described, again and again, he is not open to trying new things since there are always some options for him to pay less effort. Learning to use the pedals takes some time and skill development of his foot. Therefore, in a short time, it would be definitely more convenient to use a keyboard than pedals before he masters them. Temporarily, we have no solution to design a product that does not require any effort of learning and adaption.

What were your difficulties?

  • Communication

Communication has always been a difficulty for us throughout the whole developing process. He and his mother seem to have a special system of sign language that none of us understand. The only way for us to communicate without his mother is to write everything down. Even though we can write fast or type on the computer, his comprehensive level is another challenge for us. Because of his limited language sense, we communicate very slow, and it seems impossible for us to communicate deeply. Due to the limited time, we think that we never truly understand and empathize with him by such a shallow and inefficient way of communication.

communicating with iPad

  • Defining the USER’s needs that we can address within four weeks

We are always changing our focus on our user since it is hard for us to define his need that we can pay effort on. During our first meet, we had a rich conversation with his mother. We got to know from his mother that he has many problems in his daily life. However, afterward, we consider all these needs as his mother’s instead of his. From his mother’s perspective, she may want something that could make her life more comfortable. However, these issues may not be necessarily relevant a lot to our actual user.

Then, by having a conversation directly with him, we encountered many problems. No matter what specific need we address, it always leads us to a more fundament problem: his autonomy of social life. We had many discussions about his mother’s control over him, his inner desire for social life, his inclusiveness in society, his “learned helplessness” and unwillingness of changes… However, many of these are out of our capability in this course, “Assistive Technology,” which made us at a loss throughout the process. We successfully address the core issue with him – autonomy – but fails to design a product to resolve it from a certain perspective that we can achieve in a short period of time.

  • Project development

Project development is also a difficulty for us since we do not have our user to test it at any time we want while developing our project. Therefore, we fail to collect feedback timely. Some designs of the project, for instance, the layout of the pedals in project two may only suitable for us but not necessary for him. Combining with the difficulty of communication, it is harder for us to get positive feedback that engages us for better adjustment and improvement. Even though the final product may not be successful, however, we still believe that our user is enjoying the process of interacting with us. We also learned a lot, as described below. From this perspective, we are having a reciprocal impact on each other, which is a valuable and successful Service-Learning experience.

What did you learn from this 4-week workshop?

  • Knowledge about disability

Before the workshop, I only know a little about disability in social media and course readings. I would forget the information in a few hours after reviewing without real-world experience. However, by having authentic communication and interaction with my user who suffers cerebral palsy, I got to know better about the cause and effect of some disabilities, especially different categories and levels of cerebral palsy. By empathizing with my user, I got to know how his daily life is like and how he behaves differently compare to people without cerebral palsy. This is significant for me to be more open-minded and inclusive when designing any form of technology to consider the issue of accessibility.

  • Interaction with disables

Before the workshop, I only have a little experience of interacting with blind people while having activities with some NGOs. This workshop gives me the chance to interact with my user in a comparatively long period personally. This is significant for me to have a stronger awareness to be more considerate in the future when interacting with other people with disabilities.

  • Social environment and issues with disables

In our conversation with his mother, we got to know the changes of people in Shanghai and the Shanghai government’s attitude towards disables. In recent years, society is becoming more and more inclusive to them, especially in an international city like Shanghai. However, it is still a long way to go. He is always thinking about to have a romantic relationship. However, his mother says that people without severe disabilities would not consider him regarding his physical condition, social identity, future potential income, etc.

  • Design thinking

The most fruitful gain for me is the process of applying “design thinking” in an authentic project. I have heard of the notion of “design thinking” over five times in my college life. I was very familiar with the concept of it even before taking this course. However, this course gives me the change to apply it to my project for the first time. I now realize the importance of “empathize” and “define” process in “design thinking.” By reflecting on our not successful project development, I believe we have a wonderful “ideate” process and creative “prototype.” However, during the “test,” we realize again and again that we are always missing some consideration to the user himself. This also corresponds to what we learned in class that the five steps are in a loop. We went back to the first step “empathize” twice after testing! After three weeks, even though we had empathized a lot on him, we are still struggling with the “define” step. In all, I think the updated loop version of “design thinking” is a very useful concept for project development. Among them, “empathize” and “define” processes are especially important.

Project Documentation – Lamb team – Iris

1.  Describe your partner 

                My partner Lamb is a seventeen-year-old girl. She lives in the Putuo district in Shanghai, where is far away from our school. She just graduated from the special school in Putuo last year. She has a disability of controlling her body well because of hypoxia at birth and can only use her right hand but her intelligence is no different from others. She participated in the Hackability in NYUSH this summer and is enthusiastic about this kind of activity. She told me that she posted a video of her participating Hackability on her Weibo. She is an optimistic and outgoing girl. Although she can’t speak fluently and clearly, she is very willing to talk to other people. When we asked some questions about what difficulties or problems they met in daily life, she interrupted her mother and told us that there is a gap between the subway and the ground so that it’s hard for the wheelchair to get on the subway. She is very warmhearted and participates in lots of public service activities. I saw in her mother’s Wechat moment that she donated five boxes of gifts to the blind people. She also visited gerocomium as a volunteer to accompany these elderly people. Although some of her abilities are limited, she tries her best to cheer those who need help and does what she can do.

2. What are their desires/challenges/difficulties?

                Lamb’s desire is to go out alone with her electronic wheelchair. One concern is that if she go out by herself and it suddenly rains, it would get her into trouble since she can’t hold an umbrella by herself and she has to control her wheelchair. 

               Their other main difficulty is transportation. Lamb’s mother told us that their home is far away from the subway station so that she has to push the wheelchair to walk for more than ten minutes to get to the subway station. What’s more, because of the bad weather in Shanghai, there are much high-temperature weather or rainy days. It’s always difficult for them to go out in these weathers. Their other problem is that the buses are almost inaccessible to them because of two reasons. Firstly, it’s hard for the wheelchair-user to get on to the bus because of the stairs. Secondly, in most buses, there is no space for a wheelchair, not to mention facilities that help to fix the wheelchair. They said that if they could take buses, life would be much easier because there are bus stations just near their home. Their difficulty in transportation can be the difficulties of many wheelchair users. This shows that our public facilities should consider more about accessibility to people with disabilities. 

3. What is your project?

                Our project is an umbrella holder that can be fixed in the wheelchair. Lamb can use it if the weather report said that it might be raining when she goes out with her electronic wheelchair alone. She said she will not go out if it’s raining so that this project is just to in case it rains when she’s outside. Her mother should help her to fix the holder onto the wheelchair and the umbrella to the holder beforehand. After she goes out, if it suddenly rains, she can rotate the holder up and make the joint tighter by spinning a turn-knob. Then open the umbrella by pushing it up. If she is not able to do that, she can ask people around for help. Besides this using, Her mother can also use this to hold the umbrella for Lamb when they go out together. Her mother said that she always wears a raincoat but it’s hard to hold the umbrella for Lamb. Therefore, it would also be useful if they go out together on a rainy day.

4. Development process

In the first week, we came up with the idea to make a unbrella holder which can be rotated by Lamb and the umbrella can be opened by simply pressing a button. We drew a sketch and made a prototype of the umbrella holder by water pipe and cardboard, which perfectly shows what we planned to make. 

                In the second week, Lamb took a trip to Hangzhou, so that we didn’t meet her.  We plan to use an automatic opening and closing umbrella to attach to the umbrella holder so that she can use the umbrella by simply press the button since it’s difficult for Lamb to open the umbrella by herself. When not in usage, the umbrella will be clinging to the handle of the wheelchair. When Lamb needs to use it, she just needs to pull it up and press the button. We planned to use an umbrella-like this in case she will get wet when closing the umbrella. Our challenge was how to fix the umbrella in that position after she pulled it up tightly and to make sure its safety. 

In the third week, Lamb got a cold so that she couldn’t come so that we just tested by ourselves without the user. We got the automatic umbrella and the umbrella holder that we bought on Taobao last week. When we tested the automatic umbrella, we found out that the umbrella exerts a large force during the opening and closing process, which may be too dangerous for Lamb. 

Also, once the umbrella is opened and closed once, the user has to pull it back to the original position to open it again. But it requires great strength to pull it back. It’s even difficult for me to pull it back. Therefore, we think it’s impossible for Lamb to pull it back by herself. This would cause lots of troubles, for example, if she wants to open it again, it would be hard. Another problem we encountered was that the joint of the holder for rotation is a little complicated, which may be too difficult for Lamb to rotate. We’ll try tomorrow to see if Lamb can rotate it and make it tight enough to hold the umbrella. If she can’t, Young gave us a suggestion that we can try to use a tripod as the joint, which may be easier to operate but also strong.

                In the last week, we still didn’t have our partner Lamb since she was still sick. This also raised our awareness that an umbrella is important for her since she will easily get ill if she catches a cold or gets wet in rain. In order to make a joint that is strong enough to hold an umbrella as well as easy to rotate, we tried to use one leg of a gorilla pod as the joint of our holder. We thought the gorilla pod might be strong enough since it can hold a heavy camera. However, the truth is that it’s easy to rotate but too weak to hold an umbrella. Then, we removed half of the gorilla pod joint to make it shorter to make it stronger. Unfortunately, it’s still not strong enough. Therefore, we decided to test on next Tuesday if Lamb can rotate the original turn-knob by herself. If not, she may have to ask other people’s help when using it.

Reflection

                This project may not be a success but it’s a special experience. It reminds me of the importance of the user during the designing process. Especially in assistive technology designing, it’s more important to design according to the user’s situation since every user is very different and unique. Without communicating with the user and observing the user, we are not able to know their real needs and empathize, which is the first step in design thinking. Also, we can’t conduct the user test without a user and improve our design, not to mention iterate the process of designing. Therefore, although we didn’t get a chance to test our project with the user and make some improvements according to the user’s feedback, it’s a special learning experience. For example, the automatic umbrella which didn’t work as we expected reminds me of the importance of personalized assistive technology designing. People with disabilities need personalized designing since the products from the assembly line always can’t fit their requirements. This motivates me to make personalized assistive design a lot.

Week 6 Assignments #2 – Ariana Alvarez

Reflection on field trip

For this week’s field trips I was only able to attend the vocational schools and observe the kids in different classes. We first observed a semester-long course in which children with disabilities were crafting ukuleles (small guitars), and decorating them. The second class I observed was an art class that focused on the use of repetitive shapes made by paper strings. 

It was very interesting for me to observe how different children benefited in different ways from the same activity. This distinction in the learning outcome depended mostly on their disabilities, as they all enjoyed  different aspects of the same courses. For example, in the ukulele class, I observed this by seeing how arts and crafts in a small autistic girl, helped her maintain focus; whereas the same activity helped enhance motor skills in a boy with rather physical disabilities. A similar pattern seemed to occur in the paper crafting class, as there was a clear difference in children’s behaviors regarding the activity. Children with autism were enjoying and concentrated in the creation of repetitive patterns and shapes with paper; whereas another more energetic boy, was more enthusiastic by the presence of visitors, than by the nature of the class itself. 

As an overall experience, the visit to the vocational schools were very insightful, as they provided a more hands-on experience regarding how children learn. I felt like for the first time I was able to truly interact with the children in ways beyond language, but through observing them and even helping them in some way with arts and crafts. I consider that different technologies in this specific situations would be beneficial to improve children’s learning in such a way that they all maximize from each activity, regardless of their disability. For instance, in the paper making class, a certain technological device could be made so that more active children are challenged into paper making, hence engaging them into the activity so it is just as beneficial for them as for children with autism. Seeing these areas where technologies could be implemented has inspired me into taking further action and realizing how there is still a lot of work left to do, as there is a broad range of projects that can be implemented for next semester that could assist many people with disabilities.