- Project development
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.
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.
c. What is your project? Redefine if needed
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 contains 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 my 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.
d. Development process. Include 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 TaoBao 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.
Final Product up to now
