Group One
2nd post
Group One / Research process
Following the activities and discussions with the professionals, our research began with a collective brainstorming session to set our objectives for this project. We asked ourselves about the different everyday situations requiring some form of assistance for the target audience, and analyzed whether we should design a product with multiple functions or meet a particular need. We also addressed the question of ‘prosthesis’, and asked ourselves whether we were looking to create a tool external to the body or an extension of it. Our research was also based on the idea of providing solutions that save time for the person concerned, with tools that are simple and quick to use.
2 aspects focused research
We decided to tackle two areas, noting from various conversations with Luca that it was for certain everyday details that a tool could be really useful. Some of the movements we make when we’re cooking are more complicated, or when we’re in a more social situation such as playing cards the envy to participate and be part of the group touches us all. Hence we focused on the practical and the social aspect.
Ideation, sketches of objects
We therefore focused on these two themes, and came up with two tools that could be adapted to the prosthesis designed by Renáta Dezső. The first tool meets a more specific need, that of sliding food cut on a board into a frying pan without pushing everything past the edges. The second extension of the prosthesis makes it possible to attach cards and turn them in 360-degree to have an overview of them during a game.
Prototypes
The vegetable slider is a bit curved to push all the vegetables from the board, and could be adapted to a special board to make a very useful set. The design could be fixed within the prosthesis to make it more stable than the prototype.
360 degree rotating tool. This was an experiment on how could we exploit the potentials the prosthesis has. We came up with the idea of creating a rotating tool for playing cards with friends.
Observations
After printing and testing our objects with Luca, we realized that the “vegetable slider” could prove to be a very useful product, as this action is a detail that sometimes wastes a lot of her time. She confirmed it would be the kind of utensil she would keep in her kitchen. The tool for playing cards could be developed further in its function, although the rotating movement could be very interesting, Luca showed us she would instinctively try to block it for her comfort.
Additional workshop and conclusion
To conclude this research, we invited Luca to dinner to cook and share a moment together. We were able to confirm our hypothesis that the real need can only be found in very specific details of everyday life. So, to answer our own questions, in the world where most of our objects are mainly exclusive and for a specific group of people, prosthesis or body extensions are the obvious solution that designers have in mind to help people with disabilities. But the real solutions ultimately lie in what we call ‘tools’ without seeking to replace the whole body part that is missing in a situation of physical disability.
This course has been very informative and interesting for us, in addition it was truly a pleasure meeting Luca and spending time with her. We thank her for her openness.
