Early prototype for one-handed laptop case

One-handed cafeteria tray prototype

Archeworks // Design 4 Stroke

Designing for users who cannot communicate well.

User-centered research is challenging enough when your users are fully-abled. When you design for users who have stroke-related aphasia, user-centered research becomes intensely challenging. Beginning Fall 2007, I participated in a year-long design project for stroke survivors. This project was sponsored by Archeworks, a Chicago-based alternative design school, in conjunction with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University.

My team comprised one speech pathologist, an interior designer and 2 stroke survivors. In the course of the project, we brainstormed ideas and received immediate feedback from our team members. We then tested our ideas with a broader group of stroke survivors, adapting our methods to accommodate problems with language. We used engineering talent from Northwestern to rapildy protoype two design concepts: a one-handed nail clipper and a one-handed cafeteria tray. The prototypes were tested by RIC participants and refined. The range of prototypes was wide and imaginative!

A third concept, a laptop bag designed for use by the one-handed, received extensive help through the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. After the end of the year-long project, our team continued working on the bag. The bags are currently in use by RIC patients.

In the course of this project, I performed user research, prototyped ideas and managed external relationships.