The direction of co-design: a vision
Within this project, the most important task is to keep the co-designer up to date, involve them in the design process, and let them reflect on the final design. To keep the co-designer involved it is, therefore, necessary to clearly understand the relationship between the designing team and the co-designer in question.
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In essence, the designing team rules over the design process down to the final product. However, the designing team’s task is to incorporate the opinions and ideas of the co-designer into the product. The design team needs to manage expectations in this area well since not everything is possible. It is also of great importance that the design team listens to the co-designer when something is incorrect in the eyes of the co-designer.
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We apply the very same philosophy to our project, there are weekly meetings wherein we discuss the latest ideas and concepts with the co-designer. Since our co-designer lives far away, the meetings are usually online. In the first meeting we talked with Anne about her syndrome, got an idea of what daily problems she copes with, what her days look like and what products she uses to help her deal with the problems. From these conversations came forth that she wants a tool to be able to continue performing her hobbies: painting and drawing.
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Aside from the online meetings we went to visit her physically to get feedback one the first set of prototypes. This was done to get a good idea of which idea works best and how to improve it in such a way that it easily works with her brace and brushes. After that we had a pretty good idea of what would work and could begin the process off finetuning the concept. Herein we made multiple variations of the prototype and mailed them to her to try out and
User Study Test
Anne’s feedback regarding the ideation phase was extremely useful. Anne said straight away what she liked or not, and what she thinks will work the best for her. She also made some suggestions for improving the ideas, such as combining two ideas into one or removing/adding some parts. We took all her suggestions into consideration and came up with four concepts: three concepts regarding her painting issue and one regarding the motorcycle with her husband.
Afterwards, three students from our project group visited the co-designer with some rough prototypes. The goal of the meeting was to see what will work best for her, being able to feel the prototypes in real life. She tried them all and unfortunately none suited her the best. As follows, we started playing with the prototypes: deforming them, removing and adding parts using tape. We ended up with a great prototype and a fun process for Anne and the students.
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Anne was especially happy about the possibilities the model showed and how the comfort, ease of use and multifunctionality of the model could improve. She was already imagining using it for painting, writing, texting, etc.
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We also took a lot of pictures and measurements for improving the ergonomics of the product specifically for her. Using those, seven 3D printed models were created with a slightly different shape and were sent to her to try and give feedback on.
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Moreover, the co-design approach is essential for the process of the current project. It was truly important to focus on Anne’s needs and desires and by meeting online and physically a good connection and collaboration between the group members and her was maintained. Without the help and implication of the co-designer, the result would not have suited Anne well.