A large project that has been the focus of much of the past year and has brought both interesting successes and educational failures. Through conceptual and physical prototyping experiments and eventually user testing by some amazing volunteers I have gained so many meaningful insights into the problem space and am excited to take this into the next phase of development.
Primary Design Criteria
- Produce indexable system of positions that can be set and returned to quickly and with minimal assistance
- Support multiple and often changing technology form factors – phones, tablets and other portable devices
- Quickly and easily adjust position and get out of the way when not in use
Function
Function must take precedence here and working with two power chair users to assess the problem space has helped inform the design iterations.
By positioning control and release features near the intended grip points and clearly signifying their use I hope to achieve a more intuitive and enjoyable user experience.
V 2.0 Ideation and Exploration
Insights Gained from Previous Prototype V1.1 and User Testing
Prototype V1.0 utilized off the shelf elements like LocLine to achieve range of motion while custom designed mounts and terminal hardware were designed and printed for each device. One of the users who tested this needed to be able to use a radio and a phone concurrently for work communications. The radio needed to be in the user’s range of motion and has an attached ‘hands-free’ unit that can be worn close to the head.
The phone needs to be in a place where video chat and virtual meetings can be conducted with professional results – i.e. eliminating the up the nose shots when the phone is placed in the user’s lap.
Both the radio and the phone need to be able to be positioned easily and removed quickly for the user to transfer from the chair. For this reason a quick-release button on the top surface of the mounting bracket allows for rapid removal of any of the attachments. the small form factor of the mounting hardware was designed to stay out of the way when not in use and also to
