CCT384 – Universal Design and AccessCase Studies: OXO Good Grips and Smart Design

Week 8

Research Methods

Prototyping and Construction

Overview

• Prototyping and construction

• Conceptual design

• Physical design

• Generating prototypes

• Tool support

Prototyping and construction

• What is a prototype? • Why prototype?• Different kinds of prototyping

low fidelityhigh fidelity

• Compromises in prototypingvertical horizontal

• Construction

What is a prototype?

In other design fields a prototype is a small-scale model:

• a miniature car• a miniature building or town

What is a prototype?

In interaction design it can be (among other things):• a series of screen sketches• a storyboard, i.e. a cartoon-like series of scenes • a Powerpoint slide show• a video simulating the use of a system• a lump of wood (e.g. PalmPilot)• a cardboard mock-up• a piece of software with limited functionality written in the target

language or in another language

Why prototype?

• Evaluation and feedback are central to interaction design• Stakeholders can see, hold, interact with a prototype more easily

than a document or a drawing• Team members can communicate effectively• You can test out ideas for yourself • It encourages reflection: very important aspect of design • Prototypes answer questions, and support designers in choosing

between alternatives

What to prototype?

• Technical issues• Work flow, task design• Screen layouts and information display• Difficult, controversial, critical areas

Low-fidelity Prototyping

• Uses a medium which is unlike the final medium, e.g. paper, cardboard

• Is quick, cheap and easily changed• Examples:

sketches of screens, task sequences, etc

‘Post-it’ notesstoryboards‘Wizard-of-Oz’

Storyboards

• Often used with scenarios, bringing more detail, and a chance to role play

• It is a series of sketches showing how a user might progress through a task using the device

• Used early in design

Sketching

• Sketching is important to low-fidelity prototyping

• Don’t be inhibited about drawing ability. Practice simple symbols

Card-based prototypes

• Index cards (3 X 5 inches) • Each card represents one screen or

part of screen• Often used in website development

‘Wizard-of-Oz’ prototyping

• The user thinks they are interacting with a computer, but a developer is responding to output rather than the system.

• Usually done early in design to understand users’ expectations• What is ‘wrong’ with this approach?

>Blurb blurb>Do this>Why?

User

High-fidelity prototyping

• Uses materials that you would expect to be in the final product.

• Prototype looks more like the final system than a low-fidelity

version.

• For a high-fidelity software prototype common environments

include Macromedia Director, Visual Basic, and Smalltalk.

• Danger that users think they have a full system…….see

compromises

Compromises in prototyping

• All prototypes involve compromises• For software-based prototyping maybe there is a slow response?

sketchy icons? limited functionality? • Two common types of compromise

• ‘horizontal’: provide a wide range of functions, but with little detail

• ‘vertical’: provide a lot of detail for only a few functions• Compromises in prototypes mustn’t be ignored. Product needs

engineering

Construction

• Taking the prototypes (or learning from them) and creating a whole

• Quality must be attended to: usability (of course), reliability, robustness, maintainability, integrity, portability, efficiency, etc

• Product must be engineered

Evolutionary prototyping

‘Throw-away’ prototyping

Conceptual design: from requirements to design

• Transform user requirements/needs into a conceptual model • “a description of the proposed system in terms of a set of

integrated ideas and concepts about what it should do, behave and look like, that will be understandable by the users in the manner intended”

• Don’t move to a solution too quickly. Iterate, iterate, iterate• Consider alternatives: prototyping helps

Is there a suitable metaphor?

• Interface metaphors combine familiar knowledge with new knowledge in a way that will help the user understand the product.

• Three steps: understand functionality, identify potential problem areas, generate metaphors

• Evaluate metaphors:How much structure does it provide?How much is relevant to the problem?Is it easy to represent?Will the audience understand it?How extensible is it?

Considering interaction types

• Which interaction type?How the user invokes actionsInstructing, conversing, manipulating or exploring

• Do different interface types provide insight?WIMP, shareable, augmented reality, etc

Expanding the conceptual model

• What functions will the product perform?

What will the product do and what will the human do (task allocation)?

• How are the functions related to each other?

Sequential or parallel?

Categorisations, e.g. all actions related to telephone memory storage

• What information needs to be available?

What data is required to perform the task?

How is this data to be transformed by the system?

Using scenarios in conceptual design

• Express proposed or imagined situations

• Used throughout design in various ways

scripts for user evaluation of prototypes

concrete examples of tasks

as a means of co-operation across professional boundaries

• Plus and minus scenarios to explore extreme cases

Generate storyboard from scenario

Generate card-based prototype from use case

Case Study: Smart Design

Social Responsibility Through Design

“The true basis of Universal Design is not “one product for everyone.” It is about treating people equally.”

Social Responsibility Through Design

“Design should not systematically exclude people who have physical or cognitive challenges, or cultural or gender differences, simply because the design team did not consider these variables in their work.”

The Role of Segregation

“While typically attributed to separation by race, ethnicity or social class, in our work it has direct ties to Universal Design.

Segregation is a strong word in the Unites States, and certainly a factor affecting the radical youth culture that developed in the United States in the 1960’s. In the early 1980’s when we were first exploring the topic of Universal Design, our goal was a simple, single principal: Eliminate segregation by designing to include everyone.”

“Design is about people”

Smart Design was started in 1980 by a small group of industrial designers, most of whom had been in college together. Children of the 1960’s, our goal was to use design to make lives better for people. Smart Design began with a number of ideals based on the principle that design should be focused on the end user. The ideals were fueled by a number of successes we had in the 1980’s.

In 1990 they helped pioneer the concept of Universal Design when four designers from Smart — Davin Stowell, Tucker Viemeister, Michael Callahan and Dan Formosa (the author of this paper) — designed the original line of OXO GoodGrips kitchen tools. The line accommodated as many people as possible, including people with challenges such as arthritis and poor vision. This venture was a significant risk at the time.

“While our previous products more quietly accommodated wide ranges of ability, with this project we directly expressed a point of view that design should accommodate everyone.”

“Design is about people”

The OXO GoodGrips line of products has become highly successful, and often emulated. As of today, Smart Design has responsibly developed over 700 products for OXO. The company has grown exponentially as a result. Design work for our other clients has been approached with this same point of view. Our approach was similarly applied to the products we designed for companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Corning Glass Works, HP, and others.

Social Sustainability

This includes a commitment to universal design, and looks beyond that to include many aspects of design that work to improve quality of life globally. These include social, cultural, family and gender issues. Design, for instance, has historically been a male-dominated field. Exploring where, how, and to what extent females in the consumer market have been made to adapt to male points of view.

Social Sustainability

“At Smart Design we are exploring unique design methods that originate from a female point of view. These methods are resulting in products more naturally suited to female’s physical, cognitive, and emotional needs.”

Public Bathrooms Reinvented

Smart Design examines the intersection between Universal Design principles and public restrooms in Manhattan.

http://www.smartdesignworldwide.com/news/article.php?id=1097

Case Study: OXO Good Grips

OXO Company

OXO launched in 1990

Winner of over 100 design awards

Over 500 products developed

625 employees worldwide

35 percent growth in sales between 1991 and 2002

Average age of OXO employees 31.8

OXO Uplift Kettle Design

Video:

This video provides a short overview of the Uplift water kettle's design. The Uplift water kettle was launched in 1999 by OXO and in the 10 years since has achieved sales in excess of 125,000,000 USD.

http://www.youtube.com/v/rP0W1jdJEHQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&

OXO Good Grips

Design that everyone can use

BeforeTraditional metal peeler

AfterOXO Good Grips peeler

OXO Good Grips

Design that everyone can use

Problem: Why can’t kitchen utensils be designed to be easy to use by people with arthritis?

Response: Extensive user research and innovative design create comfortable tools for all

Result: Sales increase by 50% year on year

OXO Good Grips

Design that everyone can use

Problem: Why can’t kitchen utensils be designed to be easy to use by people with arthritis?

Response: Extensive user research and innovative design create comfortable tools for all

Result: Sales increase by 50% year on year

OXO Good Grips

“OXO International was established by Sam Farber in 1989 to develop the Good Grips range of comfortable, easy-to-use kitchen utensils. Today, OXO International manufactures over 500 innovative products and has brought the principles of universal design to the global marketplace, proving that design for all can be innovative, appealing and profitable.”

OXO Good Grips

There are an estimated 66 million arthritis sufferers in the US (Arthritis Foundation research 2002) and 8 million in the UK (BBC Health), which, combined with even greater numbers of the elderly and infirm, represents a sizable potential market for easy to use products. But OXO International, the company that Farber established to develop his idea, could see from the outset that the real potential for Good Grips lay in creating universal appeal for the tools.

OXO Good Grips

OXO approached Smart Design, a New York based industrial design firm and commissioned them to develop a range of kitchen tools that were comfortable in the hand, dishwasher safe, high quality, good looking and affordable. Smart Design was keen to demonstrate that attractive design could be ‘multi-generational’, easily used (and enjoyed) by people of all ages, including those with limited dexterity.

OXO Good Grips

Although OXO International has diversified its product offering, and now produces a complete range of household and garden solutions, the company is still focused on the guiding principles of innovation, quality and universal design. In addition, OXO International’s work has brought the concept of inclusive design into the mainstream, proving that design for all can be innovative, appealing and profitable. How has the company been able to grow – and expand its market reach – without compromising on the values that consumers have come to appreciate and expect from the brand?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cbDVL57Wvs

Activity

HOW TO SELL A BEAUTIFUL BASIN

Link: http://www.omvivo.com/basins.htm

1) In a group of 3 or 4 apply the UD Principles to evaluate ONE of the following sink’s universality (visit the link above), then 2) Brainstorm some sure-fire “marketing copy” to sell it. A few clues (specifications) for example: “Sink is wall-hung; available from 36 to 60 inches wide; 24 inches front to back; one drain on the right; and comes in any color you want! “

Here's your chance to create a magazine advertising layout that extols the sink's beauty and universality, illustrated. Decide whether it's a residential or public-use sink (could be either), give it a savvy name, then create your marketing concept. For comparison and ideas, similar sinks may appear in upscale Canada, U. S. or other international plumbing suppliers’ media. Surf away!

If you're artsy, paste up the photographs or use line drawings to portray the sink, then add your print copy about its uses and advantages. Your slick final layout should be the size of a typical magazine page (9" x 12"). Feel free to take your glossy masterpiece to a bathroom designer (a classmate from a different group) for a critique before turning it in. Afterward, re-do your layouts based on his/her suggestions IF you want to reinforce the knowledge and shove your self-esteem up a notch!

References

The Principles of Universal Design‚ Version 2.0 (1997) by North Carolina State University (as cited in Preiser & Ostroff ‚ 2001)

Center for Universal Design (US) Home of the Principles of Universal Design, Exemplars of Universal Design, universal design history, the Design File, Center for Universal Design Newsline, publications, and more. http://www.design.ncsu.edu/

CAST (US) Home of Bobby, the web accessibility analysis tool, Universal Design in Learning and the National Center On Accessing the General Curriculum, and eProducts. http://www.cast.org

DO-IT: Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology, http://www.washington.edu/doit/

Adaptive Environments Center (US) Home of the South Boston Waterfront Project, Designing for the 21st Century Conference, Access to Public Schools, New England ADA Technical Assistance Center, universal design education and consulting, Access to Design Professions, publications and more. http://www.adaptenv.org

Accessible Electronic & Information Technology: Legal Obligations of Higher Education and Section 508, Cynthia D. Waddell, J.D., 1999, http://athenpro.org/node/54

Next class

Next class: Case Studies: Technology Design

Readings: Follette, Mueller and Mace, Chapter 4, Case Study 4