USER-CENTERED APPROACH TO PRODUCT DESIGN FOR PEOPLE WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENTS

Abstract

The aim of this research was to investigate the application of the user-centred design process to the design and development of a product and it’s packaging suitable for people with visual impairments. The product and packaging had to be accessible to stakeholders on both sides not only to visually impaired end users but also to the workers with visual impairments in the production process. The accessibility features had to function in conjunction with other presentation and functional requirements of the product and packaging. In order to adapt the design for people with visual impairments, research of optimal design process was conducted using combination of contextual design with other user-centred methods. Rapid prototyping was used to create full-scale physical packaging models and product moulding tools for evaluation. Additional subjective evaluation using semantic differential was carried on users without visual impairments to establish the perception of pragmatic and hedonic quality of the packaging.