Stroke if fluffy.
Field
Assistive Design, Product design, Bio Material
Group project
My role: Group Leader, Concept development, 3D modeling, rendering, material test
Time
2021.8 - 10
Tools
Rhino, Illustrator, Keyshot
A pen designed for visual impairment children.
Research on blindness for children under 14
Sampling in 2020, Around the world, 1.1 billion people live with blindness or visual impairment, and 43 million people would be considered as legally blind (crude prevalence: 0.5%)..
Nearly 3 percent of children younger than 18 years are blind or visually impaired, defined as having trouble seeing even when wearing glasses or contact lenses. However, with proper help and instructions from their guardians, blind children have the full ability to learn and develop as kids with normal vision.
Art and sensory classes, like music therapy and playing with shapes or clay, have been used for blind children's education. There are no drawing-related courses since there is a lack of instruction or suitable tools. Due to a lack of experience with drawing, blind children’s passion and interest in drawing have not yet been noticed. The 3- 12-year-old range is the best time to study drawing and shape learning.
01. Backgroud Research
02. In-person Interview
03. Online Survey
In order to know how the public looks at visually impaired children, I made an online survey facing two groups: the general public and people surrounding these children, like their parents and teachers.
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A common case to use compensatory skill, like feeling temperature, touch, smell, and hearing.
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A lack of drawing class in school due to the unsuitable tool.
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A strong interest in feeling forms. A disconnection from the final outcomes for children who paint.
04. Precedent Study: Related Product
Existing drawing product for children
Existing 3D product for children
Existing social advertisements for visual impairment children
The 2022 Winter Paralympics paid attention to visually impaired children in the aspect of painting and image making.
2022 3.4
Visual impairment children use their imagination to depict this painting presented in the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics opening ceremony.
2022 8.3 8
Children with visual impairment made the Olympic mascot with Rubik's cube.
05. Design Ideation & Material Insight
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A user’s age range in their sensitive period of handling and touching: 3 - 12 years old.
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A system with compensatory sense from drawing to touching.
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Using growing material to achieve a transformation from 2D to 3D.
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An open door for blind children’s creativity in drawing.
Test Result
The tested combination of paper mix with dry moss results in 3 weeks to become green, whereas the fresh mix moss didn’t turn out well in 3 weeks. The pictures are attempting results. Both of them have a nice texture to touch, and I can feel the shape while my eyes are closed.
06. Material LAB
07. Sketch
Appearance attempt
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Crayon shape
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Refill moss mix
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Volumed so comfortable to hold
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Matte surface for friction, easier to hold.
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Water, dry mix, pen-tip system
Packaging attempt
Content
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1 Pen case
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4 Refills
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10 sheets paper
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Base as reusable substrate
Shape
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Children tool box
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Reuse storage
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Textured paper based material
