Design Meets Disability
“Design Meets Disability” by Graham Pullin
Notes:
- Design should not be affected by its intended field.
- “Design depends largely on constraints” – Charles Eames
- Normally the trickle down effect goes from mainstream to niche markets. When going the opposite direction, the design culture expands.
- There has to be a healthy tension between solving and challenging problems.
- Disability design normally tries to be invisible.
- Eyewear blends the line between fashion and disability.
- There will always be tension between fashion and disability.
- In 1930′s Britain, eyeglasses where labeled as medical appliances and users as patients. In the 70′s, the government kept design out of glasses to limit demand.
- In disability design, trying to camouflage makes the user show weak self-confidence.
- Some disability design goes to the extreme with bright colors.
- There must be materiality; inherited aesthetics of different materials.
- “Everything must be visually resolved”. Detail is important.
- When spectacles turns into eyewear, patient/user turns into wearer, which means eyewear has to be designed to fit the wearer.
- Glasses went from medical model to social model, “What others see is more important than what you see yourself” – Per Mollerup (designer)
- When fashion takes hold, glasses become part of a collection, label, brand, and wearer becomes the consumer. This creates new expectations.
- Some medical designers see themselves as problem solvers, and see fashion as the antithesis of good design.
- Hearing aids follow the design rule of hiding themselves and the smaller the better, even though a bigger hearing aid would be much more helpful.
- Some hearing aids are taking design tips from wireless headpieces. This is bad since the wireless headpiece design tries to show off sophistication.
- Designers if one field should interact with designers in other fields to learn from each other’s area.
- Mullins (model/athlete with prosthetic legs) likes the idea of having multiple choices for her prosthetic legs. She sees it like wearing different type of clothing.
- Hurr (climber with prosthetic legs) does not see himself as disabled, but rather as a climber.
- Prosthetic arms ranges from visually blending to mechanical function, with a few in between.
- “Keep the design in design for disability”.
- Universal design means people with different abilities need to be able to use it and they will want it in different forms. Some products get over this barrier by making the device redundant and multi-platform, which causes it to become more inclusive.
- Fitness for Purpose means doing something well and its simplicity is not compromised if it has to do other things.
- “Simple things are not necessarily easier to design”.
- Design contraints are: what the design is suppose to do, and how it will do it.
- Appliances do one things very well, while platforms do a multitude normally.
- Should not let technology “push us around”.
- How it looks and feels “can be almost as important as what it does”.
- Some companies add ‘features’ because it can be added, and have no reason why it should be added.
- There must be a healthy relationship between “in principle” and “in practice”.
- “Sometimes it is better to deny the user a feature that could have been useful, in favor of a better overall experience”.
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