Author: Neda Fayazi
Table of Contents
Introduction
This case study is created through conducting an interview with professor Julia Cassim, one of the leaders in the area of inclusive design. The case study emphasizes the importance of aesthetics in the inclusive and smart wearables as one of the factors which is being ignored by designers when designing with the needs of disabled and elderly in mind.
Clothing has this capacity to combine mainstream fashion aesthetics with functional properties and act as interfaces in their own right; integrating the separate assistive devices currently used by the disabled and the elderly for communication and mobility.
Julia Cassim
Challenge Workshops
Professor Julia Cassim joined the Helen Hamlyn Center for Design in 2000 and directed a program called Challenge Workshop until 2011. The purpose of this program was to involve disabled and older people especially young individuals who are often digitally literate in the design process and to co-design with them to create new inclusive products, environments, and services. This program developed a mechanism so that disabled people, designers, and manufacturers could work collaboratively. Professor Cassim used the term ‘design partners’ to define the ‘users’ and mentioned that “having users at the end of the project is useless. Having design partners in the early stages of developing design ideas, and in the process of iterative discussion is the key thing” (J. Cassim, personal communication, November 8, 2017).
The Challenge Workshop program had two purposes, “Firstly, to develop benchmark inclusively designed services and products for the mainstream market that would highlight the need to radically change the status quo in the assistive equipment market through the power of good design. Secondly, to alert designers to the creative potential and stimulus inherent in working with disabled people as design partners” (Goodacre and Cassim, 2010).
Attitudinal Barriers in the Design Industry
The Design Challenge is organised annually by the Royal College of Art (RCA) Helen Hamlyn Centre (HHC) in collaboration with the Design Business Association (DBA). Design consultancies are grouped with disabled users and challenged to create innovative scenarios for new inclusive products and services.
At the end of each challenge, the design teams point out some of the perceived barriers in the design industry to the growth of an inclusive practice. These challenges can be divided into two areas: attitudinal barriers and structural barriers. One of the attitudinal barriers to the growth of inclusive practice is the perception that design with the needs of older or disabled people in mind can restrict creativity (Cassim, 2005). Most of the designers are worried that when they work with older or disabled people, their work will suffer creatively. In response to this challenge, Cassim matched designers with disabled people of their generation who were creative in their own right and this helped challenge and stretch them.
Another attitudinal barrier mentioned by Cassim, which is the focus of this case study is:
“Inclusively designed products are seen as ‘functional but ugly’ with ‘sexy marketing of a product for older people impossible to achieve” .
(Cassim, 2005)
She said that it is possible to bring together aesthetics and function and create mainstream products. The mantra for her program was that “by understanding and responding to extreme scenarios, one can innovate for mainstream too. However, one cannot achieve this the other way around”.
Dr. Farnaz Nickpour, a professor at Liverpool University, also brought up this challenge by focusing on psycho-social aspects of inclusivity. She challenges the University of Cambridge definition of inclusive design, since it only focuses on the physical and functional aspects of inclusivity. The typical British standard definition of inclusive design is:
“The design of mainstream products, environments, and services that are accessible to and usable by as many people as reasonably possible, without the need for adaptation or specialist design”.
(British Standards Institute, 2005)
She mentions that “This definition is talking about experiences that are accessible and usable but not necessarily desirable” (UXPA UK talk on Mobility + Disability + Inclusivity, July 21, 2016). Therefore, the conventional application of inclusive design mainly centers on physical inclusion, usefulness and usability aspects, without considering the psychological or social dimensions of inclusion or exclusion.
Technology
The birth of the digital age revolutionized everything and made things more accessible for disabled people. Computers have had an enormous impact on enabling disabled and elder people to get into the workforce and live independently.
The output of a 15-month design research project carried out by the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the Royal College of Art, emphasizes the importance of flexibility in the creation of technology (hardware, devices or digital services) for use by disabled people. Technology can act as a medium to enable and empower disabled people to enhance their lives and live more independently. However, in practice, disabled people face different challenges in using technology. Digital devices and software can be inaccessible for the disabled users to customize (Jewell and Atkin, 2013). Julia Cassim mentioned that disabled people are heavily dependent on technology and depending on the age of the person, there are two generations; a pre-digital age which is “not necessarily digitally literature” and post-digital age which is “possibly digitally literate but with adding difficulties”.
The industry is evolving to meet the needs of disabled people. Wearables shift their focus from luxury to mainstream enabling people with disabilities in supporting activities, but this can be only possible through accessible technology. As mentioned, psychological aspects of inclusivity are important, specifically when it comes to designing wearables for people with disabilities and the elderly. Creating a desirable experience and designing products which are also aesthetically pleasing for them is crucial and is achieved only through involving the disabled and elderly as ‘design partners’ in the early stage of the design process and development.
Inclusive Wearables
“We have to re-frame clothing as a product to reconstruct the qualities that are necessary for older and disabled people, including the all-important one of aesthetics and style”.
(Cassim, 2014)
Cassim (2003) mentioned that area of clothing has been ignored in the context of inclusive design. However, clothing is recognized as an important factor of the feelings of self-esteem for young disabled people. Usually, one of the challenges is to engage and interest designers with a fashion and textile background in the subject of inclusive clothing. Michael Shamash, the disability activist, mentioned that, “Clothes are a major component in our self-definition and self-esteem. Disabled people want the profile to be a positive one. We need glad rags, not sad rags” (Shamash, 2004).
Cassim (2014), attempted to answer the question, “How can one combine aesthetics and functional considerations to create desirable clothing for older and disabled people?”. She mentioned that “Clothing has this capacity to combine mainstream fashion aesthetics with functional properties and act as interfaces in their own right; integrating the separate assistive devices currently used by the disabled and elderly for communication and mobility”.
This case study focuses on the importance of aesthetics in the inclusive and smart clothing as one of the factors which is being ignored by designers when designing with the needs of disabled and elderly in mind. One of the challenges in the design of inclusive products is that the focus is all on the function and usability of the products. Although functionality is an important factor in designing inclusive products, aesthetics is another factor which should be taken into consideration.
The stigma around ‘Assistive Products’ is often connected to the appearance of the product and has a negative impact on identity and self-esteem of the individuals. Through empathy and aesthetics, it is possible to combat stigma in the design of assistive products. Attractive products create value for the user experience and make the product look trendy, stylish, and desirable which can minimize the stigma gradually. The combination of aesthetics, and marketing in the design eye wear which is an assistive product shift the opinion of the public from ‘visually impaired’ to ‘fashionable’ (Ørsal Skogsrød, year not specified).
Below are examples of projects which considered aesthetics in the design of inclusively assistive products:
Footwear Design Challenge
In a Footwear Design Challenge organized by Julia Cassim, she presented “how an inclusive process can inform the design and where functionality and aesthetics can be reconciled in order to stimulate innovation”. In this workshop, they allowed aesthetics to be balanced with clinical and functional need at all times.
Through the challenge workshops, Cassim attempted to bring together aesthetics and functional considerations to create desirable clothing that meets the needs and aspirations of older and disabled individuals who share the same cause.
The design brief for the workshop was “Design a shoe or portfolio of shoes suitable for work or formal occasions- Designing and developing formal footwear concepts for women of different ages with rheumatoid arthritis. ” that:
- meet the functional needs of your design partner
- are aesthetically mainstream
- have modular construction to allow them to be flexibly adapted for different scenarios and be the basis for a new style range
Different teams came up with a series of design concepts that responded to the functional need of design partners with internal orthotics and could be customized depending on the occasion. Below is an example of one of the team’s concepts which combined mainstream aesthetics with the functional need of the users.
The Aesthetics of Prosthetics
The Canadian Alleles Design Studio, founded by McCauley Wanner and Ryan Palibroda, came up with the idea to treat prosthetics like fashion. The creative design of prosthesis is inspired by modern aesthetics and geometric patterns.
The Sound Shirtv
The London-based tech-fashion firm, Cute Circuit, created ‘the Sound Shirt’ which enables deaf people to “feel” the music.
Braille smartwatch from Dot
Vision impaired people can read their texts or even read a chapter of a book by touching the dots and reading through braille system as the dots raise. The design of the braille smartwatch opened the door to more inclusive innovation and breaks down the barriers for everyone. It is an aesthetically pleasing device which can be worn every day.
Conclusion
The main findings and insights gathered through this case study can be summarized below.
- Seven principles of universal design have not been embraced by other disciplines. For example, guidelines in universal design are not all relevant to graphic design. In the design profession, these principles are restricted to physical and sensory accessibility alone (ergonomics, accessibility, and function) and do not deal with the issue of aesthetics. Therefore, “the problem with the word ‘universal design’ is the lack of relevance to the third world” (J. Cassim, personal communication, November 8, 2017).
- Applying inclusive methodology enables designers to innovate solutions that are mainstream in nature; achieving the right balance between aesthetics and functional need.
- Since the definition for the terminologies ‘inclusive design’ and ‘design for all’ are open-ended, there is an opportunity and freedom for applying this approach in different design disciplines such as clothing design, which helps design products not only become accessible but desirable.
- Having empathic strategies and mindsets and focusing on mainstream aesthetics may help us to better understand user needs in inclusive design which can reduce stigma.
References
Cassim, J. (2005). Designers are users too! Attitudinal and information barriers to inclusive design within the design community. In International Conference on Inclusive Design, Royal College of Art, London, UK. Retrieved on Nov (Vol. 22, p. 2006).
Cassim, J. (2003). Smart Wearables: a new frontier for Inclusive design innovation. Proceedings Include.
Cassim, J. (2014). Issues and techniques in the inclusive design of apparel for the active ageing population. Textile-led Design for the Active Ageing Population, 283.
Dong, H., McGinley, C., Nickpour, F., Cifter, A. S., and Inclusive Design Research Group. (2015). Designing for designers: Insights into the knowledge users of inclusive design. Applied ergonomics, 46, 284-291.
Goodacre, L., Cassim, J. (2010). Footwear Design Challenge Workshop: Report to Arthritis Research UK of the Footwear Design Challenge Workshop, University of Central Lancashire.
Jewell, S., and Atkin, R. (2013). Enabling Technology. Royal College of Art, the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design.
Lim, Y., and Nickpour, F. (2015). INCLUSIVE DESIGN; FROM PHYSICAL TO PSYCHOSOCIAL-A LITERATURE ANALYSIS TOWARD A DEFINITION OF PSYCHOSOCIAL DIMENSIONS IN DESIGN. In DS 80-9 Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED 15) Vol 9: User-Centred Design, Design of Socio-Technical systems, Milan, Italy, 27-30.07. 15.
Nickpour, F., and O’Sullivan, C. (2016). Designing an Innovative Walking Aid Kit; A Case Study of Design in Inclusive Healthcare Products. Designing Around People: CWUAAT 2016, 45.
Nickpour, F., Jordan, P. W., and Dong, H. (2012). Inclusive Bus Travel: A Psychosocial Approach. In Designing Inclusive Systems (pp. 13-22). Springer, London.
Ørsal Skogsrød, I. (Year: not specified). Empathy and Aesthetics: Combating Stigma in the Design of Assistive Products, Department of Product Design Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
Sansoni, S., Wodehouse, A., McFadyen, A. K., and Buis, A. (2015). The aesthetic appeal of prosthetic limbs and the uncanny valley: The role of personal characteristics in attraction. International Journal of Design, 9(1).
Electronic resources:
Alleles Design- When Prosthesis Becomes a Fashion Accessory. (2017). Retrieved from http://www.ufunk.net/en/design/protheses-creatives/
Dot. (2016). Retrieved from https://dotincorp.com/
Sound Shirt, Enabling Deaf People to Feel Classical Music. (2016). Retrieved from https://sound-shirt.jimdo.com/english-1/
The Extended Body- Design for the Extreme for the Non-extreme, Workshop. (2014). Retrieved from http://fabacademy.org/archives/2014/labs/fablab_israel/Design%20for%20the%20extreme%20for%20the%20non%20extreme.html
ACCESSIBILITY AND INCLUSIVE DESIGN CASE STUDIES 