Session 4
25.09.20
Using examples of Sara Hendren’s design projects, we can agree to her notion that everyone is a designer. Sara Hendren is a design researcher who works towards designing for the differently abled. Her lecture called “Design the Future” made me instantly recall all the things we learnt in Interactive Design last semester. For example, Sara Hendren speaks about how we should invert the question or try to find the “real” question that designers need to answer. Her first example of the man who wanted to rock climb but didn’t want a whole prosthetic arm because he thought it was useless and just “dead weight” makes one think that a prosthetic arm isn’t quite the solution needed for this particular person.
We did a project where we had to ask questions from the people we were designing for and find out why they think they’re facing a problem and why they’re actually facing it. In one case, a stay-at-home mother had complaints about not knowing what to cook for dinner that would please all members of the family. In the case that she made whatever she wanted, some members would not eat dinner or order food online. To solve her problem we made a schedule and list of foods that was surveyed by every member, however, what really helped her ease her frustration was when one member would say nice words to her about the food, or when she saw someone was helping her clean up, wash the dishes, or just generally praising her hard work.
She didn’t really need a schedule, she just needed to be acknowledged.
This makes you look at each problem from various perspectives so you can find the best and most suitable solution.
Another important issue that we shed light on is how usually we disregard the differently abled or even older and younger people while designing things, only focusing on the people who have 20/20 vision, good health etc.
What can design do to empower the body instead of “curing” or “changing” it? Disability is, itself, normal. Let’s take the example of Amanda from one of Sara Hendren’s projects, who has dwarfism and did not want a stepping stool to be able to look taller or reach an already existing, ergonomically designed podium to give her talks, but was more satisfied with a podium designed according to her height.
I think design is more than making the tool that will make your life easier; it’s about realizing and investigating what people actually want to solve because most times we tend to assume that someone who cant reach the podium wants to be tall even though that’s their ‘normal’ and it’s the design of the tools that needs to be changed.