The intersection of fashion & function
In a freshman design course, I worked in a team with 3 of my peers to design & create a multi-touch stylus solution for our client - a woman with spastic cerebral palsy. The project was done in partnership with the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. Below is the general outline of the project and a little background on how we reached the final design.
People with spastic cerebral palsy often have limited hand function and have difficulty performing multi-touch functions on touch-screen devices. We were challenged to design a device that would allow people affected by spastic cerebral palsy with limited hand function to use a touchscreen device with increased comfort and ease. Specifically, we set out to create a multi-touch stylus that our client could use with her iPad.
We determined the following 4 main requirements of our design:
prototype a functional prototype of our final design to serve as proof of concept
final report an organized documentation of our research, design process, & design concept
poster presentation a poster outlining our project & a 15 minute oral presentation for the Winter Design Expo
4 stylus tips along flat of wrist for quad-touch
2 stylus tips along side of wrist for dual-touch
magnet closure and hinge allow for easy on-and-off
magnet is strong enough to keep the Bracelus closed, but weak enough to allow for easy removal
shaped to mirror the unique cross section of the user's wrist to allow for a snug, comfortable fit