Creating Assistive Technologies - Understanding the Problem

When we look at the drivers of effective innovation, we see two complementary themes emerging: First, new technologies or methods that open the way to new solutions, and second, new insights or experiences that yield a better understanding of the problem. With a design thinking approach, we begin by building empathy with the user and the situation, then we use ideation, prototyping, and iteration to explore, formulate, and test solutions.

In this class session we will look at ways to gain understanding of user needs, goals, and values around a problem, as well as the constraints and requirements of the situations around them. One goal for this session is for students to identify a set of questions to explore through interview and observation with real users of assistive technologies. Teams may also get some good ideas about the people they might approach for both inspiration and insight.

Speaker: Gayle Curtis, UX design consultant