DTC 2

Northwestern University, Spring 2019

WHAT IS DTC?

DTC is a class in the Northwestern University McCormick School of Engineering that is designed to give first-year students hands-on experience with designing for a client. At the beginning of the quarter, teams of four students are given a client from Chicago, IL who has an engineering problem they need solved. In the second quarter of DTC, anyone can apply to be a client, so the project vary in topic and scope. At the end of the quarter, design teams deliver a written report along with the completed prototype to the client.

our project

Our client was an educator from the Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired, located in Winnetka, IL. Our project, as initially described to us, was to create a device to help teach seniors who had recently lost their vision “everyday braille,” meaning braille commonly found in everyday life. While we did not have any one specific user in mind, Hadley’s primary students are seniors over the age of 65 who lost their vision late in life, so this was our target user group.

narrowing the design scope

As we began to research Braille and its use in the United States, we quickly discovered that Braille is a vast and complex instrument. Unified English Braille, the standard form among English speaking countries, contains not only symbols representing single letters, such as ‘a,’ but also contracted symbols, where one symbol represents two or more letters, like ‘er.’ These contracted symbols help make Braille signs shorter and faster to read, but must be memorized by the Braille reader. Additionally, according to the Americans with Disabilities Act standards, contracted Braille is used in public signage, although not in a standard fashion.

In addition to looking at the ADA standards and Braille usage in general, we also looked at Hadley curriculum and spoke with Hadley students to gain a better understanding of what the curriculum was lacking. We spoke with a Hadley student in California who had lost his vision in his late 50’s and had been learning Braille since then.

By narrowing the design scope, we came up with three project requirements that needed to be met in order to deem the final product successful. These were portability, ease of use and independence.

INitial design ideas

After our initial research, we came up with 2 preliminary ideas to take to user testing. The first idea was an audio flashcard system that would feature a common word or contraction written in Braille and then provide audio feedback when the learner pressed a button on the card. The second idea was a rolodex type system that that learner could keep on their desk to use a reference guide when reading or practicing Braille. The deck would have both contractions and whole words, which would be grouped accordingly.

We took both of these ideas to user testing with Hadley staff and the student from California. Key feedback that we received was that audio feedback wasn’t necessary or that helpful, and that the scope of the words that we were trying to include was too broad.

Based on this feedback, we conducted more research and created a final design that better suited the needs of our client.

Final design: The little book of braille contractions

After our first round of user testing, we realized that the most important aspect of Braille to focus on was the contractions. The student in California expressed that this was the most difficult thing for him to learn and after doing more research ourselves, we realized that this was the area that was most lacking in Hadley curriculum. Based on this, and the feedback from our user testing, we developed The Little Book of Braille Contractions.

Overview: The booklet is 4″x6″ so that it can be easily fit into a handbag or pocket. It is made from 70 lb cardstock with a thin plastic cover for durability. The book is bound with a ¼” plastic comb along the long edge, so that the book flips up to open. This is to allow intuitive page turning after reading the tabs along the bottom, which allow the user to quickly navigate to the desired contraction. This featured was inspired by notebooks that came with tabs attached. The popularity of these notebooks shows how effective and intuitive tabs are.

The Little Book of Braille Contractions satisfies the user requirements in the following ways:

1. Portability & Durability - The Little Book of Braille Contractions measures 4’’x6’’, large enough to distinguish the Braille categories, but small enough to fit in a standard jacket pocket for convenient use. The plastic cover protects the pages and allows for prolonged use of the booklet.

2. Ease of Use - The book features navigation tabs on the bottom of the page that list the 4 contractions that are featured on the page. This allows the user to quickly scan for the appropriate contraction and immediately flip to the desired page.

3. Independence - Each page features four contractions, the written out letters and a word that the contraction may be commonly found in. These features, combined with the portability of the book, allow the user to independently access the information, including context if necessary.

Future development

The Little Book of Braille Contractions has several limitations. Much like looking up a word in a pocket dictionary, it is often easier to simply ask someone to read a sign. Independence comes at the cost of time and effort. While our book is highly portable, it could be easily forgotten or misplaced due to how small it is. Overall, the benefits would outway the costs, making this a great products for visually impaired seniors trying to gain their independence.

Improvements to the design include changing the texture of the tabs along the bottom of the booklet to make them more distinguishable. Additionally, making the booklet slightly larger so as to allow more spacing between the characters on the tabs would aid in ease of use. Finally, stiffening the booklet and making the pages waterproof would aid in the durability of the booklet.