Day 8
I feel like I am really experiencing how human-centered design works. It’s very iterative based on the feedback and data collected. Today we met with our patient to go over the tests we did and our prototype. Our patient pointed out something to us that we did not think of because we are not visually impaired. Our device is currently using audio signals to notify the swimmer but audio is a very important sense for visually impaired patients to have. They use sounds to help orient themselves, especially in the water. To improve our design we will incorporate a vibration notification, rather than sound.
It was pretty cool to swim as a visually impaired person. I felt more in tune with my surroundings and more aware of my other senses. I could feel other swimmers passing in the lane next to me just by the small changes in waves. It was also very claustrophobic because without orientation, the water feels totally consuming. It felt like I was entrapped while being in the middle of nowhere at the same time. This experience definitely helped us understand the conditions of our patient better and allowed us to apply more specific criteria to our prototype.
-Tasy
BME Design 