Empowering design through non-visual process: The blind add new vision to innovation

Abstract

Currently, the design of products and services is focused on visual processes that exclude the other senses. The study herein presented explores the flaws of using a fully visual approach in the areas of education, product design and services. This paper also discusses the deficiencies of a first order thinking approach and presents an alternative based on second order thinking that can be used to overcome these weaknesses while at the same time nurturing innovation. Through this narrative Rachel Magario, a blind student in the business and interaction design graduate programs at the University of Kansas, shows how she was able to overcome the mechanical limitations inherent in a visually oriented academic world. Magario explains how a project to design a tactile map taught her to look for solutions through a second order thinking approach complemented by the use of low fidelity prototypes. In this process she was able to create audio and Velcro low fidelity prototypes to fill in the gaps of research for audio and haptic design. All this was achieved through a process of observing, reflecting, imagining and building to validate hypotheses that can be approached through second order thinking, frameworks and methods into the design process. The result is a process anchored in a human and activity centered design that accounts for all senses and can be used to achieve success in different areas of innovation.