This project in my Intro to Materials and Mechanical Design course tasked us with making the tape dispensing experience easier for the blind. The head of the Perkins School of the Blind in Watertown, MA came to speak with us about the challenges faced as a blind person. Gathering what we learned, we had to create individual prototypes, test them, reconvene with the team, create a final team prototype with a storyboard, and then finaly present our solution to various MIT mechanical engineering and design professors.
For this assignment, I had to first understand what the pain points were of taping something when you couldn't rely on your sight. I tried doing it myself and then made my friends try it with the tape dispensor my professor provided my groupmates and I. What I gathered from the testing was that it was difficult to: know where to find the dispensor, grab the tape and making sure the dispensor wouldn't topple over, rip the entire width of the tape on the blade, and reload the tape rolls.
My groupmates and I talked about all of the pain points we learned to then come up with different ideas to test. I suggested a tape cover approach. We came up with different cover ideas to prototype and test on our own.
I came up with a simple add on cover for the tape dispensor our professor gave us for this project. My goal was to be an indication for the user to find the tape dispensor without accidently touching the blade and to use it as a guide for tearing off the piece of tape. I cadded the cover in Fusion 360, as it worked best with the 3D printers when exported as a .STL file.
Once we completed our three different ideas and tested them with friends we blindfolded, we noticed that the cover didn't necessarily address our pain points. Users fumbled with the cover and still had a lot of trouble trying to find the tape and tearing it off, as well as holding the dispensor down.
After much deliberating, I expressed that we should go back to square one and focus on simply changing that feel of the dispensor. The blind rely on other senses to interact with the world, so let's take advantage of those senses. Touch and sound should be used to benefit our users. So, we decided to make our own tape dispensor that appeals to these two senses.
We wanted to make loading and reloading the tape easy. For this, we made a distinct bulb shape with a noticably thin rod to hold onto when wanting to replace the tape. This feature acts like a road map to lead the user to where the tape is located. As this slider can't come out of the dispensor, it can be pulled all of the way out, which indicates that the user can no unload the empty tape and load a new one. The user then slides the slider back. We put a cap that locks into the other side of the barrel so that it makes a "click" sound when the rod is fully locked in. Again, we wanted to play with the sound and touch of the dispensor for simple guidance. Additionally, we added bumps on both sides of the blade so the user will tear the entire width of tape.
For our design critique, we needed to create a storyboard of how our project should be used. This is what we designed:
We presented our final product to about six professors in the mechanical engineering, as well as the design departments. All are experienced product designers. We received great reviews of our product. Many appreciated the fact that we created a simple solution, that is, that we focused on shape and form rather than trying to add more components on top of the tape dispensor. What could've been improved on, was having another groove on the back of the dispensor to indicate to the user that the back can be held down while the tape is pulled. Other than that, our product was well received!
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