Inclusive Design Of Water Dispenser For The Visually Impaired Family

Drinking water is a necessary behavior for survival.With the improvement of the living environment and the popularization of the regimen,the demand for drinking water is constantly generating in various scenarios^[1],such as refusing the secondary boiling water or preferring mineral water.The development of technology has given birth to many new water dispensers,but among the existing ones,the designs considering the drinking water needs of the visually impaired who stay at home longer and spend less time out are still lacking.The previous study designed a desktop water dispenser for the visually impaired by reducing the user's ability to use the water dispenser to meet the needs of the visually impaired that use the water dispenser independently.However,this design practice ignores the drinking water needs of other types of users in visually impaired families(such as young and middle-aged,elderly).The verification result of this study shows that the needs of the visually impaired and the regular users of the visually impaired family are mutually exclusive sometimes.To accommodate the diverse needs of the visually impaired and other families for drinking water,this research based on the inclusive design theory,starting from the operating capability and needs of household water dispenser of visually impaired family,explore a research path of the household water dispenser that accommodate the visually impaired.First of all,by analyzing the inclusive design theory and the status quo of assistive technology for the visually impaired and summarizing and collating water dispenser design and the market situation,a design research method that combines the user's capability and demand is proposed.Secondly,through observation and interviews with three types of visually impaired users,the elderly and young and middle-aged users summarized the needs of desktop water dispensers for visually impaired families.Simultaneously,through the questionnaire survey,the preference of the water dispenser of visually impaired families is obtained.Then,through the usability test of the existing water dispenser,analyze the operating capability of the water dispenser of the elderly,the young,and middle-aged.Based on the analysis of the questionnaire and usability test,three strategies for the design of the water dispenser of visually impaired families based on the needs of the water dispenser are summarized:Multi-route simplifies the procedure,Detection of water improves drinking quality,Multi-channel feedback adapts to various abilities.Thirdly,carry out the design practice base on the design strategy.Determine the user operation process,the water dispenser size,and the interactive interface.Next,obtain three first-generation schemes.Then,through constructing the evaluation criteria,the final plan is determined.Make the final physical model after perfecting the final plan.Conduct the usability test of the design water dispenser of the elderly,the young,and middle-aged families to verify the feasibility of the design product.Moreover,construct the linear modal of usability-user capability function,calculate the inclusive mean of usability(IMU)and the average usability by dealing with the test data.By comparing the usability indicators of the two tests,the verification results are summarized.The comparison result shows that the design water dispenser is better than the existing one.This design practice improves the visually impaired efficiency in using the water dispenser,reduces the number of mistakes,and improves the water dispenser experience of other users in the family.The research path starting from the diversity of needs and capabilities,on the one hand,improves the independent living ability of the visually impaired;on the other hand,meets the needs of more users,and improves the comprehensive experience of water dispensers for visually impaired families.This research provides a practical design method and path for solving the drinking problems for visually impaired families and has a specific reference value for related product design.