Sha Yao — user centered designer
Sha yao — design tableware for Alzheimer patient
Sha Yao, the Taiwanese designer graduated from Art Academy of Arts in San Francisco for her master degree on 2012, has been noticed by product design field for her recent project — Eatwell tableware set. It shows a good example of executing user-centered design for people with cognitive and motor impairment. She come up with designing this special tableware because of her grandma, who is an Alzheimer patient that has trouble with eating. By doing research and physically observe and communicate with her targeted group, she highly understood the users’ needs and applied her understandings to the solution with thoughtful and imaginative design.
Describe a project in which they practiced user-centered design
Eatwell — — a 9-piece tableware set for people with cognitive (such as Alzheimer’s and other dementias), motor (Parkinson’s disease, various scleroses), and physical (injury, infirmity) impairments. The tableware decreases patients’ embarrassment when having meals because of physical inconvenience. This project won first place at the 2014 Stanford Design Challenge.
The high contrast color scheme of the product helps users distinguish food from tableware and stimulate appetite. Its specially curved spoons match the contours of the bowls to provide smoother, easier motions. The slanted bottom and deep chambers collect food at corners for easier scooping, plus, the anti-tip design prevents accidents from tipping cups and mugs.
What user-centered design principles and methods did the designer utilize?
Good design begins with the users’ needs. Eatwell enables people with cognitive and motor impairment to eat like normal people. Using bright colors to help people distinguish their plates from their food and putting wide rubber bases on the cups to prevent spills, Eatwell increases the patients’ dining efficiency, brings back the joy of sharing a meal together, and builds their self-confidence of eating like normal people.
The people I interviewed is my grandpa, who has been suffered from Parkinson’s disease from a decade ago and began to lose his appetite. He always feels embarrassing when he sprinkles food in front of people, and it also prevents him from eating sufficient food at the time as others have finished: “I don’t want to be the last one that finish the meal, because everyone will then notice me and say ‘take your time’, which sounds like empathy. Sometimes they even try to help me eating.” However, Eatwell tableware improves his dining experience and efficiency largely in home. “with the design of the spoon, I don’t scatter rice or chicken all around now…but I don’t drink soup from the bowl with soup spoon, it doesn’t help me so much. Soup still spills out of the plate. Instead, I drink it from cup. ” Though he likes many features of it, my grandpa says he will never take it out: “It’s so colorful that makes it so noticeable, and like a toy.”
From the perspective of usability, it gives lots of space for making errors (the anti-tip cup and curved spoon); its intuitive design shortens the learning curve for new users; it also satisfies the user’s need for self-esteem — no need to be taken care of when they eat. From the perspective of ergonomics, it creates a better interaction between patients and the tableware, makes dining an easier thing ever.
Whom are the designers target audience? What was their gender, generation, culture, and profession?
The target audiences are people with cognitive, motor, and physical impairments. They can be males or females from different cultures and professions, but mostly they’re going to be seniors.
How did practicing user-centered design add value to the project as a whole?
By adding user-centered design features, the tableware is more user-friendly, and with higher usability. Instead of a plain white (hard to recognize its contour for presbyopia patients) and frustrating tableware set, it brings back the self-esteem to its users — they don’t need help from others to wipe their dirty table and clothes while having meal. It also brings back the possibility for its user to enjoy meals together, which is important for their social life and health as well.
What are the key takeaways from this assignment?
Good design begins with user needs. With this concept in mind, the most important thing is to find out users’ needs. This project introduces me several paths: standing on the shoulder of giants — doing the research from academic materials, and interviewing and observing users in life to fulfill the gap between theory and reality. Sometimes, designer needs to make a decision from the takeaways of the three paths, compromising one or another. For example, when Sha Yao went to the nursing house and do survey with the several female seniors, asking about what color they prefer to have on this tableware, many of them prefer it to be monochromatic, and someone also brought up the concern that my grandpa has: the tableware is too colorful to be seen as a toy. But to reach the more important goal: raising patient’s apetite, Sha eventually goes with the tri-color scheme.
Last but not least, it surprises me that Sha spent few years on testing and revising this project. Some revision was just adjusting the angle of inclined bowl bottom, or the angle of the curved spoon. To bring the best user experience, Sha Yao proves that words again: designer always thinks through the hard parts in advance.
Sources
1. “Features of Award-Winning Tableware Set for People with Alzheimre’s.” Eatwell, Premium Assistive Tableware Designed for Independent Eating, www.eatwellset.com/features-cf1a.
2. Staff, TIME. “The 25 Best Inventions of 2016” Time, Nov. 2017 http://time.com/4572079/best-inventions-2016/
3. “Product” Sha Design LLC, www.shadesignstudio.com/product#10.
4. Shovova, and Yugen Tribe. “Designer Develops Alzheimer’s-Friendly Tableware Thanks to Inspiration from Her Late Grandmother.” My Modern Met, 16 June 2016, mymodernmet.com/sha-yao-eatwell-tableware/.