Co-designing: Working with Braille Users in the Design of a Device to Teach Braille

The objective of this research was to develop a “paper-based” prototype design of a device that will eventually be developed to teach braille in a co-design process that involved end-user input throughout the process. Questionnaires aimed to explore the use of assistive technologies to help learn or teach braille. Features of existing assistive technologies were identified by the participants. Taking these features into consideration, seven conceptual design solutions were developed by six designers. A weighted evaluation matrix (WEM) ranked potential designs. A weighting for each design feature was calculated using the frequency of that feature. The responses from each participant group were weighted equally. Two semi-structured interviews were conducted with braille teachers. The design preferred by both the teachers was ranked fifth in the weighted evaluation matrix. Designs that were ranked poorly according to the WEM, were actually ranked highly by the end-users. The co-design process was essential in identifying these differences.