Participatory Design Approach to Internet of Things: Co-designing a Smart Shower for and with People with Disabilities

Smart home products are becoming widespread aiming to increase people’s independence, especially for the elderly and people with disabilities. In order to design them suitably for this community, their involvement in the requirement gathering and design process is particularly important. In this paper, we report a study we conducted with six people having various disabilities. The aim was to identify the type of smart product that mostly increases their independence at home. We used three requirement gathering methods in a participatory fashion, namely, cartographic mapping, future workshop, and cultural probe. The outcome of the study revealed that participants mostly needed a product for a bathroom, specifically a smart shower. The initial prototype design of the product was developed together with participants. Researchers further investigated the prototype design using littleBits electronic modules. The smart shower is anticipated to have the most effect in increasing not only user independence, but also privacy.