Design beyond the eyes: a web-based tool for designers working with people with visual needs
type: CreativeWork
description: The proportion of the global population who are elderly is growing which will lead to more people with physical conditions including vision loss. Every person with visual needs has different lived experiences considering their living condition, vision condition, and how long they have been living with vision loss or no vision. There is a gap between the needs of adults experiencing vision loss and the addressing of those needs by existing products and services, due to the lack of a deep understanding of their needs and challenges by designers. Designers who are not familiar with working with people with visual needs have to gain a deeper understanding of their lived experiences and their variety of needs to be able to design for them effectively. Designers need tools and techniques that will prevent them from generalizing the experiences and challenges of their user group, which can lead to considering only one solution for everyone without understanding and considering their individual and different needs. Although the focus of this project is on the communication between designers and people with visual needs, the individuality of each participant as a human being with different characteristics and experiences played an important role in the path of this project. The primary research included several online interviews and co-creation sessions with people with visual needs and those who have daily communication with them to understand their needs and experiences comprehensively. As a result of the experimental phase, the author realized that there is a need for improving the interaction between designers and individuals with visual needs which would result in a deeper understanding of the real needs of the users to be considered in the design process. To meet this goal, journey maps (explained below) were found to be the most effective tools that would give the opportunity to the participants to share their experiences safely, openly, and in detail. Therefore, a we…
abstract: The proportion of the global population who are elderly is growing which will lead to more people with physical conditions including vision loss. Every person with visual needs has different lived experiences considering their living condition, vision condition, and how long they have been living with vision loss or no vision. There is a gap between the needs of adults experiencing vision loss and the addressing of those needs by existing products and services, due to the lack of a deep understanding of their needs and challenges by designers. Designers who are not familiar with working with people with visual needs have to gain a deeper understanding of their lived experiences and their variety of needs to be able to design for them effectively. Designers need tools and techniques that will prevent them from generalizing the experiences and challenges of their user group, which can lead to considering only one solution for everyone without understanding and considering their individual and different needs. Although the focus of this project is on the communication between designers and people with visual needs, the individuality of each participant as a human being with different characteristics and experiences played an important role in the path of this project. The primary research included several online interviews and co-creation sessions with people with visual needs and those who have daily communication with them to understand their needs and experiences comprehensively. As a result of the experimental phase, the author realized that there is a need for improving the interaction between designers and individuals with visual needs which would result in a deeper understanding of the real needs of the users to be considered in the design process. To meet this goal, journey maps (explained below) were found to be the most effective tools that would give the opportunity to the participants to share their experiences safely, openly, and in detail. Therefore, a we…
author: Hadinezhad, Shafagh
language: en
keywords: vision loss, design process, sharing personal journeys, journey maps, a web-based tool
date published: 2022-01-12T21:46:56Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:53Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/113074