Rational 

My first ideas for this challenge revolved around education and learning challenges as an educator this was the first place my mind went. However, I have a lot of opportunities to create and solve these kind of challenges and also found that most of my ideas already existed to some extent. I then looked into my closer relationships to see what problems my family may be facing and found that my grandmother faces many day to day challenges due to her reduced hand dexterity and fine motor control. Due to this established challenge I used the design thinking process to empathize and define more specific issues by sitting down and breaking these down with her and a friend with similar issues followed by further research. I found that older individuals with reduced dexterity struggle with cash related interactions and general wallet use due to the basic design and very fine motor focused features like zippers and small, tight pockets making access very restrictive and leaving individuals feeling very frustrated or even embarrassed in various day to day interactions. This felt like a very purposeful challenge that I wanted to approach in design. My key design decisions came from conversation, reenacting situations and practicing visual research methods including sketching and resketching, photo documentation and comparing these with new design ideas but especially, getting distracted and coming back to related topics actively along with of course gathering multiple opinions throughout the entire process. Ultimately, my grandmother and many with the same or similar struggles needed a wallet that was much more inclusive, adaptive and usable with reduced dexterity. She needed no zippers, less restriction when trying to access and physically take out money, cards and handing these to the cashier, however still some security and safety of course. My design solution was to encompass exactly this. I recreated a more functional, easy access, adaptive wallet to help support individuals like my grandmother in making everyday purchases independently with confidence and comfort. My key design decisions within this process after lots of reworking, sketching and material exploration included having clear pockets for the coins and communication card or ID bringing quick visibility and enhanced functionality considering the clear ID pocket is the first accessed in case of emergency, for safety or loss. The magnetic design incorporated in the main closure reaches around which is also designed to fit anyone’s finger so they can put their finger through and pull this open. These are designed to be bigger, chunkier, easier for gripping and flexible with the finger pull option to ensure the magnet is not too strong. Then both the middle card and cash sections include an attached clamp so that the user can easily clip their card out and hand this directly to the cashier or their cash with sorted pockets for organized quick bill use. The clip reaches all the way to the bottom, can clip anywhere, be used for grabbing anything even a bill back from the cashier or could be left dangling from the wallet and is secure connected from the back side like a key chain helping the user avoid pinching, pulling or grabbing with their hands. The clear coin section allows for the user to quickly view the coin they might need and open this pocket using their whole finger to detach the magnet closure and open this entire page which includes a magnetic back that the coins are stuck too. Opening this entire section would allow the user to first of all not lose any coins but also for them to simply either use the attached clip to grab the desired coin or just slide this off of the page and hand it over. The entire wallet design ensures that wide opening, four page accessibility so the user doesn’t have to physically hold it open while trying to retrieve anything. It’s easy to open or close, and has reduced need for small finger tasks like unzipping, pinching out bills or deep pocket coin hunts. User feedback played a huge role in my revisions including what each pocket needed, how access could be most efficient, the magnet feature, thicker finger tabs, and organizational aspects. This feedback helped me truly test and rework my ideas to make the most sense to the actual user and functional needs. My next steps would be for my grandmother to really try using this in a situation to see if there are any functional errors which I would then be able to reflect on and rework. I would consult others with reduced dexterity for further opinions or helpful additions especially in considering real materials and any final modifications. The clip pockets for example might need to be a bit wider to ensure easy clipping out and in and the real creation would be a bit bigger overall. Then I would try recreating the wallet using thick fabric materials or leather to bring its usage to life.

Final Prototype – Video Here + Further images of this final design are below under the Final Prototype section.

Process – Insights, research and brainstorming notes /sketches

Testing 

Final Prototype