Week Seven a visit to 'Lifetec'

Introduction:

Upon arrival at Lifetec we congregated in the conference room to listen to the introductory lecture on the organisation and exactly what they do. Lifetec is a non for profit organisation that deals with assistive technology for the disabled or unable population.

Assistive technology is a device or system that provides people with practical solutions to everyday life activities.
Assistive technology can help people to:

• Look after loved ones by assisting with showering, dressing, and eating
• Make mobility safer and easier
• Open jars and turn taps on and off
• Make computers easier to use and screens clearer to read
• Ensure personal safety by using personal alarm systems at home
• Make recreational activities much easier
• Plus countless other ideas

Retrieved from:  http://www.lifetec.org.au/home/default.asp 

Group activity:

The activity was to collect one item off the shelf at Lifetec and re design it as we see fit. As a group we wanted to select and item that was non mechanical and was an everyday pratical piece of equipment.

Used for gardening this tool is specifically designed for assisting in the lifitng of pots. The problem we found with the design was:

• Materials slection
• Metal componant has limited leverage and dependant on weight
• no adjustable height mechanism for variety of users. 

Implementing minor design changes improves the products functionality in the desired user interaction. By adding the wheel users will have the option to roll heavy objects rather than carry. The wheel of coarse would have to be large in surface area to accommodate the terrain it would be used in. As mentioned above a simple adjustment for the height would be incorporated along side the adjustable clap for the metal element to grip the pots.

What our group took away from the site visit:

Designing in such a framework as assistive technology really opened our eyes to go back to basics in terms of ergonomics and usability of interactive products such as the one above. For our semester project these considerations will be met and design through the users perspective will be enhanced through the remainder of the project.