Co-designing vibrations without vision and hearing

Using cross-modal perception to support communication with people with deafblindness

Master thesis (2023)

Authors

X.L.E. van Rooyen Industrial Design Engineering

Contributors

S.C. Pont Human Information Communication Design - IDE (mentor)
G. Huisman Human Information Communication Design - IDE (graduation committee member)
M.A. Plaisier Eindhoven University of Technology (mentor)
Faculty
Industrial Design Engineering, Industrial Design Engineering
Copyright: © 2023 Xavière van Rooyen
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Published Date

13-07-2023

Language

English

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Faculty

Industrial Design Engineering

Abstract

Human-computer interactions should be as inclusive as possible, nowadays. Designers play a vital role in making products, services, and systems usable by a diverse range of users. Mobile applications use vibrations (tactons) to convey information about, for example, messages coming in. The quality of vibrotactile communication can be greatly enhanced by involving in the desing proces the experts when it comes to feeling: people with deafblindness.
By involving the haptic experts, mobile applications using vibrotactile communication can become more inclusive for all users.

This thesis addresses the challenge of usability versus flexibility when co-designing with haptic experts. The goal is to establish an equal level of control among all co-designers, including the haptic experts. To achieve this, Shape2Vibe has been developed by using a research-through-design approach. The design process drew inspiration from cross-modal perception. Moreover, clay modelling experiments were conducted for creating embodiments of four dinstinct basic vibration effects from Adafruit’s haptic motor library.

Shape2Vibe has proved effective in facilitating communication during the co-design process, enabling participants to express their ideas through the positioning of blocks. Equal control is ensured for all co-designers because communication for all participants is brought to the same level. The four shapes representing basic vibration effects adequately support co-design sessions for everyday design cases, such as fire alarms.

However, designing vibrations to convey emotions or association-based scenarios requires additional communication and a more layered approach due to the context dependent nature of emotions. Therefore, it is recommended to further research wether more association based shapes facilitate more abstract design cases.

Overall, this thesis contributes to the advancement of inclusive designs by assisting other designers in co-designing vibrations with haptic experts. By having involved haptic experts, the research has succeeded in creating an inclusive and usable tool and method useful for applications in the field of vibrotactile communication.