Inspired by the literature and insights gathered from studying P1’s globe, I used a series of co-design sessions to begin developing a 3D prototype for a tactile globe. The goal was to address the challenges identified by P1 while also retaining the strengths (audio labels) of his prototype globe. The procedure for this study consisted of semi-structured interviews and weekly co-design sessions to iterate on my prototypes with P1. At every stage of prototyping, he requested the need to have certain features on the globe. After brainstorming ways to implement those features with P1, I prototyped the necessary features. Lastly, he tested these implementations and provided further feedback to improve or add additional features.
After the design of the third prototype, I conducted a preliminary evaluation session by recruiting four other blind and low-vision participants. Recruiting additional participants helped me to gain much broader insights about the third prototype. Based on the insights gathered from the evaluation I then developed the last and final iteration of a cross sensory globe.
This entire process was conducted over a span of one year. All of the co-design sessions along with the preliminary evaluation were videotaped for observing user interactions and qualitative data analysis. The following design spiral visualizing the entire design process.
