Matt Zabel, Human Factors and Design Research Manager for Visualize Minneapolis, recently conducted a workshop for students and professionals at the 3rd annual EXPOSED conference in Phoenix, AZ. Matt has been a featured speaker in past years presenting workshops on visceral tactility and research methods in new product development. This year’s conference topic focused on healthcare and well-being in the 21st Century. Matt led a group of students and professionals through an exercise in age-related “experiential prototyping” to simulate some of the physical impairments common to people as they age.

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Using goggles to simulate vision problems like cataracts, and gloves with tape to simulate arthritis, stiffness, and loss of touch sensitivity, participants were given simple tasks such as opening small packages, or sending a text message from a mobile phone. The purpose of these experiential prototyping exercises was to show ways to foster empathy in designers and engineers. If we better understand what it’s actually like to have these common impairments, that can inform our design choices for the better. If you would like Matt to blur your vision or tape up your fingers (or take advantage of Visualize’s other research capabilities) contact him at mzabel@visual-ii.com.

Photos by Liqing Zhou