23rd - 24th Oct, 2023
Invisible Disabilities — Design Dash
I was invited by Falmouth University to host this ‘Invisible Disabilities’ Design Dash with their MA Communication Design students. We reflected on the experience of three disability experts in order to identify areas for intervention, invention, or innovation.
The Brief
Design a product, service or brand to improve the workspace / working experience for your invisible disability experts.
The students were put into 3 groups and assigned a case study & disability expert each to focus on. The first stage was to interview their experts in order to identify & better understand their invisible disabilities.
Interviewing Invisible Disability Experts
Group 1
Were reflecting on the lived experience of Director & Author, John Purnell. John lives with a form of Autism called Asperges.
Group 2
Were reflecting on the lived experience of Internal Sales Representative, Nic Williams — who has Conductive Deafness in both ears.
Group 3
Were reflecting on the lived experience of Designer, Animator & Workshop Host, Rue Irvine. Rue lives with type 1 Diabetes.
Using human-centred design techniques, we took a deep-dive into various design processes (e.g. Double Diamond & ‘How Might We’ Questions) before putting the techniques into practice to rapidly design & test solutions.
After an intense couple of days of investigation & rapid prototyping, the students were ready to present their final ideas to their experts for feedback. Watch the videos below to see what they came up with.
Presenting Final Concepts
“It was an absolutely wonderful experience having you mentor us for the first days of our module.”
— Shivam Srivastava, Graphic designer & MA Communication Design student at Falmouth University
Want to view the lecture slides?
Download them below.👇
Meet the team
A huge thanks to Bryan Clark (for inviting me along), Falmouth University (for their incredible support & all-round creative genius), John Purnell, Nic Williams & Rue Irvine (for being such open & enthusiastic participants), and of course, the incredible MA Communication Design students (Rhiannon, Smruti, Liu, Shivam, Alexis, Ankur, Bron, Ellie, Theo, Sheryl, Fiona, King Wai, Akshita, and Ana). I was so impressed by how attentive & respectful they were with their experts. The outcomes were thoughtful, flexible & very much human-centred! 🙏