As a self exploration project, I wanted to explore what a more accessible US Currency with an updated design would look like. I conducted a user study which involved seeing how users interact with money. One of the things I quickly noticed is that every person I witnessed during these studies, handled the money vertically, not horizontal. This is also true of vending machines, which many users commonly placed the bill in the wrong direction at first due to the layout of our current currency.

I conducted this same study at both a general store and a grocery store in a location with a lot of vision impaired individuals. By doing this, paired with additional research I learned one of the main ways that users with visual impairments know a dollar bills value by folding the corner. These users have to rely on others being entirely honest and giving the correct information if they are shopping alone. 

My solution to these common issues, was to make the decision to change the direction of the bills from horizontal, to vertical. This solved many problem of how money is meant to be exchanged or placed into a vending machine, handed to an individual and allowed me to include braille and physical indicators on the bill designs to give the low vision users a clear communication of what dollar amount they are holding. This also doubled as an additional layer of security to prevent counterfeiting.  

On the top right of the front of the bill, the dollar amount is written out, to the left of the number is the number in braille. The braille is to be embossed or utilize plastic such as used in on the Euro. The change between paper and plastic would give enough of a physical difference to hold up overtime and be read using braille. 

On the bottom left, each bill has a different shape which is also raised or unique in texture to quickly signal the bill size, a single bill such as a dollar bill, has a line. Double digits, have a square and a triple digit bill has a rectangle.