Blind Building Blocks
Product Design Masters Final Project
For my Final Project in my Product Design Masters I wanted to figure out how could normal LEGO blocks be adapted so that blind and visually impaired children could play with them the same way sighted children do. After all, my research on the subject pointed out that a lot of the benefits of playing with LEGO - the development of better spatial awareness, math concepts, fine motor skills, etc. - match with areas in children's development that tend to lag behind for blind and visually impaired children, if not properly stimulated.
The blocks themselves had to be changed so that children could tell their color without seeing and the way the instructions work had to be completely rethought.
Throughout the design process I met with teachers of blind children and was able to test various prototypes with blind and visually impaired students until I come up with the final products I'm showcasing here.
For the project I settled on these 8 colours - Yellow, Orange, Red, Lime, Green, Blue, White and Black.
After much research, it was decided that color codes should be implemented on the pieces, in a way that didn't negatively affect the building process, so that blind children could feel these codes and tell which color they represented. There were several versions of the color codes tested with groups of children until we found the final designs that were distinct and recognisable for the children.
As previously mentioned, the entirety of the building process was rethought so that children could assemble sets by themselves. The color codes used for the LEGO pieces were reused in tags for the sorting bags, that now are separated by color, and for the embossed instruction manuals. For these manuals I also created a language to help assemble the pieces on the right place on top of building mats.
Before delivering the project, all the objects created were tested with blind and visually impaired children to ensure the products worked in practice.
