The objective of this project was to create a device that would help people with disabilities get into and out of recumbent tricycles.
This is a disability-focused project that is part of Northwestern's Design, Thinking, and Communication Course. My role in this project consisted of leading team meetings, developing, designing, and manufacturing the final prototype, as well as producing both the final poster and report that my group presented to a panel of judges at the end of quarter expo.
Type: Human-Centered Design, Manufacturing, Product Design
Client: Shirley Ryan AbilityLab (SRAL)
Duration: September - December 2019
Role: Engineering Student
Deliverables: Final Report, Poster, Hand-drawn Visuals, Physical Prototype
Team Members: Cindy Hu, Sam Griswold, and William He
Research Question: How can we help people with disabilities get into and out of recumbent tricycles while encouraging greater independence?
SRAL is a rehabilitation center that offers programs for people with disabilities, including cycling with recumbent tricycles. Some patients have difficulties getting into and out of the recumbent tricycles independently because of their disabilities or rehabilitating muscles, which is why our group was tasked with creating a device that would help patients use the recumbent tricycles with minimal assistance.
After speaking with our clients and users, my group and I started coming up with possible solutions to our design problem. The solutions we decided to pursue are the pulley band concept, the seat lift concept, and the rotating pole with kickstand concept.
Our group then created the first physical mockups of our proposed solutions using materials available in the shop and our class created a makeshift version of a recumbent tricycle to use for testing our solutions. I personally worked on both the pulley band and rotating pole with kickstand mockups.
After testing the first versions of our physical mockups in the workshop, we decided to eliminate the pulley band concept due to its lack of feasibility and move forward with the other two concepts instead, focusing on improving the designs depicted by working out the mechanics of the two designs.
In order to improve our mockups, we modified our existing mockups so that they would better simulate possible ways we could achieve the mechanics we wanted. I personally continued to work on the rotating pole and kickstand mockup to add mounting functionality to the bicycle's frame.
After the initial round of user testing with our mockups, we improved our designs by adding extra features that users identified would improve the designs, specifically, a seat cover for the seat lift concept to make it more comfortable to sit on and wider handles on the rotating pole and kickstand mockup for more surface area to grip onto.
Our third version of the designs included these features to answer our questions on how we could make the rotating pole and kickstand more accessible for users and what kinds of materials we could use to make the seat lift more comfortable to sit on.
After working through the designs, we decided to eliminate the seat lift concept due to the complex nature of the mechanics behind the concept and settled on the “Handy Stand”, which was the foldable kickstand with ergonomic handles combined into one cohesive unit.
I then manufactured most of my group's final prototype, “Handy Stand”, which can be seen below attached to a recumbent tricycle for better visualization. Its features are outlined in our project poster.
