February 15, 2005

InnovationSpace students develop products for blind

ASU’s InnovationSpace program, in partnership with the Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing (CUbiC), has received a $40,000 grant from the Proctor & Gamble/Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) Interdisciplinary Student Design Collaborative Program.

The grant will help support the development of product-based solutions for the daily challenges that are experienced by people who are blind or visually impaired.

The collaborative program aims to expand the design goals into integrated, interdisciplinary endeavors, where students develop products to serve a consumer group that largely has been ignored in the marketplace. Its theme is to improve the lives of consumers in underdeveloped or lower-income markets or countries. This also includes underserved markets, such as the disabled.

“This program was created using the highest professional society standards for school collaborations,” says Bob Schwartz, P&G’s design manager. “It is meant to prepare students for a professional environment in which success also depends on crafting business cases that lead to the conclusion of the designs being presented – and that are informed by the key attributes of the brand being developed or extended.”

Grant applicants were asked to identify and solve a problem – in an area such as water purification, personal sanitation or personal health care – to improve the lives of consumers.

InnovationSpace will focus on personal care products specifically for people who are blind or visually impaired, building on prior experience developing products for this consumer group.

InnovationSpace is collaborating with CUbiC on other projects developing products to improve the daily lives of people who are blind. CUbiC researchers will lend their expertise to the P&G project as well.

InnovationSpace was one of three programs nationwide selected to receive the award. Other winning proposals in this competition were from Western Washington University and University of California-Berkley in collaboration with California College of the Arts-San Francisco.

IDSA is the nonprofit association that represents the profession of industrial design to education, business, government and the public, while serving the profession’s needs for information and networking. For more information about InnovationSpace, call Kate Benjamin, program coordinator, at (480) 965-6367, or visit the Web site (www.innovationspace.org).