Tangible Tools and Techniques: Co-designing with Locked-In Syndrome

There has been a paradigm shift in design methodology from user centered design towards co-design. During a co-design process users are closely involved as experts of their own experience to maximize user-value of the design output. A user group that hasn't been involved are individuals with Locked-In Syndrome. This group has lost most or all control over voluntary movement and thereby most ways to interact with their environment. This pioneering study set out discover how to apply co-design methodology to design a technical solution with a locked-in individual to enhance his interactive ability. Existing tools and techniques (e.g. probing and scenario-based design) were adapted to form a co-design method suitable for working with locked-in individuals. This method was then applied to design the technical solution with a single locked-in participant. A method with three phases was developed. The main activities in the three phases are a day in the life probing activity resulting in a problem statement, a generative session with scenario enactment resulting in a concept idea and a prototype discussion resulting in a final concept, respectively. Each activity had a tangible component and was performed with the locked-in participant in his home context. After qualitative evaluation of the method and design output it can be cautiously concluded that a focus on tangible interaction is beneficial to the application of co-design methodology with locked-in individuals and individuals with similar impairments.