Problem Definition

Step 1: Create a Persona

Step 2: Create a Mindmap of problems

Step 3: Identify Problem Areas and Solution Goals

1. House
   1. Problem Area: Cleaning the house with one arm.
   2. User Needs: The user has to keep his house clean while being efficient with his time.
   3. Solution Goal: All in One house cleaning tool that can be used with just one arm.
2. Body
   1. Problem Area: Cleaning the body with one arm
   2. User Needs: Being able to take care of his body, from putting in contacts to bathing
   3. Solution Goal: Sanitary cleaning of the body and personal hygiene.
3. Clothing
   1. Problem Area: Cleaning your clothes/getting dressed with one arm.
   2. User Needs: Being able to get dressed appropriately with clean clothes.
   3. Solution Goal: efficient and sanitary cleaning of clothes/ efficient dressing in clothes.
4. Appliances
   1. Problem Area: Washing the dishes with only one arm
   2. User Needs: Being able to wash all of the dishes in the sink
   3. Solution Goal: Efficient and effective dish-cleaning

Step 4: Problem Statements

1. House: With one hand, it is nearly impossible to clean around the house, and when it is done, it takes way too long to clean well.
2. Body: Doing a shower with only one hand is possible, but very difficult to clean every corner of the body. Besides, it would be time-consuming as well.
3. Clothing: It is difficult to manage dirty laundry/ dressing in clothing with only one arm.
4. Appliances: It is next-to-imposible to wash a sink-full of dirty dishes with only one arm.

Step 5: Reflection Statement

At times, it was difficult to empathize with someone that has just one arm since we all have two, but that is some of the challenges most designers face when coming up with ideas on how to improve the lives of others. As a team, we have decided to focus more on the hygiene aspect and how it may be difficult to clean certain areas with one arm. Our four areas within hygiene are the house, body, clothing, and appliances. Each has something to do with how we live and carry out our day-to-day lives. A lot of the time, taking care of these four areas is done without thinking. We shower every day, do laundry, clean the house and its appliances frequently.

However, it is considerably more challenging for individuals with just one arm. Think about it, of those four problem areas, how often are you using both hands to clean? It’s likely that all four of these tasks require the use of both hands quite frequently, some tasks may even be impossible with just one arm. As we move forward, we hope to learn more about what one-armed people can do well, and how they go about accomplishing tasks that would normally require two hands.

Getting feedback from the rest of the class was very helpful as well. At first, we had two main ideas that we wanted to focus on: hygiene and video games. After receiving this feedback, it was clear that we needed to focus on just one topic. We ended up going with hygiene because we thought it would be more relatable to the average person, and we would have more to talk about (the four problem areas mentioned above). Overall, this is has been a good experience learning about the challenges that one-armed people have to deal with on a daily basis and what we can do to help make their lives a little easier.