Skills: Design Research, Prototyping, User Testing
Project Type: Product Design
The Problem
People with mobility challenges and and people recovering from injuries often use walkers to get around. One of the most popular walkers types is the 4 legged to wheeled walker which offers a good balance of mobility and stability for people with mobility challenges. The legs without wheels come with plastic caps to help them slide. However, those caps wear out quickly, causing them to stop sliding well and fall off. Walker users use a variety of workarounds to solve this problems, such as tennis balls, and tape. However, all these workarounds have their own limitations. Tennis balls are difficult and dangerous to cut open and get dirty quickly, and tape requires frequent replacement. Our team worked with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago to develop an alternative walker bottom.
Prototypes and User Testing
To test potential ideas we created three low fidelity prototypes to have users test. The stress ball prototype, the screw cap prototype, and the eraser prototype. We found that users placed little value on cushioning. Users liked the idea of a mechanism that make replacing the sliding surface quick and easy, however we needed to make sure that the mechanism that allowed the replacement was easy for people with limited hand mobility to manipulate. We also found that while users thought the plastic sliding surface was the best overall, what the best sliding material was varied greatly by what surface the user was walking on.
Tornado Glider
The Tornado Glider is a modular walker bottom. It attaches to the walker legs using thumb screws and large screw on glider. The thumb screws are large and easy to manipulate and offer a secure and adjustable attachment that does not loosen as the glider bottom wears. The glider bottom screws into the user portion of the Tornado Glider allowing for users to quickly swap the glider bottoms in and out to have the optimal glider shape and material for the expected surface.