design
fineart
WEEDING FORK REDESIGN, 2024
Gardening is a widely practiced activity, but many gardening tools, including weeder forks for tackling stubborn weeds, are primarily designed as hand tools with unfriendly grips. These designs often result in pain and discomfort, particularly for users with limited hand strength or conditions like arthritis.
Applying principles of inclusive design, this goal of this project is to redesign the weeder fork for senior gardeners living with rheumatoid arthritis, to create an accessible and comfortable tool that can ultimately benefit all users.
Building on this, the design process will emphasize comfort and ergonomics, iterative prototyping, working with the user group, and incorporating feedback.
01 Design Research Phase
Who gardens?
My design research phase started with thinking about why people garden in the first place.This is important to understand who I am designing for and what already exists.Journey map and user persona to empathize with target user group.
Rheumatoid arthritis and biomechanic research helps to understand ergonomics and design for pain points and user needs.
Market, patent, and retail analysis is important to understand what already exists and how I can redesign for greater inclusivity.
02 Prototyping Phase One
I start iterative prototyping based off initial research.These were then user tested among volunteers with and without Rheumatoid Arthritis, and 5 prototypes were brought to the next round to be refined.
02 Prototyping Phase Two
When these five prototypes were brought to user testing, I received feedback from volunteers with and without arthritis to bring the form and ergonomy of my model to its final stage.