Design an iron for the blind.

Assumptions and Clarification!

1. What kind of blind person are we talking about ? Are they partially blind? Color Blind? Can Detect Light ? Can See blurry Images?
2. Is the Blind person an adult, elderly or a teenager?
3. Do they have any additional disabilities?
4. Where will this Iron be used? At home? or perhaps one for travel?
5. Do we have any limitation of resources?

Assumptions-

1. We are talking about a Complete Blind person who cannot see anything at all i.e Zero ability to see.
2. The blind person is and Adult.
3. They do not have any additional disabilities
4. This iron will only be used at home .
5. We do not have any limitation

Okay, now that I understand the problem, I’m going to tackle this in a few parts. First, I’ll think about who the users are and what they’re using the Iron for. Second, I’m going to compare existing Irons against these use cases to see where the gaps are. Then finally, I’m going to discuss how we can fill in these gaps

Users and Customers

1. We Have One user in Mind A fully Blind Person.
2. But, Its highly likely that they are not the only ones who are gonna be using this Iron .So our Other potential Customers and Users are people who don't have any disability or may have some other disability.

Use Cases Well An Iron really have only two use cases-

1. Getting Wrinkles and Creases out of the clothes.
2. Drying out Damp Fabrics.

Current Product in market Their are various types of Iron in the Market like

1. Ordinary
2. Steam Iron
3. Automatic Iron

Challenges-

1. It is Difficult for a blind person to go through different modes in an Iron.
2. There is no way to know if the Iron is heated up to the required temperature
3. It could be dangerous for a blind person to pick up the iron if its heated as they might accidently touch the hot element.
4. It is generally Difficult for a blind person to access the Water Reservoir in An Iron.

My Solutions -

1. The most Obvious design should include auditory features such as

• When the Iron is heated up to a certain temperature a auditory notification should be given to the user that the temperature is high enough for the particular type of cloth.
• If the water Reservoir is nearly empty it can let the user know by a voice notification.
• Also like any IOT device we can command the iron to manage its temperature and its mode (like steam)

2. For safety and preventing a blind person to accidently touch the hot part we would need to implement same safeguards this may include automatic shut-off mechanisms to turn off the iron when not in use for a certain period, as well as built-in sensors to detect overheating.

3. The Iron Should have a a water reservoir which is easy to fill and indicators or sensers can be provided to indicate levels and overtripping of water. We can Provide a Funnel which would make it easier to refill the reservoir.

4.The Handle of the Iron should provide good enough grip and we shall put features like scroller (to change temp acc to fabric) just below the handle so that it is easily accessible. water reservoir can be on the top of the handle and similarly to indicate or let user know we can include braille writing on the Iron indication Reservoir and Temp Scroller/Mode.

Alternatively Voice features can be a little expensive and difficult to implement therefore we can rather use beeping indicators or different types of sounds which would indicate different issues .