About Participant
The participant has been suffering from MS since 2002 and they are in the secondary progressive phase, which means their condition is getting worse with the passage of time. The symptoms of MS that plague the participant is the fact they have lost most of their motoric senses in their legs, the participant’s hand is also quite limited in which movements the participant can exhibit with it, so exerting allot of force is quite the demanding task for them additionally other than the difficulty with their motoric nerves in their hand their sensorics nerves in their hand are also highly damaged which caused the participant to lose the sense of touch in their hand.
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The participant needs gloves when using the E-bike to ward off cold. Although she does not have feelings in their hand as the temperature in their hand decreases movement becomes more difficult for her and it also exposes her hand to potential hypothermia related problems. There are difficulties however, when the participant inserts their fingers in the existing gloves because the inner side of the glove is not visible and her senses are not of much help, which means it is unable to check whether the fingers are in the correct position. Additionally, the participant uses a mobility scooter, and its mechanism is inconvenient. Therefore, design for resolving these problems should be suggested for enhancing participant’s life quality.
Co-designing with Multiple Sclerosis
Co-design is a design process where the entire process will be held together with the participant you are designing for. This means that the actual user or target group is involved within the design process. It is important to discuss ideas and concepts with the participant(s). Their feedback can be used to improve the design. Also cooperating can keep you on track and not lose focus on what problem needs to be solved. Previous co-design projects with people suffering MS mostly use interviews and questionnaires as co-design methods. These questionnaires can be held before, during or after the design process. Also, self-report questionnaires are mentioned as options to gather feedback.