Phase 1: Secondary Research
Where do we start?
Designing for people with disabilities and older adults starts with understanding the diverse challenges they encounter.
We researched over 22 different disabilities to gain a broader understanding of challenges or pain points currently faced. The primary benefit of the secondary research was to supplement unrepresented user groups in our primary research.
Contextualizing and understanding disabilities through data:
Through our secondary research, we explored the wider context of disabilities and how they affect the population. By visualizing quantitative data from trusted sources, it gives more P&G context into how disabilities affect our population at large.
We wanted to frame disabilities not as something only a select number of individuals are born with, but as something that everyone experiences whether temporary or long-term and it is our responsibility as a society to ensure inclusivity and ensure we are not disabling anyone of any condition.
Phase 1: Primary Research
Meeting the users
We interviewed with older adults and people with disabilities to learn their laundry process and any pain points.
To begin this project we needed to understand common challenges, compensatory behaviors, pain points and successes currently faced by users with disabilities or older adults. To understand these challenges, we used ethnographic methods which include in-person interviews and observations, as well as secondary research to supplement missing disability demographics.
Interviews
We created three interview guides (for older adults, persons with learning disabilities and one for their caretakers).
- Each interview lasted for about 60-90 minutes.
- All interviews were recorded and transcribed on Otter.AI.
- All data gathered was uploaded and analyzed on Miro.
2 Older Adults Living by themselves
2 Couples + 2 Live Alone
4 Persons with Learning Disabilities
From the interactions we learned about their laundry routines and how their disabilities affect their processes.
Being in their homes we were able to learn about their whole routine from transporting and storing to washing and drying. But what was more impactful was seeing who these people were beyond their limitations. It was very powerful seeing these strong individuals push past barriers set by society wether it is difficult packaging or inaccessible laundry machines. This was something that we felt P&G needed to experience and became a key goal for us: to build empathy within their design team and broader organization.
