Palm is an inclusively designed hair styling tool that empowers individuals who have limited hand mobility with agency and self expression.
Self-expression allows one to distinguish themselves from others and validate their own ideas. Many individuals with different musculoskeletal disorders, like Arthritis and Muscular dystrophy, lose the ability to style their hair.
While some don’t see physical appearance as a necessity, these barriers can become detrimental to others.
Pain Points:
The struggles that individuals face when it come to hair styling can be attributed to three main pain points.
Features:
Swipe through to see what Palm brings to hair styling!
Prototyping:
Palm was created through an extensive iterative process of research and prototyping. It emerged through co-designing with occupational therapists, evaluating what the key pain points were in hair styling. With all of that in mind, prototyping with sketching, foam, wood, and computer aided design brought the design to life.
Each step in the prototyping phase was met with user testing and deliberation. All to insure the most comfortable and easy user experience.
About the designer
Matthew Chen is an industrial designer passionate about inclusive design and accessibility. His practice is heavily based on research and user-centred design, with a focus on consumer hardware. He believes that designers have the unique opportunity of humanizing technology and removing social/technical barriers. Further examples of his work can be found on his portfolio website.