2022

Well Abled Still

Challenged
UNIVERSAL DESIGN | MAJOR PROJECT

guided by: Nikhil Das, Ravi Shankar, Anoop Saxena, Akshay Chandekar
Content

Need Research Ideation Prototyping Test

Area selection Research Ideation 01 Explorations

Problem
Ideation 02 Mockups
Statement
and so on...
Brief
 What is 'well abled still
Universal design to me
challenged'? means...
INTRODUCTION

Project
Circumstances where an

able-bodied individual who

is physically robust and

planning to build physical,

learning and work
environments so that they

Essence cognitively competent yet

finds challenging to carry

out day-to-day tasks

are usable by a wide range

of people, regardless of age,
size or disability status.
effortlessly. While universal design
promotes access for
individuals with disabilities,
it also benefits others.
01 Area

selection
As a group, we were given

SPACE as a topic to start with

and then slowly go ahead with

looking into problems in such

areas. Starting with trying to define

the kind of spaces and then

going into redefining spaces

on various conditions
 Gendered spaces

We considered re-thinking

spaces on the basis of themes

like all gendered spaces and

spaces where all age groups

usually interact.

All age group spaces

Flexible &

Adaptable spaces

for people in transit

After studying spaces and their probable related scenarios, railway

platforms that turn into adaptable waiting spaces from time to time and

whenever required is something I was interested to look into further.

 Economic factors
Quicker option
Availability of retiring rooms, dormitory
Waiting halls have arrangements for

only sitting & huge walking space

Young people with lower economic

affordance, including students, workers

Not enough storage space

in waiting halls
Cloakrooms are expensive
Prolonged sitting
Analysis
Trains are often late Tried to reason out a few

No privacy points and more probable

It does not look like a part

related problems areas
of the space
 01 02 03
helping people in-transit
management of luggage
difficulty in mobility

to wait for long hours in railway platforms of people and things

on platform
Problem

Statements 04 05
proper utilisation of accessibility of

spaces information to passengers

on a platform

NEXT
 WHO:
students, families, daily

wage earners

- arrangement of only SITTING in the

Research 0.1 entire platform or waiting halls

- no availability of dormitory/retiring

A study on topics before

rooms
getting started with a
- no proper back/headrest in sitting

particular problem statement

areas to support long waiting hours
from initial observations. - often asked to vacate
Long waiting hours for people
- being always conscious
in transit is the statement I
- lack of privacy
went forward with. - lack of safety
- heavy crowd in platform; leading to

mobility issues and also while boarding

Problem

Statement
Problem Statement - Long waiting hours for

people in transit, was decided after a lot of

thought and discussion with guiding faculties

Research 2.0
Studied every term & topic related to the

problem statement - Long waiting hours for

people in transit. Went back again to do some

in-field research to gathers insights.

-more
-perception of

comfortable we
waiting >> reduce in

are, the less

wait time
aware we are that

we are waiting
Key points
Studied and listed down essential

considerations to begin ideations.

Re-defined problem area and

choose to go ahead with Proper

Resting for people in transit.

Ideation 0.1
Ideated all initial and obvious ideas that

came to mind from the problem statement.

Redefining problem

statement
Helping people in-transit rest turned out to be the

desired problem statement to work on.

Rest is something that was encouraged than

sleeping or lying down in such public spaces

Brief - Helping people in-transit rest
 "can a suitcase be made to sit on?"

Keeping in mind the key points about

rest and essentials a person always

carries during a journey, a piece of

luggage or a bag is a must.

Ideated in terms of form that would

facilitate any kind of sitting or rest

postures, including handles and castors.

Ideation 0.2
Ideation 0.3
Further ideation led to the

selection of key ideas to

combine or permute to develop

a key or principal sketch.

"more comfortable

we are, the less

aware we are that

we are waiting"
Principal Idea
(seating + suitcase)

A set of suitcases which independently looks

obvious for human sitting while making the

entire structure stable due to its trapezium

shape. They interlock together to make a

different seating arrangement.

 Started with a basic idea of combining seating and a suitcase

behind the product, later detailing it further.

For prototyping, the body was vacuum moulded out of MDF

body made to the suitcase form and 3d printed parts

A basic scaled-down structure was made and done all the

explorations respectively. Starting with seat surface to handle.

The model is being developed slowly by the principal sketch

alongside prototyping and testing. Sunboard and thermocol

are used for this mockups.

Mockups & trials

Reasons for redesigning are as follows:

-backrest did not make any point when one cannot

lean much due to the stability of the structure

-trapezium shape for the overall stability

of the suitcase

-grooves & ridges added to increase the stability of

the surface to facilitate sitting if required

-silicon or soft padding on the corners and

top edges for protection & comfortable sitting

-ballpoint pen click mechanism button below

the retractable handle for the castors to lift up when

not in motion & stability for sitting

The TranSit

Dimensions of the suitcase was

considered after referring to a lot of

chairs and their forms that fit for a range

for seating capability

 Groves and bent top form

for a comfortable seating

Handle to match the arched

top of the suitcase seamlessly

Ridges and groves designed to

strengthened the surface durability

padding on edges for shock

protection of the suitcase

 Along with its trapezium

shape, 4 separate legs

on 2 faces for better

stability of the structure

room for better grip

while holding

extra space for castor wheels to pull

back in and freely rotate 360 degree

Status of the project :
Mockups done, Prototype ongoing

3 colour options considered by keeping

in mind the visibility of a suitcase from far

THANK YOU FOR

READING!