The Making of a Habit
Visually Impaired Client Product Design | One to One, Spring 2025
Duration
Spring 2025
Role
Industrial Designer
Tools
Overview
The Objective
Woodworking
Benny (Blindspots) Schwartz is a determined and passionate artist whose talent was discovered after his vision was lost. He worked at The Children’s Institute in support of neurodivergent patients. On a random afternoon at the age of 25, he was struck by sudden vertigo and noticed severe blurred vision. He drove to a nearby hospital in Pittsburgh and was diagnosed with NeuroMyelitis Optica (NMO), a rare autoimmune condition that affects the optic nerve, brainstem and spinal cord. He explains that he was left with large blind spots in the center of his visual field as well as chronic debilitating nerve pain throughout the body. For a long period of time, he was furious at the world, himself, and God. Struggling to make sense of his new reality and in a bad place emotionally, he used alcohol as a crutch for some time.
Consistency, determination, and hard work enabled Benny to become sober. At the three month mark, he was inspired by a conversation with a friend that urged him to just “create! Create! Create!” After giving it a skeptical first couple of tries, he noticed the new myriad of possibilities. He expresses that creating visual art has been a desperately needed outlet and expression. Additionally, making art is a process of letting go, letting his anger, sadness, loneliness, fear and suffering exit his body and take life on the canvas. His every day persistence in getting sober, embracing his new world, and making paintings is what helped him overcome his impairment. While he is fueled by his fear, anger, and loneliness to look at the world, hungry for inspiration, these habits, especially art creation, have changed his perspective on living with chronic illness and pain. What was once a constant reminder of his lost vision now stands as a powerful testament to his transformed perspective on life.
Design is all about the people for whom we are designing for. Starting from the scale of the hand and now working with the scale of the room, the studio’s following projects will seek to study and provide subtle and seamless quality of life enhancements to Benny's habits, particularly involving those tied to his painting process, empowering him to channel his inner resilience and redefine his life through art.
Habits are not mere routines; they are the quiet, persistent choices that define who we become.
The Scale of the Hand
The designed cherry wood door handle is characterized by its simplicity and ergonomic comfort to the hand. A super specific ergonomic grip only allows for a particular hand position, and often, designers are unable to find the perfect position for the user. While I mistakenly made such iterations before, the final iteration can be easily held from many angles and without much time.
Instead of speculating or imposing some immature design, form, detail, and design of the following assignments will be tailored for the specific habits and practices of the studio client, Benny.
While previous handle iterations implemented grips extremely tailored to certain hand positions, I opted to choose a much simpler form for Benny to quickly and easily grab it however he wants. The term approach is used in this design to mean a clean transition from motion to rest. The trim features curvature form easing towards the door and handle. Similarly, at the scale of the handle, a slow approach is seen by the curvature form in section and grooves at the hand grip position mark the rest area for the fingers. As a unit, the combination of the door and wall section have a band of contrasting cherry wood to indicate clearly where the handle is. Even from afar, Benny, one with visual impairments, can easily understand where to put his hand when he is trying to open the door. In conclusion, my design uses contrasting materials and asymetric curvature form to guide users to opening doors.
The Scale of the Body
These collages are a juxtaposition of some of the keyframes from Bennyʼs working time-lapses found on his social media. Some habits and recurring practices that Iʼve noticed is that while he keeps his working board on one side of the room, his paints, supplies, and materials are not right next to or in front of the canvas, but instead behind him. Moreover, based on the videos, he often likes to have a cigar and a cup of tea while he is working. He also sits on a stool occasionally to paint and takes extended breaks within a painting session.
A major pain point that I’ve observed, and that he’s agreed on, is his constant bending over or awkward positions to reach certain areas of the painting.
I have designed an adjustable easel that allows for customization of both its angle and canvas height, with the canvas securely clipped onto the board using custom hardware. This design ensures maximum flexibility to accommodate various painting needs and working habits.
Below are sketches, prototypes, and the assembly process of the easel. Crafted entirely in the School of Architecture’s Woodshop, the easel is constructed using mortise and tenon joints, dowel joints, and countless hours of meticulous work. The panels are made from 1/8” Baltic Birch Plywood, precisely cut to fit. The frame consists of four vertical stiles and two horizontal rails, all crafted from durable Pine wood. The canvas is secured to the board with two horizontal bars, the top featuring a slot for inserting Cam Clamps. Lastly, the entire easel pivots around a 1/2” bolt, locked in place with Nylon Lock Nuts for stability and adjustability.
