Team leader
John Corcoran - Wire Design
Team members
Ricoh (interaction design), Clarion Co Ltd (graphic user interface), Panasonic/Matsushita (product design), Nissan Motor Co (automobile design), TOTO (appliance design), Toyota Boshuku Corporation (textile design).
Lead user
Keiko - a female office worker with poor dexterity who lives independently, uses a wheelchair and drives but occasionally needs assistance.
The issue
Keiko said: "I would like to change the way that people act towards me. It feels like a barrier."
The store assistant said: "If I knew she needed help it would be OK but I wasn't sure if I would offend her."
Assist
A discreet but ubiquitous symbol system that would remove such barriers of uncertainty. It would allow those who need help or who want to offer it the ability to communicate their wishes to each other. The symbol could be printed on event tickets to indicate an assist service at the venue and displayed on buses and store windows. When a RFID tag is embedded in the symbol on a storefront for example, it could signal through a user's mobile phone their proximity to a helping hand.
