Abstract
This study is part of a research program promoting the expertise of professional manpower in the Korean assistive device industry. Based on interviews with clinical and design experts, the authors discuss the advantages and difficulties of this collaboration, and suggest ways in which it might be improved. They discuss the roles of clinical and design experts, and consider the product components involved in the development of assistive devices. The roles of clinical experts and design experts have common elements in that both groups take a human-centered approach to product development. Design and clinical experts should collaborate further in the development of assistive devices, and this should lead to the shortening of product development time and to user needs being better met in new products. Research exploring guidelines for collaboration is needed in order to solve problems and difficulties arising from the convergence of these two areas of expertise.
Keywords
roles of specialists; collaboration; assistive devices; human-centered design
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2018.379
Citation
Kim, A., Kim, J., Hwang, D., and Kweon, O. (2018) A Study of Roles and Collaboration in the Development of Assistive Devices for People with Disabilities by Clinical Experts and Design Experts, in Storni, C., Leahy, K., McMahon, M., Lloyd, P. and Bohemia, E. (eds.), Design as a catalyst for change - DRS International Conference 2018, 25-28 June, Limerick, Ireland. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2018.379
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
A Study of Roles and Collaboration in the Development of Assistive Devices for People with Disabilities by Clinical Experts and Design Experts
This study is part of a research program promoting the expertise of professional manpower in the Korean assistive device industry. Based on interviews with clinical and design experts, the authors discuss the advantages and difficulties of this collaboration, and suggest ways in which it might be improved. They discuss the roles of clinical and design experts, and consider the product components involved in the development of assistive devices. The roles of clinical experts and design experts have common elements in that both groups take a human-centered approach to product development. Design and clinical experts should collaborate further in the development of assistive devices, and this should lead to the shortening of product development time and to user needs being better met in new products. Research exploring guidelines for collaboration is needed in order to solve problems and difficulties arising from the convergence of these two areas of expertise.