Inclusive wear for stroke survivors
Werable
About client
Werable is a design studio with the mission to make life better for people with limited mobility through adaptive clothing that is inclusive and easy to wear.
Werable designs clothes not just for their wearability but also their ability to give people a sense of agency and empowerment.
Challenge
Werable envisions an inclusive future where people are able to care for one another through apparel. With the mission to help stroke survivors and their caregivers have an easier, more enjoyable dressing experience, Werable needed user research to uncover opportunities for designing suitable solutions that bring dignity and ease when dressing the care receivers.
Solution
In-depth research to understand stroke survivors and their caregivers
Results
Insights on the challenges of caregivers
“How might we enable caregivers (CGs) of people who are bedridden, to dress their care receivers (CRs) quickly and easily?”
To answer and refine that statement, we conducted research to understand caregiving and the elderly population in Singapore, before guiding our client to decide on the specific target users and challenges to focus on.
We found out that the majority of caregivers in Singapore were informal, or family members. In 2011, 60% of informal caregivers were 40-59 years old. Both the number of informal caregivers and their average age have been increasing.
As there are many different types of caregivers within this informal caregiver group, we did some primary research to uncover deeper insights on their unique challenges.
Familiarity with stroke survivors’ dressing experience
We organised a bodystorming session - a combination of role-play and simulation that allows us to step into the shoes of our target users by re-enacting their roles. We acted out tasks of a CG helping to dress a CR. By replicating their limitations and context, the activity gave us invaluable insights into challenges that CGs and CRs may face during dressing, such as the need to repeatedly rotate CR’s body when putting their pants on.
Understanding caregivers motivations and behaviour
Several CGs allowed us to ask them questions on how caregiving affects their lives, and what their daily contextual challenges were.
The two key factors differentiating their dressing challenges were:
Degree of CR’s physical limitations
Availability of secondary caregiver (usually by employing a foreign domestic worker)
We discovered that the CGs found solutions on their own, such as specialised clothing and new techniques of putting on CR’s clothes. Ultimately, we were able to understand their needs, motivations, expectations, and behaviour to create persona cards and user journey maps for our client.
Our research laid a strong foundation for developing innovative apparel solutions that address the specific needs of stroke survivors and their caregivers. By providing a deeper understanding of the challenges involved, our client is informed about how the clothes they design enhance dignity, ease, and independence for both parties. The insights gained from this project not only contributed to improving the quality of life for stroke survivors but also informed future research and development efforts in the field of inclusive apparel design.
"I met Wendy, co-founder of 55 Minutes, and our relationship was formed on the basis of trust. 55 Minutes has the exact kind of ethos I was looking for."
Claudia Poh, Founder, Werable
