[nabs-l] Senior Thesis Design Survey

[Kubas, Amy]

I have been asked, by one of our members, to circulate the following:

David Andrews

Hello All!
My name is Amy Kubas and I am a senior majoring 
in Industrial Design at the University of 
Wisconsin-Stout. I will be presenting my Senior 
Thesis Project at the end of May and will be 
creating a design for people with visual 
impairments. I just presented 50 concepts to my 
professors and advisors who have in turn narrowed 
it down to 3 to move forward with. Though I value 
my professors opinions, I was critiqued by a 
panel of sighted individuals and wish to hear 
specifically from those whom I am designing for. 
I feel as though my design will have much more 
merit in the end if I am able to create it based 
on the responses I get from those who perform daily tasks without sight.

Below you will find my Senior Thesis Survey. The 
survey is entirely voluntary and may take about 
15 minutes to complete. Please feel free to leave 
any comments or suggestions to better design for 
those with visual impairments.

When you are finished with the survey, please 
send it back to my email address at: kubasa at my.uwstout.edu

Thank you for your time. Your input is GREATLY appreciated!
Amy Kubas
Industrial Design - University of Wisconsin - Stout

Senior Thesis Design Survey



Below is a list of 6 concept designs followed by 
a brief description of each. I would like to know 
which 3 products you would be most interested in 
purchasing if they were to be put on the market. 
At the end of the survey there is room for you to 
provide feedback for improvements/adjustments 
about the individual designs as well as write any 
suggestions about products you are interested in 
that I might not have considered for 
designing.  Thank you for your interest and helping me with my Senior Project!



1.     Electrical Outlet: This outlet would have 
recessed grooves that serve as guides to direct 
the user towards safely inserting prongs into the power source.

2.     Salt and Pepper Shakers: Shakers would 
have raised tactile marks to determine which is 
the salt and which is the pepper without having 
to sample the contents of the shaker beforehand.

3.     Measuring Cups: Cups would be marked with 
tactile indicators to inform the user which one is ¼ cup, ½ cup, 1/3 cup, etc.

4.     Silverware: Utensils would be weighted and 
designed in such a way that the user would 
instinctively grab them in the appropriate 
direction (in other words, when someone picks up 
the knife for example, he or she automatically 
knows which way is blade side down by how the handle feels in his or her hand).

5.     Storage Containers: Canisters would be 
marked with different amounts of grooves to allow 
the user to associate contents with how the 
canister feels (for example, flour is in the 
container with two grooves and sugar is stored in 
the container with one groove, etc.) thus 
eliminating the need for the user to open and 
test the contents of each canister before finding 
the ingredient he or she needs.

6.     Cutting board: Board has evenly spaced 
ridges at the top that serve as a guide for 
cutting ¼ inch slices of tomatoes, cucumbers, 
onions, etc. It also has a small section recessed 
on the right to separate the scraps from portions 
you wish to consume and there is a ribbed surface 
that helps stabilize round items from rolling 
when you are slicing them into sections.



Please list which 3 items you wish to see come into production.





Please provide suggestions below on how I can 
design my products for best usability. Feel free 
to mention any other frustrations you run into 
when performing everyday tasks that you would 
like to see addressed with new product designs.







Once again, thank you for your interest in 
helping me with my Senior Thesis. Your input is GREATLY appreciated!