Investigation of methods for the design of assistive device : UCD and medical tools

This paper reports the results of a study about design methods for assistive device. Publications dedicated only to this question are rare. That is why fifteen case-studies presenting the design of assistive device have been analyzed: this paper extracts the underlying design methods and whenever possible their benefits and weaknesses. Unfortunately, information about the choice of design methods and their impact is often lacking in the literature. A table summarizes and classifies the design methods identified in the case-studies. Results show that User-Centered Design (UCD) tools are widely used for designing assistive device. Many authors stated or expected the UCD approach to be helpful in this field. Rarely designers use additional tools from other fields such as anthropometric values from ergonomics, joint range measure / psycho-motor tests from medicine and ABAB design from psychology, although they seem totally relevant.