How might we enable people with back pain to garden safely and comfortably?
This project was influenced by conversations I have had with my grandmother about the struggles she’s had with severe back pain, and about how beneficial she found gardening to be before her back prevented her from doing it.
I interviewed around ten different people for this project. Then throughout the project I checked back in with them to get feedback and make sure I was on the right track.
Understanding my user was paramount for me so that I could be sure that my project was solving real problems people are having, and not just the problems I thought they were having.
Research
Background research on back pain helped me understand what was going on with the human body and how to help combat it.
These three personas are derived from the conversations I had with real people. They helped me to understand the different needs of my users.
Physical and mental health are inextricably tied. Through my interviews I learned how back pain is limiting, introduces uncertainty, and brings distraction into peoples lives. It became clear that this project needed to address peoples mental health needs just as much as their physical needs.
Ideation / Designing
I started by focusing on being broad and prolific in my ideation. After exploring many directions I went back to my interviewees to measure interest and get their feedback.
Using information from my interviews I distilled what was most important to my users into these five items. Any effective solution should address them all in this order.
After deciding on my direction I researched and explored how to accomplish it most feasibly.
After extensive exploration I settled on using elastic bands for my project.
Due to constraints of weight, cost, and bulkiness, I changed my direction to one that utilized steel pipe for the body.
I utilized a heat gun and some delightfully cheap PVC pipe to create low fidelity prototype. This helped me to understand the scale of the object, and to give people something to interact with and give feedback on.
Final Design
The final design is lightweight, sturdy, and ergonomic. With it users will be able to once again enjoy the activities that their backs made impossible before.
The sliding seat allows for comfortable kneeling by letting the users legs follow the natural arch of the kneeling motion. The latches allow the bands to stay down and prevent any unwanted launching of senior citizens. When the user is ready to stand back up a simple button presses releases the seat to assist with rising.
The Uplift Garden Kneeler is easy to carry and utilize for a multitude of purposes. It’s simple interface makes it intuitive to use, meaning that there is nothing standing in the way of the user and previously difficult, painful, or impossible activities.
Where back pain is limiting, fear inducing, and distracting, this product is freeing, reliable, and allows people to focus on what they care about.
Where back pain is discouraging, this product is uplifting.
