This study reports on experiences with a user centered design approach for the development of a customized mechanical transradial prosthesis for a patient who were unable to adapt to a standard prosthesis. The development process explored the needs, preferences and expectations of the user, as well as physical and functional aspects. The production process was based on 3D printing technologies, with emphasis on originality and customization. During the design process, the user participated in the design and evaluation phases through practical handling tests. The results indicated that the participation of the user in the design process using a user-centered design approach lead to a customized product that matched the user's preferences. This acceptance and satisfaction with the product help minimize the risk of product abandonment.

Headphones and earbuds are seemingly more popular than ever with the wide availability of smartphones and music streaming services. Such personal audio systems are also essential for many blind and visually impaired computer users that relies on text-to-speech. Few published studies address the users' perceptions of such personal audio output devices. However, past research shows that negative perceptions may lead to device abandonment. General-purpose equipment may therefore be more successful than special purpose assistive technologies for marginalized groups. We therefore set out to gain insight into how users generally perceive headphones and earbuds, and we wanted to base our study in two different cultural contexts. A questionnaire built on a Kahoot quiz was developed involving 12 questions related to headphones and earbuds. A total of 100 participants were recruited in Norway and Brazil. The results show that intuitiveness is the most valued feature of these devices and cost was not. Brazilians expressed skepticism regarding the use of headphones while walking and when travelling on public transport, while Norwegians expressed that headphones were safe to use in such situations. Our experiences showed that Kahoot is a promising platform for conducting such experiments, as it may appear more engaging than regular questionnaires. Moreover, they are relatively easy to set up and allow response times to be measured.

Prototyping has become a widely embraced technique in different design fields to facilitate early user involvement to ensure that the end-product meets the users' needs. Each design field has its tools and traditions for working with prototypes. This paper documents experiences with smartphone app prototyping from a product design student's perspective. Three prototyping tools with different fidelity levels were explored. Based on these experiences we reflect upon the prototyping tool characteristics and their suitability for non-computer scientist. We envisage that our experiences may be useful for other product designers who want to develop smartphone apps.