Week 10 Lab: Accessible Redesign Lab

Audit your week 1 package for who could and couldn't open it easily, and sketch a fix that doesn't undo the cost or compliance work already priced out

26 April 2027

Before the lab#

Bring back your week 1 package one more time. If you don’t still have it, use a photo or a clear memory of its opening mechanism.

In the lab#

• Audit — go over your package looking specifically for physical opening barriers: tape that needs strong grip to start, a tab too small to find without close vision, print too small to read at a glance, an insert that needs two hands and fine motor control to remove. Name a specific group of people each barrier would actually exclude, not a vague “some people.”
• Fix one thing — sketch a change that removes or reduces that barrier, using the OXO principle: a fix that helps the excluded group usually helps everyone else too.
• Check compatibility — does your fix still satisfy at least one earlier constraint you’ve already priced (this package’s cubic-weight number from week 4, its ISTA-relevant protection from week 3, or a compliance requirement)? If your fix breaks one of those, say so and adjust it.
• Cost it — estimate, even roughly, whether the fix adds material cost, assembly time, or new tooling — and whether that cost looks small next to what it buys.

Afterwards#

Keep your fix. Week 11’s redesign studio asks you to combine this accessibility work with five other constraints, on a new product, for the integrative assessment.