Abstract:

The concept of Universal Design (UD) is being applied to a variety of fields, such as architecture, product design and communication. The underlying reasons for this recent tendency are the rapid evolution of an aging society and increase in the demand of people with disabilities for the improvement of their civil rights. Increasing of these factors increase the UD and its principles in value on practices and education in design. The present study tried to identify how the students understand and apply the concept of UD in their creative process. The intention is to establish the critical steps for creating and redesigning the product that could be used by people of all ages and abilities.

For case studies, a group of 33 industrial design students were observed and worked with on universally designed electrical household products. Two surveys were conducted to students about universal design about current knowledge. Pre-survey was about knowledge and perception of UD; Post-Survey was about final perception, usability of UD principles in the process of creativity of subjects. The results of the survey revealed that UD was lead to a creative and convenient design process with its suggested paths for design students and professions.

Furthermore, design process of UD product which is suggested and applied by the former institutions and design educators is as follows:
a) Collect data about the user and the product environment
b) Identify the user’s needs and problems
c) Analyze user’s tasks and goals
d) Create/Redesign
e) Test and evaluate for usability.

Keywords:

Universal Design, Design Process, Product Design.