How would you design an alarm clock for the blind?

Question

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

User - The user is defined as blind people, which I'm assuming can be defined as
people completely without sight, but have their other senses.
Pain points of this user:
1) Can't see the time on the face of the alarm clock.
2) Can't see the alarm time when setting the alarm.
3) Can't see the buttons on the alarm clock, but can feel them.
4) Can't see the alarm clock to know if it's on or not, but can feel a toggle
on/off switch.
Since the main purpose of the alarm clock is to set an alarm, then I'll focus on
pain points to do with having an alarm, not see the time (pain points 2 and 3).
Possible ideas (with impact versus difficulty to implement):
1) Button that reads out what is displayed on the clock when pushed (low impact,
low difficulty)
2) Voice controlled (high impact, high difficulty)
3) Button to click through alarm setting options, and read aloud while you go
(medium impact, low difficulty)
Because the last option has the highest impact to difficulty ratio, it would
have the best return for effort.
Doing a quick sanity check - if the purpose of this new feature was just to add
accessibility for blind users, then the last option is the best. However, is the
purpose to build an alarm clock specifically for blind users, then the second
option would be the best. It would has a high effort up-front to set it up, but
would provide significant differentiation for the business, and unique value to
users.

Anonymous · Answer

1) Clarify the objective - so just for clarification, the objective of this case
is to design an alarm clock that will be specifically be used by users without
their sight?
Okay great

2) Identify the user - In this case we will be dealing with people who are
unable to see, but can use their other senses

3) Identify pain points that blind users may have with the current features of
the alarm clock. 
Blind users may have an issue locating the alarm clock
Blind users are unable to see the time on the clock 
Blink users are unable to set the alarm 
Blind users may have trouble locating the power cords or knowing if the
batteries are running low

4) Prioritize the pain points and pick two to move forward with. Discuss value
to user - 
Most important pain points is that Blind users are unable to see the time on the
clock
Blind users may have trouble locating the power cords or knowing if the
batteries are running low

5) User value and effort to implement improvements for each pains point 
Implementing a voice activated alarm clock that tells you the time when the user
asks what time it is, this voice activation feature would also allow the user to
set the alarm with voice activation

6) Recommendation - 
I recommend that in order to update the design of an alarm clock to best fit the
needs of blind users, we should invest in voice activation technology in order
to tackle the pain point of users not being able to see the clock and users
being unable to set the alarm. Although there would be some knowledge
transfer/additional resources to be learned in the process of implementing voice
activation feature for blind users, I believe that the value being delivered to
the customer heavily outweighs the cost of effort that will be required for our
team to implement this.

How would you design an alarm clock for the blind?

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