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How would you design an alarm clock for the blind?

Product Manager

Palantir Technologies

Square

Snap

Netflix

Instacart

Grammarly

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Answers

Anonymous

a year ago
4.2Exceptional
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.
  • How would you design an alarm clock for the blind?
  • What kind of alarm clock would you design for the blind?
  • What features would you put in an alarm clock for blind people?
  • Could you design an alarm clock for the blind?
  • Which alarm clock design would be most suitable for the blind?
  • What would you design for a blind person's alarm clock?
  • Do you have any ideas for designing an alarm clock for the blind?
  • Can you design an alarm clock that is useful for those who are blind?
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Interview question asked to Product Managers interviewing at Rapyd, Snap, Intel and others: How would you design an alarm clock for the blind?.