INCORPORATION OF USER EXPERIENCE AND AFRICAN VIBRANT COLORS AND PATTERNS TO CREATE ADAPTIVE CLOTHING FOR THE PHYSICALLY CHALLENGED WOMEN

The aim of this collection is to create adaptive clothing for physically challenged young women in Nairobi Kenya. The inspiration behind this collection is a lady by the name of Maria who is an arm amputee and her need to be able to easily wear comfortable and functional adaptive clothing but still be stylish and chic. Many designers around the world have been able to create adaptive clothing for physically challenged people.
Springboard alum and UX designer Jeremy Nigh put it this way:
“All too often I have designed on an island by making assumptions based on what I think an end user needs, crafting pixel-perfect mockups based on my assumptions. I’ve learned that the ‘U’ in UX does not stand for ‘you’! It’s all about the user, so getting outside of my head and engaging with the user is an important step in the design process.”
In this collection some of the problems that will be addressed include using Velcro fastens elastic, drawstrings snaps and zippers in adaptive clothing to make it easier for the user to wear their clothes using one hand and to be fully independent without having to need a caregiver. Their desire is to be able to keep up with the trends in fashion but still have garments that cater to their needs.
For the print and color scheme the inspiration is drawn from the African bird known as Lilac –breasted roller because of its bright and beautiful colors and the texture of its feathers. The aim is to bring light and joy to the garments by using colorful and bright prints. Fashion has a very important impact on how the wearer feels and relates with others. Clothes communicate a person’s mood, attitude and brings out confidence in the person.
Some of the design champions that will be highlighted on this paper include Bezgraniz couture, who have created a fashion market space for those with disabilities including partnering with Mercedes Benz to have a fashion show with disabled models. Another exemplar is Tommy Hilfiger who recently launched an Adaptive clothing line with Mindy Scheier as one of the contributors to this designs. Another design company is Nike who have also stepped up to cater for those with disabilities by design an all-
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Inclusive footwear called Nike FlyEase. This was inspired by a physically challenged Olympian Ellen Donne.
In this paper descriptive quantitative research methods will be applied to establish in-depth information about the physically challenged, and their relationship to fashion. Interviews, questionnaires and archival research will be carried to gather information effectively. The data gathered by the researcher will enable the researcher to know more about the problems faced in relation to fashion and how best to tackle these problems and effective solutions that will work best for the user.