As part as the Design School “Ergonomics” course’s project, I worked with “Puentes UC“, an organisation that connects university students with people in need, so course’s projects work on a real context and make an actual contribution to society.

My team and I worked for Pamela Candía, a middle aged woman with some special needs. She was on a wheelchair, could move only one arm and had some type of mental illness as well. The project objective was to redesign her house in order to make it ergonomic to her needs.

As deliverables for the projects we had to take a psychological profile, anthropometric measures of everyone in the house, apart from the house dimensions.

The result was a specially designed ramp for the entrance of the house, and a 3D prototype for a mechanism that could help Pamela move the wheelchair with one hand.

Pamela’s bathroom, the family had to carry her to that chair in order to bath her, the process took at least two hours

Specially designed ramps that were put at the entrance of the house. Before this, Pamela had to enter through the kitchen door and the other side of the house.

This is Pamela, as we’re taking her anthropometrical measures

Design sketches i made for the 3D prototype mechanism.

The most complex piece of the proposed wheelchair mechanism.

After one of our proposed designs, the family changed the shower floor and chair, and reduced the time spent to 40 minutes.