My Thesis: Out of Sight

For my bachelor thesis, I researched how tactile design could support visually impaired people in public and commercial spaces. I chose this topic because it gave design a direct opportunity to become physical, useful, and socially relevant.

The project, titled Out of Sight, focused on wall patterns for inclusive wayfinding. I began by studying existing accessibility solutions for blind and visually impaired people, including people with reduced visual acuity.

Early interviews helped me understand that tactile solutions are useful only when they respect how people actually move, search, and interact with their surroundings.

Through those conversations, I learned that braille is not always the most accessible solution. Some people prefer auditory information in certain contexts, while others value braille when privacy matters, such as at a bank or around personal information.

These interviews showed that one solution cannot serve every situation. Tactile design has to be clear, limited, and context-aware.

I began the design process with sketches. They helped me translate interview insights into possible forms, patterns, and tactile markers. From there, I built physical prototypes to test how different materials, shapes, and relief levels could be felt and interpreted.

The first prototypes were made with laser cutting, 3D printing, and HDF boards. Some versions were too thin, too small, too expensive, or too difficult to produce. Others worked better, especially when the shapes could be read with multiple fingers.

A major turning point came when I connected the project to a supermarket context. After visiting Colruyt and measuring their price tags, I decided that the final product should fit into a similar scale and use a comparable sliding mechanism.

Further interviews confirmed the importance of strong contrast in both colour and form. Participants responded positively to clear shapes and tactile differences, but some versions lacked enough visual contrast.

After several iterations, I returned to 3D printing and built more accurate models in Blender. I refined the boards, adjusted spacing, added clearer icons, and included a small braille keyword.

The final prototypes combined dark boards with lighter tactile elements, aiming for stronger contrast and better readability. Although the braille was not yet readable in the printed version, the shapes and visual contrast were received positively during the final feedback sessions.

Out of Sight became a design research project about listening, testing, and adapting. Instead of assuming what accessibility should look like, the project developed through repeated conversations with visually impaired participants and through prototypes that could be touched, criticised, and improved.