Prints (0)

Description

The Product:

Color Comboz is a tactile 3D color wheel and board game. While people with visual impairments have different ways of comprehending color, the aim of the color wheel is to help them use color effectively, understanding which colors go together, which colors contrast, etc. This is important for partaking in arts and crafts, feeling confident in the clothes you are wearing, the nail varnish you are using, the make-up you are wearing, and countless other areas. Each color is represented by a different shape and the different shades are represented by different heights. It comes with different attachments that teach color combinations and turn the wheel into a board game.

The Vision:

I envision a future range of open source products related to helping the visually impaired to use color effectively and confidently, and this color wheel could be the core learning instrument from which these future products are developed. Using a mixture of shapes and braille allows the product to be used by both braille readers and non-braille readers, and elements like the shapes and shade heights could be transferred to other future open source designs. Imagine giving this product to kids to play and learn with, and as they get older they can use products that incorporate the same elements, like clothes tags or make-up lids, so that they can always feel confident about wearing different colors and combining different colors in their work and play. 

Learning through play (please see storyboards):

Color Comboz is designed to be an inclusive game, bringing together kids both with and without visual impairments. It incorporates a number of fun and tactile game-like uses. Using the pegs, it teaches kids the basics of shapes (with the option for speed assembly games), and teaches kids different color combinations by dropping different attachments onto the center circle. Kids can see and/or feel which colors are complementary, triadic and analogous. Remove the combo attachments, add the arrow attachment and play a game inspired by UNO and Twister to reinforce lessons learned. For example, each player gets 6 or 9 pegs, each turn they spin the arrow and they can put down a peg matching the color the arrow lands on. They can put down an extra peg if they can name the color combo it creates. First one to get rid of all their pegs wins!

Note: My printing tests are all in blue as this was all I could get my hands on in college. If using the product with non visually-impaired users, the wheel and pegs may have to be printed in different colors and shades, or the parent/teacher could print them in one color and cover them in paint or color paper.

Also, I designed the product to be printable by low-end printers and to fit within their printing beds as these are much more common and less expensive to use than higher end ones. For this reason the braille is scaled up by 1.5 times and the product is relatively compact.

Print settings:

Printer: Ultimaker 2+

Nozzle & Material: 0.4mm PLA

Profile: Fast Print - 0.15mm

Infill: 18% Speed: Print = 60mm/s     Travel = 150mm/s

Higher settings can be used but I do not believe there is any need.

Design Files

File Size

Blue small.STL
1.55 MB
Color wheel.STL
32.7 MB
Green medium.STL
1.97 MB
Complementary combo.STL
11.9 MB
Orange tall.STL
1.45 MB
Purple medium.STL
1.59 MB
Purple small.STL
1.59 MB
Purple tall.STL
1.59 MB
Triadic combo.STL
26 MB
Red small.STL
1.5 MB
Red tall.STL
1.5 MB
Yellow medium.STL
1.45 MB
Yellow small.STL
1.45 MB
Red medium.STL
1.5 MB
Yellow tall.STL
1.45 MB
Green tall.STL
1.94 MB
Orange medium.STL
1.45 MB
Orange small.STL
1.45 MB
Analagous combo.STL
9.3 MB
Arrow.STL
7 MB
Blue medium.STL
1.55 MB
Green small.STL
2.04 MB
Blue tall.STL
1.55 MB

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