Product design question
Design a blender for the visually impaired.
- Microsoft
- Product design
- Medium
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What this question tests
Accessibility-first physical product design, focusing on safety and tactile or audio feedback rather than a visual UI.
How to approach it
- Identify the core risks: not knowing ingredient or liquid levels, not seeing speed settings, and safety risk from blades if assembly is wrong.
- Design tactile controls: raised, distinctly-shaped physical buttons or a rotary dial with tactile clicks per speed setting, not a touch panel.
- Add audio feedback: a spoken or tonal confirmation of the selected setting and a completion sound so the user knows when blending is done.
- Address safety: a lid-lock sensor that won't run unless correctly sealed, preventing spills or blade exposure, confirmed via a distinct cue.
- Define success as unaided blend completion rate in testing with visually impaired participants, and safety-incident rate as a guardrail.
What a strong answer includes
- Solves for tactile and audio feedback specifically, not just 'bigger buttons,' addressing the real lack of visual reference.
- Treats safety, lid-lock and blade exposure, as a first-class requirement given the higher risk for this user group.
- Names a real usability metric, unaided completion rate, tied to testing with the target user group.
Common mistakes
- Designing a touchscreen interface, the wrong modality entirely for a visually impaired user.
- Not addressing physical safety risk, more consequential here than a typical accessibility redesign.
Likely follow-up questions
- How would you test this design with actual visually impaired users before manufacturing?
- How would you price this without making it prohibitively expensive compared to a standard blender?
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Learn the skill behind it
Chapters of the AI PM course that teach what this question tests.
- Chapter 4: Discovery and strategy for AI products
- Chapter 7: AI UX and human oversight: design for a system that is wrong sometimes
- Chapter 14: Get the job: the AI PM interview loop