Product design question
Design a shower for the blind.
- Product design
- Hard
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What this question tests
Inclusive design fundamentals: can you design a real product around a specific accessibility need rather than bolting accessibility onto a standard design.
How to approach it
- Define the user precisely, assume a person who is blind or has significant low vision, and identify their real risks in a shower, disorientation, uneven water temperature detection, and finding controls or products by feel.
- Prioritize safety and spatial orientation first, since falls and scalding are the most serious risks, above convenience features.
- Design core elements: tactile, distinctly shaped controls with a fixed, memorable temperature preset, and raised or textured markers indicating shampoo versus soap dispensers to avoid confusion by feel.
- Add an audio or haptic layer, a voice announcement or vibration confirming water temperature before it reaches the body, and a grab bar layout consistent enough to build spatial memory.
- Consider non visual navigation cues, consistent floor texture changes marking zones like the entry and the water stream area, so users can orient without sight.
- Define success through direct usability testing with blind users on task completion, safety incidents, and independence, since this population's needs cannot be inferred from sighted assumptions alone.
What a strong answer includes
- Grounds every design choice in the specific sensory experience of blindness, tactile and audio cues, rather than a generic accessible bathroom checklist.
- Prioritizes safety risks specific to this user, scalding and disorientation, over convenience or aesthetics.
- Insists on testing directly with blind users, recognizing sighted assumptions cannot substitute for their real experience.
Common mistakes
- Designing a generic accessible shower with grab bars and calling it done, without addressing blindness specifically.
- Skipping direct usability testing with the actual target user group.
Likely follow-up questions
- How would this design differ for someone with low vision versus total blindness?
- How would you validate the temperature safety mechanism before shipping?
More product design questions
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- How do you design a camera for the elderly?Google · Product design · Medium
- Redesign Twitter for eCommerce.Shopify · Product design · Hard
- How would you go about designing a new location sharing app for Google?Google · Product design · Medium
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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