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How we developed the design guidance

How was this guidance developed, and why are disabled people so important in the design process?

How did we develop this design guidance?

Everything in this design guidance has been directly influenced by what disabled drivers and passengers, and those close to them have told us first-hand.

We are grateful for the feedback from over 200 Motability Scheme customers who shared their views with us throughout the work.

This design guidance was developed by the charity Designability in partnership with Motability Foundation (opens in a new window).

It’s really important to be involved in this process as a disabled person, because we are getting our views heard

Motability Scheme customer
Photo of a man backstage at a photography studio sitting on a chair resting his hand on the top of a metal walking stick in front of him. He is having a conversation with one of Designability’s researchers who sits facing towards him.

Our design process

Here we describe the design process that led to this guidance.

 

1. Research – Finding out about Electric Vehicle (EV) charging

Our researchers were new to this sector, so our design team learned all about EV charging.

2. Listen – Understanding the challenges

We spoke directly to disabled drivers and passengers, and those close to them, to find out their experiences, hopes and concerns about EV charging and related topics.

3. Design – Developing design concepts

We developed some early design ideas for accessible public EV charging, based on our conversations.

4. Listen – Gathering feedback about concepts

We gathered feedback from people to find out what they liked and did not like about the design concepts, to help us to validate and improve them.

5. Build – Creating prototypes

We finalised the designs based on the feedback, then created physical models (prototypes) to help us describe the design concepts. Explore our charging unit prototypes.

6. Listen – Testing the prototypes and obtaining feedback

We gathered in-person feedback about the prototypes to check if we needed to make any changes, and to find out who could be helped by the different designs.

7. Distill – Creating this guidance

We created this online design guidance to share the rich knowledge that we gathered within the project.