If you’re a regular seeing person, you probably don’t have an issue when it comes to recognizing the cutlery placed on the table, whether you’re eating in or dining out. But for those that are visually impaired, it can sometimes be a challenge. You can’t really recognize the cutlery by touching the handle. You need to touch the head but it can lead to some hygiene issues.
Designer: Ho Hyun Lim
Tactil is the concept for a cutlery set that is created specifically for those that are visually impaired. The problem it wants to solve is to let people know what cutlery they are picking up just by touching the handle, not needing to touch the head of the spoon, fork, or knife to know what they are without risking getting infections.
The basic idea is to add tactile lines to the back of the cutlery which will give intuitive feedback to the user. The character lines on the handle are designed according to the utensil it is. The spoon has a gently raised curve since it is used to scoop food. The form meanwhile has indented holes since it mostly does the piercing action. Lastly, the knife has a sharp, linear pattern to symbolize the slicing motion you do with it.
The three are of course the most basic cutlery you would need. Now the challenge would be if you’re at a multiple-course dinner where you need to use more kinds of cutlery. There could of course be more character lines but also more things for people to memorize.
