Over the spring semester of my junior year I took a class called D-Lab: Design. The class pairs groups of students with an industry partner to address a design challenge. Myself and another student worked with owners of a bicycle shop in Virginia to design bike helmets that could accommodate larger hairstyles, with a specific focus on hair of the African diaspora. Over the course of the semester we interviewed stakeholders, underwent design reviews, and designed and prototyped many different concepts, all of which we compiled into a final deliverables folder that was shared with our project partner.
One of the concepts we prototyped was dividing the helmet into multiple sections that could be wrapped around the head and cinched together.
We also sought out input from our instructors to generate designs. One of the concepts they suggested was dividing the helmet into many smaller parts that could wrap around the head like a web.
Another group that contributed to our project were recent graduates of the SASA College of Industrial Design (SCiD) in Uganda. They suggested a concept for a folding helmet secured with straps.
