Lusha`s ph.d. research

1.1 Personal Motivation

There is a very personal background to this research. I was raised by my grandparents in their home in mainland China. Being a renowned professor in ophthalmology, my grandfather is specialising in ocular fundus diseases. I witnessed hundreds of patients making a special trip to my grandfather’s home. Time after time, I observed the profound appreciation expressed by his patients after their vision had been restored. It made me realise how critical the faculty of sight is to everyone.

Having graduated in industrial and interaction design, I was previously an industrial designer, designing consumer products such as Polycom, Belkin at Pip Tompkins Studio in Los Angeles. On a business trip to the CES (Consumer Electronic Show) in Las Vegas, I encountered hundreds of electronic products being presented at the show. It made me think that designers should put considerable effort into designing products to let normal people live better. However, merely a small number of products are designed especially for the visually impaired people. Consequently, this motivated me to explore the needs of people with visual impairment by striving to level the playing field, and redress the experience balance, between sighted and visually impaired individuals. One of the underlying areas of the examination was to explore the psychological landscape which gives rights to experience enhancing iOS applications.