How can we create, safer, more inclusive and accessible BDSM gear?
14/9
Today, as I was talking to my tutor about all my challenges and uncertainty as I am someone who works back from a deadline, I was quite keen on getting feedback around how to proceed and what other aspects my project involves, I realised a few more aspects which are important which is the aesthetics of it, as well as it’s appeal to daily wear and fashion, as well as how this intervention or the rest of my course informs my overall career, and I want to be able to maximise this workshop to be able to resonate with my overall process and methodology to be followed right now, and I think human-centered design is a good framework, since it gives the users power over the products and what they want and require and what they need, but I also have to keep in mind to structure the workshop around it to be able to understand and encapsulate the human experience, and also make the participants think about it and their experience with the product and having to provoke that thought in them is important, and also thinking about to what extent are they going to be interested in giving me their prototypes for a finished product and if they’d want to see a clean finished version of this product, because this product helps both the consumer and me as a researcher in a initial design stage to analyse, evaluate and understand consumer wants and needs, and another important thing which was pointed out to me was that making sure that I target audience who require special needs and have access requirements for BDSM gear, and this requires careful crafting of the message to be put up on FetLife, and also on whatsapp groups, instagram and so on, but overall I think following the methodology in “Innovating with people the business of inclusive design / editor-in-chief and author Onny Eikhaug, Norwegian Design Council, 2012.” but also research into other case studies of HCD in different sectors and the methodologies which have worked for them!
15/10
Today, I discussed my project with Betti Marenko, who’s a lecturer on the design department, and she provided some context into how I can liase multiple aspects of community building, product design, development, and awareness around disability and BDSM, and when I had mentioned my project and potential collaborations and they thought it was important for people to know that they do have resources and support to enable and work through their fears, anxieties and worries as well. I had also discussed about my problems and concerns around communicating with stakeholders since it is important to use the right terms and behave properly in a way to make everyone feel welcome and considerate, as a facilitator and moderator at this workshop, but I think it would be interesting to include Enhance at this workshop as well, and see if that would work!, they also suggested to start with entire a small topology of disability or products, but I think starting with a small topology of products would be good to get some feedback and work our ways through these products and design them to be more accessible and inclusive as well as safer, and I should definitely structure my workshop accordingly! Definitely posting on Fetlife today, and spreading the word around for the workshop and having a deadline of 25/10 should be good! Co-creation workshop advert, this advert makes me so anxious since I’ve always dreamt of being an entrepreneur, and this workshop is probably the first step to making it happen in terms of action, and it makes me so anxious like I want it to be perfect and don’t want things to go bad or wrong, even though things do go bad and wrong which is part of how life works and how research and business goes, but I hope for the best and I am trying to stay optimistic, but on the other hand I think I see some more organisations working around BDSM and disability and creating products to enhance or support the lifestyles, which is absolutely lovely!
For the advert I used the help of ChatGPT to generate the image and some text, and I find it interesting about the image it generated for the workshop, as it has people in harnesses? For some reason people are naked and wearing harnesses to a vanilla event, which isn’t quite normally how things happen, but overall it’s definitely a good image, and I think it’d be quite interesting to try and see if I could get some products from any of the companies who’re willing to collaborate for my typology to have some ice-breakers and prompts for the event, but I guess I have to read up a lot and understand the principles in order to create this workshop, and I am hoping to get atleast 10 respondents to this event so that it is fruitful and hopefully Enhance will be able to collaborate!
22/10
Yay! I have 12/20 RSVP’s on the workshop and I’m kinda happy about it because it shows good interest, but I’d say a lot of participants came from when I posted on QK community and one of the person mentioned they have a friend who’d be really into it, and they posted it on their story on Instagram and they DM’d me for the workshop and it was refreshing to see so many people interested in the workshop, and on FetLife I have 7-10 people interested in going to the workshop, and I have denied people who have no information about them on their profile because they might be a catfish account or just someone who can’t put themselves, which makes for an awkward space and if they all rsvp going I’d have a full house, and it’d be good and shows that there’s importance around the topic and that the methodology works, and I have a certain diagram in terms of structure I am reiterating the structure I used in workshop 1.1 and 1.2 into one workshop, but in a more design thinking sense since most of the participants do not have a prior design knowledge or experience, and it has to be suitable to accommodate their needs and preferences.
During my tutorial I was encouraged to think about how there would be various alternatives to each activity to accommodate everyone’s thinking and style of communication, and making sure everyone is being able to put in their fullest and participate and I am going to look into it as well, and also estimate the cost of products if I’m interested in developing and selling them as it would be an essential question asked by most participants and I have to look into leather costs in London, and being able to provide an estimate from there, only at a material cost level, but I do feel like most of the people attending the workshop would have a decent disposable income to spend on their products since there is a correlation between income and exploration, but a pre-workshop questionnaire on their basic information would give me a better understanding of the market and people who’d buy these products, but in other terms I also came across pleasure garden who do accessible BDSM gear, but more in terms of support mechanisms and furniture sorta thing, but it’d be interesting to contact them and talk to them about their product range and so on!
I also have to look a bit into how to analyse design thinking and data a bit more deeper than what I already know, and I think it is important to make it as much as a design experience as much as possible for the participants, and I think it I would make a wholesome experience for the participants and also see how I could contact them after the workshop for a quick call about their experience about the workshop and how they felt and so on!
On the other hand, jared was kind enough to reimburse me for the stationery and printing costs for pinkypromise and I might propose a better idea for them to collaborate with them the next time!
24/10
I made a mock workshop book to do myself and see how a participant would feel, but I am unable to imagine an alternative to the book, which is much more accessible to people, and I also structured it out allotting the most time to ideating and prototyping (40 mins each) and ideation and definition are allotted 30 mins, and 2 breaks of 5min and 10 mins each, I hope I am able to stick to this format, but otherwise also hoping to extend only 30 mins beyond! I also imagine I’ll be guiding a lot of people in navigating the process and helping them express their ideas! I think I have designed the mock book to gather most of my data for me, like in terms of what they’d change and why as well as their reflections on the process, I would also offer the option of creating the product for them, but when do I do that is the question to be answered and I can’t think of a better time than the start, since it could either be an incentive or it might not! I have also sent mail to Sasha, an expert stakeholder to see if they’re interested in joining the workshop to get some expert feedback on the process and journey! I also checked into Enhance, and turns out I missed their mail since it went into another folder but they’re happy to collaborate as well, which is lovely and might be able to pass the information to the right people, this seems like good news since it enhances the quality of a major intervention and makes the most out of it as well!
I am going to explore various alternatives to the handbook, but I am going to have to make a small list of materials I need to buy before the workshop, and I am looking into buying satin ribbons which are wide as an alternative for fabric so that people can prototype easily since most of the products are around strappy width in general so would be easier to do so!
OHH, a padlet could be a digital version of the workshop book, and maybe people who’re more comfortable online can use the padlet or even Canva board!
Recently, during Dragon’s Den, it was pointed out that people who’d attend workshops are still able-bodied to a certain extent and I should look into how I could incorporate this model in an online mode and I think this is something I could explore when I move further in this direction and have a better framework and understanding of process, but it was definitely a good input,
I also have to make a pre-workshop form to be able to collect demographic and user data prior to the workshop so that it’s easier to analyse, evaluate and incorporate into the report, but somehow I have a feeling that I’ve come a full circle with where I am at right now, in the sense that I wanted to do products around kink, but with Box of uncertainties I felt a stronger pull with kink-shaming and exploration, and so on, and eventually I am at products in a very different sense but I have this understanding and knowledge around the community which I previously did not, and this makes me so happy and feel like I am doing something worthwhile! I also have to go look at books on analysing design-thinking to help me compile data and look at things which might not be so obvious!
30/10
The day before the workshop, which is on 28/10, I felt very overwhelmed and anxious about the workshop, and prior to that I did send out a survey to analyse and understand the participants and created a book for the workshop for the participants to design their own BDSM gear, but I had 6 products to make it easier to analyse and understand, which was a choker & leash, handcuffs, paddle, riding crop, ankle cuffs and mouth gag, and on the day of the workshop, people who had RSVP’d weren’t doing well or had to work and couldn’t attend, which now I understand is a limitation and should do the workshop online and probably on a weekend as well so that people would be interested in attending the workshop as well!
12 people had RSVP’d to the workshop and this was after a vetting process done to ensure people with accessible needs actually came to the workshop, because I had people sending messages to book slots, who had thought it was a crafting workshop, or they were interested in it because they were kinky and creatives, or they were a designer and so on, which isn’t what the workshop is, and it’s a simple question reading, “Hi, thanks for your interest, can you tell me a bit about why you wanna attend this workshop?” And this question acts a simple vetting tool and goes a long way to ensure that people who have accessibility issues come to the workshop, and on the day of the workshop, there were 3 people other than me, which is still a start and I think it shows proof of concept to a certain extent, alongside other limitations and things to improve which are that I should consider online options and host during the weekends!
On the other side, I think the participants engaged with the activities, and they were bouncing ideas off each other, and looking for so many different methods of closures and so on to understand what would work, and had so many brilliant ideas, and they were able to keep up until ideation, but after that they thought it was over when I brought out the ribbons and fabrics for prototyping, thank God for the idea of buying ribbons which is what most people had used, and 10 minutes into the workshop I felt awkward and sat down to do it myself rather than standing around and it turned into a bit more chill vibe and everyone was chatting and there wasn’t really a need for a break, which was great since we finished early, but overall the insights were really nice and helpful, and I will be checking in with them next week, when they’ve also had some time to process it, but all of them had mentioned that they would like to see the prototypes made into products, and I think I should make a database around what these people preferred and I think we will see some common patterns emerging when I engage with more people, since one of the participants mentioned that even though they had similar problems with the products, their implementation and aesthetics would be completely since it depended on various factors like sensitivity, likeness for pain/pleasure and personal style and other values such as sustainability, since this was also something they had talked about when I had asked about material would they make that in and the response was that leather is rather hard and stiff, and so they would want something more softer, but still durable, and another interesting development was interchangeable linings so that it can worn outside of play as well and VELCRO and POPPERS were a BIG NO, cause it wasn’t sexy and I agree, I wouldn’t wanna be in a play scene and have velcro come off, it’d be a big turn-off for everyone around me, and embarrassing for me as well, like so embarrassing and looks do matter, like how sexy it is or even when one uses it how sexy it is, and one was interested in it being vegan leather since in their opinion it is softer and their friend circle is mostly vegan and uses vegan products and it affects their choice, but another participant said even if they were vegan in dietary preference, they wouldn’t go so far as to the extent of using “plastic” products in the name of veganism and so on, which also makes me also think about sustainability and alternative materials and how some people would prefer alternative materials based off their circles, and also we touched upon faux fur as a material, so this is where it got a bit tricky is that they’d prefer real fur, purchased from vintage stores over faux fur so is it also a matter of hand-me downs and circularity and so on? They also brought up an interesting point about products being made to ensure they’re able to get them off by themselves in a scene, if they feel uncomfortable and their partner didn’t listen to them, which is important and I think this is where safer products come in, as well as ensuring they’re all body-safe and work for bondage and impact whilst being safer for the person it is being used upon! I think really developing and pricing them according to their responses in the questionnaire is important!
In today’s class around Holistic view, we had different checklist prompts and we did them and I have attached them below here:
Unit four assessment checklist
- I have arrived at my current question through previous interventions, observations, personal experiences, market research, surveys, expert and stakeholder feedback and academic sources!
- Action research, Human-centered design and co-design are the key methodologies, and they’re in direct relation to my question because kink is very human, personal and different for everyone and hence participatory methods to ensure better product experience and satisfaction! Add gender studies and so on
- I think I have a decent understanding of the context of my RQ, but I would like to dig deeper and have better socio-cultural understanding around my field!
- Yes, my interventions around creating safer spaces alongside personal observations, market research and surveys have informed my current question
- Professional feedback from Eunice Hung, Sasha Damajanowski, Betti Marenko, Jared from PinkyPromise, Jennie from Enhance
- Feedback from stakeholders who’ll benefit from this change and how they feel it would impact them!
- Yes, I have incorporated feedback I have received from my previous interventions into the current questions and interventions!
- Yes, I have taken informed consent from all participants, and do not record conversations during interventions due to the personal nature of topic and questions surrounding it.
- As a result of my research, I think I have the potential to change the way BDSM gear is thought about, designed and made and help the community be more inclusive
- After the course, I would like to continue this work as a small business and see where it takes me!
Unit four Project checklist
- Yes, id like to think I have, which is how I want to continue this one after uni
- I’m not sure what “local” and “tourist” here refers to, but if it’s about as an insider and outsider, my work is auto ethnographic in nature, so I am on the inside and outside, not so much on the inside in comparison to other people/stakeholders.
- Yes, as an insider I have an understanding of how my stakeholder group behaves and thinks, and their likes, dislikes and so on.
- Yes, I have engaged in activities/events to observe and understand
- Yes, I have engaged my user group/stakeholders in my project through co-design
- Yes, I have, and am yet to do more and gain better socio-cultural understanding.
- They have, mind-mapping, brainstorming and sketching out interventions and structuring them, have helped me match them with the gaps identified through the reflective and evaluative process, and try to bridge the gaps
- I have incorporated principles of action research and participatory design in my work.- ethics
- Yes, I can visualise and share my ideas
- I can present my ideas, and share the new knowledge that I have received from interventions
- Yes, prototyping and self-testing has informed the intervention design process to allow for better products to be made!
- Yes, testing the ideas with stakeholder groups, and I think the idea requires further testing and refinement
- Yes, I have from previous interventions and would require more feedback to develop them further!
- Human-centred design in itself is an iterative process, so maybe?
- I would not want to sell my idea literally, but I do see it happening in a commercial scale and would want to own it myself.- think about how to use it as a skillset for jobs!
- Yes, I can and hope to get feedback from them as well!
I think the important thing I have to think about here is how to make this project as a set of transferable skillset for various employers and potential future employers and so on, as well more reading to be able to contextualise my learnings and so on!