Preference clustering reveals divergent pathways for transfer-board design in a Living-Lab co-design study.

Area of Science:

• Rehabilitation Engineering
• Human Factors Engineering
• Assistive Technology Design

Background:

• Transfer boards have high abandonment rates due to a mismatch between current designs and user needs.
• Decades of iterative design refinements have not improved transfer board adoption metrics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if wheelchair users' transfer board preferences are convergent or divergent.
• To identify distinct user segments with specific transfer board design priorities.

Main Methods:

• A mixed-methods Living Lab study combined qualitative focus groups and quantitative preference mapping.
• Twenty-eight wheelchair users participated in focus groups, followed by a 44-user questionnaire on transfer board preferences.
• Hierarchical clustering identified user segments, with ANOVA examining cluster differences.

Main Results:

• Three distinct user clusters with divergent preferences emerged: technology-embracing (18%), simplicity-focused (23%), and intermediate (59%).
• The technology-embracing group favored advanced features, while the simplicity-focused group rejected them.
• Significant interactions confirmed non-convergent preference structures across user segments.

Conclusions:

• Wheelchair transfer board users are segmented into three groups with distinct, mutually exclusive design priorities.
• Developing parallel strategies for each segment, rather than optimizing a single universal design, may reduce abandonment rates.
• Findings challenge the single-product optimization paradigm for transfer board design.