This ‘third thumb’ is the unnecessary prosthetic of my dreams
Here’s a snippet from another article from Mashable as well:
According to Clode’s graduate exhibition description, she found that the origin of the word prosthesis meant “an addition to.” But that over time, the meaning seems to have morphed into being a way to fix a broken body. Clode wanted to change this perception. “I feel that prosthetics are extensions to the body,” Clode said. “Our societal norms of what a ‘normal’ body has generated an idea of perfect body aesthetic, but this is evolving.”
As designers, I think often our mental state is to constantly solve problems. We are trained to be good at identifying problems, understanding customer pains, brainstorming solutions, executing on solutions.
I thought this was neat in the sense that this idea came about not by assessing user problems or pains and coming up with a solution, not by looking to create something assistive and accessible, but rather creating an extension of one’s current and existing abilities.
When we find ourselves thinking up of solutions without a problem, maybe we should just stop over-analyzing and go ahead and test it out with some customers. It’d be interesting to see if we’d uncover any new problems or challenges, if any, and what we could amplify, or extend, or improve. Perhaps this is the first step to how innovation is born.