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The user interface to the R1 radio is both familiar and unique. Roll up and down for volume or scroll left to right to tune. It's brilliant in its simplicity and rather stylish in a contoured minimalist design. [via GeekyGadgets]
An analog radio is one of most important product for a blind people. In the using a behavior of how people manipulated rather than burying all of interaction in to the product. So adjusting radio to the right station would require a new kind of manipulation rather than simply tuning a knob. 'R1' has designed for them to control the radio more intuitively. By using a wheel structure user can control the radio by physical movement. The 'R1' allowed users to turn gadget on or off and to control volume and tuning simply by physically rolling the radio forward, backward and sideways.
This really seems like bad industrial design to me.
Radios are often found on small tabletops and similar places, not a lot of room for roll-around-tuning. Plus, it looks like the speaker faces the surface that the radio is resting on? Seems like a good formula for muddled sound.
IMO, if a radio is so important for blind people (first time I've heard that, most radio broadcasts in the US are useless these days) it would seem to make more sense to ensure the radio remains in a relatively fixed location, with 2 large and easily discernible knobs (volume and tuning). I think you'd also want some simple preset buttons.
I could envision (no pun intended) a blind person turning this radio on, and not being able to tell what station is was tuned to at first (until a station ID or personality voice is heard). So... do you roll left or right to find the station you want? How far do you roll?
What not just have 4 or 5 simple preset buttons, so that the user can at least get to a known reference point.
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I agree with brk. What's so hard about using a radio with two knobs? They would feel physically different (one smooth, one with ridges) to tell them apart. Alternatively, the volume could be a rotary knob while the tuning is a slider, so the person using it has a reference point to help tune in stations.
To push this into the realm of true "useability" you could build a radio with digital tuning, with the numbers replaced by pegs that stick up to read out the current station in braille.
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I like the design but wouldn't the wheels for side to side motion resist movement up and down, and vice-versa? Sounds like a job for omniwheels.
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