CareerCup

For Designing and developing any product, There are three different aspects that need to be taken care of -:
(1) Usability -: Usability means that who is our target segment and how they are going to use our product, In this case our target segment specifically is blind users . So definitely we have to focus on the features that can provided only for the blind person with outmost priority than secondly we can think of beautification and other features for the product . Important features that i can think of is
(a) -: Speech Recognition for Start , Stop and temperature change or fix, Time Set
(b) -: It should be of light weight, If blind person have to change the position of the microwave, It should not be trouble some for him . So set some benchmark for product development so that strategies can be developed around it for development
(c) -: It should be run by battery and chargeable because Its will always be difficult for the blind person to search for the electric plugs for running the microwave .

(2) - : Timelines & Calculate the approximate efforts -: With all these features onhand in a priority order, We have to check with the engineering teams and QA team to find out the max number of days it would be needed for developing these features .and calculate the amount of effort accordingly

For example -:
Speech recognition development will take 30 days and with 3 engineers and 3 QA Testers working continuously . So calculate the effort accordingly and approximate it. In this case if i assume 15K (Per month) So total expenditure will be some where around 90K .

Similarly calculate the effort for all the feature and than plan its development according to the priority

(3) -: Product Launch -:
So you should be confident about the product feature that you will providing while launching the product and proper plan for the product life cycle in terms of any subsequent product will be launched with different product feature .

Make it like a locker in the bottom of the fridge. Just pull the locker, put the food,and wait for the buzzer to sound when it finishes.

The user interface should be based on speech recognition.

Just use braille code on the keys. Blind people are not stupid.

It can be like a normal microwave where the buttons text can be in the Braille script. Most microwave already have unique sounds for when the microwave is running and when the microwave time has elapsed. One good feature for the blind be that the microwave could speak out the cooking time set by the blind user for confirmation.

In consideration of final cost, microwave should not equip with some function too fantasy such as having machine arm and AI to find food and intake food. The blinds can't see, but they can smell, listen and touch. So microwave could alarm when the blind speak the word 'microwave' loudly than what what DBs. This can lead the blind to the microwave. Also, the blind can also speak out the time set by the blind for confirmation.

Keys need to be large and got to have braille but every control needs to have sounds associated with it.
For eg. if the door is left open then it should beep. Every button press should affirm the number or action that's associated with it.
But in my opinion the 2 biggest problems that need to be solved for accessibility are
(1) How to alert for spills. How will a blind person know that the food they were heating had a spill. There has to be a way to announce the temperature of the container inside the microwave such that the user doesn't burn their hand while grabbing the dish

(2) Fire issues: In case the user puts something in the microwave that sparks, there needs to be a safety shut off at the first spark. If we could connect it to the internet then it could tie into the home alarm system or notify someone via IoT messaging.