Olivia Murry, a former Next Steps student. has Down Syndrome and scoliosis, complained of back pain from carrying her heavy backpack all over the Vanderbilt campus. When she took my Costume Design class, the students engaged in the human centered design process to conceptualize and design a more back-friendly bag for Olivia. We found the BackTPack, designed by a physical therapist. I modified the straps to better fit Olivia’s proportions, and attached patches of her favorite sports teams to make the bag more customized to her. The bag helped Olivia’s back, but she did not feel cool carrying it so did not continue to use it. The project demonstrated that form meeting function in design is a difficult balance. We were thankful to Olivia for giving the well-designed BackTPack a chance!

We also tried the bag for Kristi van Wulven, but it was a tight squeeze in her walker. I customized the fit of the straps on her own back pack to fit her better and give her more stability.

Sometimes adapting existing items through even seemingly minor modifications can make a big difference.