Adapt to the body.
Different patterns of grip, reach, and sensation require a system that can be calibrated rather than one fixed interaction.
Personal project · 2 months · Wearable device & UX
Accessex
An intimate experience designed to adapt to different bodies and abilities.
- Project
- Personal · research-led concept
- My role
- End-to-end designer
- Ownership
- Research · co-design · UI/UX · 3D modeling
- Making
- Arduino demo · prototyping · usability testing
00 · Challenge & ownership
Most products assume the body can meet them halfway.
Existing sexual-wellness products often depend on grip, reach, positioning, and sensation in ways that exclude people with paraplegia. This project asked how one adaptable system could support intimacy, pleasure, independence, and privacy together.
How might we create accessible and user-friendly sexual-wellness products for people with paraplegia, enabling intimacy and pleasure?
01 · Research into direction
Thirty-two perspectives changed the brief.
Surveys and one-to-one online interviews with 32 target users shifted the project from a single product toward an adaptive, multisensory experience. Sensitive participant details remain anonymized here.
Create a multisensory exchange.
Participants wanted an experience that felt responsive and personified, with more range than a single, isolated stimulus.
Protect independence and privacy.
Fetching, positioning, wearing, and adjusting the product all needed to work with less reliance on another person.
02 · Co-design & concept decision
From four separate ideas to one connected system.
I invited interviewees into brainstorms and focus groups, then compared directions including a portable cabin, haptic glove, touching suit, and interactive controller. The final direction combined the strongest qualities rather than asking one object to solve every need.
- InputAn adaptable controller makes hand movement usable.
- ControlAn app calibrates ability, intensity, frequency, and heat.
- FeedbackA wearable layer distributes responsive sensation across the body.
03 · Final system
One loop.
Three touchpoints.
The experience begins with hand input, passes through calibration and adjustment, then returns as body feedback. Each component answers a different barrier revealed in research.
Adaptive Controller
Reads pressure and hand motion while returning light and vibration feedback.
Accessex App
Calibrates grip and gives one-finger access to preferences and adjustments.
Touching Suit
Fits tactile feedback across different body surfaces in a private wearable form.
04A · Adaptive Controller
Make small hand movements expressive.
A soft, textured sphere is designed around different hand shapes. Pressure sensing reads grip; vibration and breathing light return feedback. A 3D-printed ABS base allows the controller to mount to a wheelchair or another support.
Research barrierHolding, positioning, and sustaining use.Design responseAdaptable grip, multimodal feedback, and a mountable base.
04B · Touching Suit
A wearable layer designed for privacy, fit, and distributed sensation.
The one-piece outerwear is intended to be worn independently. Inflatable zones help tactile actuators conform to different body surfaces; a layered construction keeps the interaction logic visible and adjustable.
04C · Accessex App
Calibrate first.
Then personalize.
The app turns accessibility into part of the core flow. Controller Test establishes a usable grip range, Adjustments keeps intensity, frequency, and heat within one-finger reach, and Mode Selection stores interaction preferences.
05 · Prototype evidence
Interaction had to become physical before it could become believable.
I learned Arduino to build an interactive demo and tested how pressure, vibration, light, sound, and calibration could work across four moments of the experience.
06 · User testing & iteration
The prototype surfaced what the render could not.
Two earlier interview participants reviewed the final prototype for feasibility and fit. Their feedback did not become a success metric; it became the next design brief.
What I heard
The controller did not respond sensitively enough.
Design response
Increase sensor sensitivity and deepen pressure-sensing exploration.
What I heard
The controller felt slightly hard and difficult to hold.
Design response
Develop a softer form and material system around a wider range of hand abilities.
What I heard
The suit airbags could feel too tight.
Design response
Give the wearer direct control over inflation and fit.
07 · Outcome, limits & reflection
A direction worth testing further.
The project produced a connected wearable-and-app concept, 3D models, an Arduino interaction demo, and early usability evidence. It was not a launched or clinically validated product.
I learned how to build trust around a sensitive subject and carry research across physical product, interface, interaction, and system design.
Co-design made the work more accountable: participants shaped the problem, the concept decision, and the criteria used to judge the prototype.
Extend usability testing with a wider group, improve softness and sensor sensitivity, give wearers control over air pressure, and study wearability and cost.