“Last year, I bought a new cell phone (the latest model) for my mom, but the button is too small to push for her and she hardly uses other functions than dialing and receiving a call.” (Female, Asian, age 30, 5´7˝, 140 lb.)

Many of us consider the gadgets we use and the vehicles we drive to be some of our most prized possessions. Whether we realize it or not, their design has an enormous impact on the quality of our lives. Consider the number of hours per day and the amount of money you spend on your smartphone, on your computer, and on your car. Keeping up with the latest and greatest gadgets amounts to a large chunk of our lives and a significant portion of our incomes.

Recall the instant when you first laid eyes on your most prized possession. For many of us, whether in a showroom, on a website, or gazing over a stranger's shoulder, it was love at first sight. We were starstruck, under the designers’ magic spell.

Ironically, our lives have been transformed by the introduction of high-tech toys that we may never have heard of a decade or two ago but can't live without today. Smartphones in our hands and global positioning systems in our cars now seem indispensable. The high-tech revolution has proceeded so rapidly that a myriad of new products are placed on the market daily. Yet many of these products contain gender, age, or body biases that work against us. Some of these biases result in serious dangers not only to the people who use them but to society at large. And a large portion of our population feels as if the high-tech age has left them behind. Whether we're at home, at work, out on the road, or on the golf course, the digital world has opened up new possibilities for some but continues to disempower others.

SMARTPHONES, DIGITAL CAMERAS, PERSONAL COMPUTERS, HOME ELECTRONICS

Over the past two decades, the number of cell-phone users has skyrocketed. The United Nations International Telecommunications Union reported that in 2015 the number of mobile cellular subscribers was over seven billion worldwide, up from less than one billion in 2000. While in 2000 the mobile penetration rate was only 12 percent, by 2015 it had reached a whopping 97 percent.1

The design and use of cell phones may affect men more adversely than women. While women are more likely to carry cell phones in their purse, men tend to keep cell phones in their pockets, perhaps dangerously close to their reproductive organs. Research has shown that when in the “talk” mode, cell phones may adversely affect sperm, especially among men who used cell phones for more than four hours a day. Studies have documented a wide spectrum of possible effects from the use of cell phones, ranging from insignificant effects to varying degrees of testicular damage.² Researchers at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom led a meta-analysis of ten studies analyzing 1,492 total semen samples from experimental lab studies with sperm samples to observational studies in humans. They found a small but consistent drop in quality of men's samples that had been exposed to mobile phone radiation—but no link between mobile phone radiation and an actual drop in fertility rates.³ Skeptics of the links between cell phone use and male fertility abound.⁴ To date, the mode of action of electromagnetic waves emitted from cell phones on the male reproductive system remains unclear. Scientists are continuing to study this issue. And the jury is still out on whether long-term use of cell phones by men and women may lead to brain tumors or other forms of cancer.⁵

Today's typical cell phone design can pose special problems for the elderly and people with reduced dexterity. The compact keypad makes it all too easy for someone with large fingers to hit the wrong button. And many people with rheumatoid arthritis have trouble using cell phones. Small display screens and tiny font sizes strain the eyes of people with even minor farsightedness. Elaborate navigational menus and multiple-function keys can be especially confusing for elderly people. For the same reasons, many elderly people struggle to use other portable electronic devices, such as digital cameras.

Some designers are attempting to remedy these problems by creating cell phones designed specifically for the elderly. Some products offer bigger, backlit buttons; bright, large text; and a powerful speaker that sounds loud and clear. Other phones feature large spaces between adjacent keys on the keypad to reduce instances of pressing the wrong button and to optimize visibility of character digits on the key. They have large display screens, some jumbo integer keys, fewer technological function keys and a “HELP” key on the reverse side of the phone to call for medical or rescue service.

Cell phones have also been designed to improve women's health. The Grameen Foundation's Mobile Midwife Program sends women daily text messages and weekly voicemails to advise them during pregnancy and during the first year of a child's life. UNICEF's 1,000 Days program provides mothers with nutritional recommendations through pregnancy and the first two years of a child's life.6

Cell-phone safety while driving has long been a contentious issue. Increasingly complex smartphone designs allow users to watch videos, share photos, send e-mail and text messages, select and listen to music, and download applications and ringtones, as well as make phone calls. Such activities magnify the dangers of using a cell phone while driving. As of 2010, the National Safety Council estimates that every year at least 1.6 million motor vehicle accidents—25 percent of all accidents—involve drivers using cell phones, with a minimum of two hundred thousand accidents caused by drivers who text.⁷ Research demonstrates that drivers talking on cell phones are four times as likely as other drivers to crash, and drivers texting on cell phones are eight times as likely to crash. Because cell-phone use in conjunction with accidents is highly underreported—police often rely on drivers to admit to using cell phones, and many drivers are not forthcoming; others are seriously injured or killed, so their phone use at the time of the accident remains unknown—the magnitude of this threat is probably much larger than we think, and current laws are likely not strong enough to protect the public from this deadly epidemic.8

Driving while speaking on a cell phone—whether hands-free or not—is a major distraction for drivers of all ages, but especially for teenagers and the elderly. The American Automobile Association Foundation for Traffic Safety conducted some of the most comprehensive research to date into crash videos of teen drivers and found that distracted driving is a much more serious problem than we had thought. Researchers analyzed the six seconds leading up to a crash in almost seventeen hundred videos of teen drivers taken from in-vehicle event recorders. Results showed that distraction was a factor in over half (58 percent) of all crashes studied, including 89 percent of road-departure crashes and 76 percent of rear-end crashes. Prior to this study, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had estimated that distraction was a factor in only 14 percent of all teen driver crashes. Of the distractions leading up to a crash, cell-phone use was the second most common, accounting for 12 percent of crashes, right behind interacting with other passengers at 15 percent.⁹

University of Utah psychology professor Dave Strayer and his research team have published numerous studies based on simulated driving conditions showing that hands-free cell phones are no less dangerous than handheld cell phones. They also found that talking on a cell phone impairs driving ability just as much as having a 0.08 percent blood alcohol level (the legal limit for driving in all states), and when young adults talk on cell phones while driving, their reaction times become as slow as those of senior citizens.¹⁰

As of June 2016, fourteen states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands prohibited drivers from talking on handheld cell phones while driving.¹¹ No state completely banned all types of cell phone use—handheld and hands-free—for all drivers, but several prohibited cell-phone use by certain segments of the population such as novice drivers and school bus drivers. Forty-six states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and Guam ban text messaging for all drivers. More than forty-five countries have banned handheld use of cell phones while driving.12

Cell phones aren't the only electronic devices that some men should be worried about. The heat generated from laptop computers may impact sperm production and development. Reproductive specialists at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine warn that laptops can impair male fertility when used directly on the lap as opposed to on a desk. Forty percent of fertility issues can be attributed to males; high temperature in the testicles that can damage or kill sperm is a major culprit. According to Suzanne Kavic, director of the division of reproductive endocrinology at Loyola University Health System, “The heat generated from laptops can impact sperm production and development making it difficult to conceive down the road.”¹³ Future fathers may best play it safe by placing their laptops on their desks.

What about personal computers and children? Here ergonomic design problems abound. When working at a desktop computer, ideally one's eye level should be at approximately two-thirds the height of the monitor. Yet many young children play with their parents’ computers, craning their necks and straining their backs to view the screen, possibly leading to long-term negative effects on their posture and physical development. The computer mouse is too large for tiny hands. Adjustable height monitors and child-size mice would help solve some of these problems.

DOLLARS AND CENTS

While the digital world has opened up new opportunities for people with physical disabilities—for example, visually impaired people can now communicate electronically through voice recognition software—the visually impaired continue to face daily problems with one of the most widely circulated objects of all: paper currency. While our American coins are all the same shape (round), they are different sizes. This allows blind people to distinguish one type of coin from another. But American paper bills are all the same shape and size.

When I went out to dinner with a friend who is blind, I was amazed to see her open her wallet and ask me to identify the bills she had with her. Much to my surprise, when I asked what she did when she was alone, she replied, “I try to mark them ahead of time with a clip, but sometimes I just open up my wallet and ask the waiter to help himself.”

SERVICE STATIONS AND PUMP HANDLES

For some drivers, gas stations can be problematic. With the exception of two states, New Jersey and Oregon, self-service gas stations have been the norm for at least two decades. Many able-bodied people with small or frail hands find it difficult to lift and squeeze heavy, wide gasoline nozzles. This is especially true for motorists in California and other urban areas where smog is a problem, and where use of a vapor recovery nozzle, with a bulky rubber boot that fits directly over the vehicle's fill valve, has been required since 1994.14 In 2013, the US Environmental Protection Agency eliminated the requirement for vapor recovery nozzles, as all vehicles manufactured after 2006 have vapor recovery technology onboard. States have the option to do away with vapor recovery systems at the pump, but many gas stations still have them.¹⁵

For drivers with disabilities, who are legally entitled to receive full-service at a gas station, catching the attention of station attendants is not always easy. A US patent for a kit for gas stations to increase accessibility by people with disabilities was issued to meet this need. The kit includes a bell button to mount near a gas pump and a speaker for inside the service station store to alert attendants that refueling assistance is needed. The kit also provides signs indicating the availability of refueling assistance. Optional items include a doorbell switch for the doorway into the service station store, an access ramp, additional signs, a checklist, a tape measure, and a doorstop. The kit includes installation instructions as well as training guidelines for staff.

YOUR AUTO AUTOBIOGRAPHY, IF WOMEN DESIGNED CARS

“If women were designing cars they would be better for other women. Because women know what women want. Men don't. Whenever I go to buy a car, the first thing I say to the salesperson is, ‘This car better fit me. Because if it doesn't I'm not going to buy it.’” (Female, white, age 61, 4´11˝, 200 lb.)

Think about your own auto autobiography: All the cars you've ever owned and all the cars you've ever rented. Which were your favorites, and why? How well did they fit your body, or didn't they? Was it the car or was it you?

Women are the primary buyers of traditional household and consumer products, and they are increasingly buying products traditionally purchased by men, such as computers and cars.

What's my personal theory about why Japanese-made cars have sold so well in the United States for so long? It's not just that they get better gas mileage. It's that compared with most American cars, most Japanese cars fit the size and scale of smaller women.

In fact, for that reason, I have never owned an American car. My first car was a four-door 1971 Datsun 510, which I shared with my mother. I loved it because it felt like it was made for someone just my size. I could reach everything in the dashboard, see over the windshield, and even could see clearly out all four windows when I test rode it in the passenger seats.

Next was a Datsun B210 that I shared with my sister. It had decent visibility from the front seat, but the view from the back was a stretch because it was a two-door model with low seats. It did work well for my sister, who is several inches taller than I am. After we discovered that sharing a car was no fun, my next car was a Nissan Sentra, another ergonomically correct vehicle for my five-foot-two frame, and then I drove two Honda Accords, which fit me like a glove.

My next car was a 2003 Toyota Prius. What sold me on it almost as much as the innovative hybrid technology and outstanding gas mileage was the terrific visibility out the front and back windshield and all four side windows. Yet over a decade later, when I was all ready to buy another Prius, I was heartbroken to find its design so deficient for someone my size that I had to rule it out right away. Even when standing on my tiptoes, I couldn't reach the hatchback trunk to close it when it was raised. Plus the trunk lacked a remote control. A bad design decision, bad for business!

My latest car is a 2015 Hyundai Sonata. Although I was once again attracted to the hybrid technology and the sleek design, plus the chance to finally have heated seats and two moon roofs in both the front and back seat, making it an unusually light and bright vehicle, only after I had the car for a few weeks did I discover a serious shortcoming. All my friends who were my size who sat in the passenger seat couldn't see out the windows. And when I finally sat there myself, neither could I. I didn't realize this when I bought the car because I only tested it out from the driver's seat, which could be adjusted for height. I have since found a passenger seat height kit from a third-party vendor that raises the seat about one and a half inches—for $70 plus shipping—but why doesn't this come as a standard feature on the car?

A growing segment of women buyers is influencing product design. Volvo invited hundreds of its female employees to create a vehicle that suited their needs. The result, revealed in 2004, was a roomy, 215-horsepower coupe that's easy to park, maintain, and keep clean.16 The sporty, low-emission, gas-electric hybrid Your Concept Car required an oil change only every thirty-one thousand miles. When the engine needed inspecting, the car sent a wireless message to a local service center that notified the driver. The vehicle had no hood, only a large front end that could be opened by a mechanic. The car had dirt-repellent paint and glass, exchangeable seat covers with matching carpet, and sensors to allow for easier parking.

Yet that innovative auto design never reached consumers. Your Concept Car was exhibited in art museums but not sold in auto showrooms. Even its name reinforced its status as an abstraction rather than reality, unlike typical car names derived from swift animals (Mustang, Impala), human virtues (Focus, Accord), or harmonious neologisms (Sephia, Camry). Volvo's female designers were relegated to the realms of art and inspiration, safely segregated from the means of production and implementation.¹⁷ And today, female drivers still grapple with mundane problems such as where to place their purse. Should it go on the passenger seat, where it's vulnerable to theft? On the passenger-side floor, where they can't reach it? Or on the driver-side floor, where it can topple onto the pedals and cause an accident?

SQUEEZING INTO CAR SEATS

“One of my biggest challenges was when I shopped for a new car. I really wanted to be ecological and buy a hybrid electric vehicle, but they were all too small for me. It took lots of hunting around till I finally found just one model where I could fit comfortably in the driver's seat.” (Male, white, age 32, 5´11˝, 300 lb.)

The front bench seat is no longer an option on American-made sedans after 2013, but bucket seats disadvantage taller and larger drivers, both male and female.18 Have you ever parked your car in a parking lot with plenty of room to spare, only to return and find yourself trapped outside the driver's side of your car, sandwiched alongside a large vehicle that wasn't there before, so that you can't even squeeze yourself in to open your door? On such occasions, the only way into your car is to climb over the passenger seat, no mean feat. With gearshifts and parking brakes in between bucket seats, this maneuver requires careful acrobatics. Ironically, compared with bucket seats, old-fashioned bench seats were much more user-friendly, as even tall men could slide across to the driver's seat. Bench seats are still offered in some larger pickup trucks.

Today's automobiles are designed such that an automotive computer is required to perform even the most basic diagnostics. As a result, most of us are locked into expensive service appointments at the repair shop. Instructions on changing oil and spark plugs used to be included in every owner's manual. Ironically, the 1920s Model T Ford required only a simple set of wrenches and screwdrivers to fix almost any problem. Contemporary automobile designs have become so complex that repairs require not only complicated equipment but also a high level of manual dexterity. By contrast, some motorcycles come with a bag of tools that fits in the bike and allows the driver to take it apart and fix it.

RISKY GOLF CARTS

Golf carts are routinely used to transport people not only at golf courses, but also at sporting events, college campuses, hospitals, airports, national parks, businesses, prisons, and military bases, where often they shuttle visitors, especially the elderly or people with disabilities, to and from parking facilities for special events. In some gated and retirement communities, they have become the primary means of transportation. Golf carts can be operated legally on public roadways in certain states. Most golf carts are not subject to federal regulation, and state and local regulations regarding their use vary. Children under age sixteen are legally allowed to operate golf carts on private property, but golf carts aren't designed for children and most provide no child safety features. Most lack seat belts, doors, or any means of child restraint, and yet infants and young children are allowed to ride in them.

Each year, thousands of people are injured riding in golf carts because of insufficient safety features, such as the lack of seat belts and front-wheel brakes. A comprehensive study of patients treated in US emergency departments as a result of golf cart–related injuries between 1990 and 2006 was conducted based on data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. It was the first study to examine golf cart–related injuries in the United States using a nationally representative sample.19 Primary causes of injury included falling or jumping from a moving golf cart (38 percent), being struck or run over by a cart (16 percent), and colliding with another vehicle or stationary object (10 percent).

The most common cause of injury was falling or jumping from a golf cart. Children were at greater risk than adults for falling from the cart, and their falls were more likely to cause head or neck injuries and hospitalization. Adults were more likely than children to be injured while entering or exiting the cart. Cart overturns injured many, because golf carts moving at speeds as low as eleven miles per hour can eject a passenger during a turn. Rear-facing golf cart seats had the highest rates of passenger ejection, and most golf carts do not have brakes on all four wheels. Rear-wheel-only brake design can cause instability and reduce braking effectiveness, causing carts to fishtail. Brakes can lock so that the driver loses control, a special problem on hilly golf courses.

A study by a team of researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Center for Injury Sciences focused on golf cart–related injuries between 2002 and 2005.20 The researchers concluded that more effective safety features are needed, especially improved passenger restraints. Drivers need to brake slowly, especially on downhill slopes, and avoid sharp turns at high speeds, as increased radius of a turn greatly decreases the risk of ejecting passengers. Passengers should place both feet firmly on the floor, keep their arms and legs inside the cart, sit back in the seat to be protected from hip restraints, and use handgrips to prevent a fall. If available, seat belts and helmets should be used, especially if the cart is driven on public roads. Because golf carts are not designed for safely transporting children, children should be discouraged from traveling in them.

BIG TOYS THAT ADVANTAGE BY DESIGN

Segway Personal Transporters

Have you ever seen police officers, firefighters, or security guards gliding around town in strange-looking open-air vehicles that have two wheels but stay upright by themselves? If you live in a scenic location, have you seen groups of helmeted tourists gliding above the crowds? Did their big-wheeled electric scooters look as if they had been lifted straight out of the 1960s sci-fi cartoon The Jetsons? Chances are they were all riding a Segway Personal Transporter. When it made its debut on ABC's Good Morning America, it was touted as “the world's first self-balancing human transporter.” It became available to the public in 2002.

The Segway was designed to be an eco-friendly alternative for short car journeys that are part of our daily routine. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Americans make nine hundred million car journeys daily, but half of these trips are driven by solo drivers and are less than five miles long. Riding Segways reduces greenhouse gas output and consumption of imported fossil fuels. The Segway is eleven times more efficient than the average American car because it glides about twenty-four miles per charge.21

Anyone who weighs at least 100 pounds or less than 260 can ride them. So while they're not yet designed for children under age fourteen, they work well for most adults regardless of gender, age, or body size. Teenagers enjoy them. So do people over age seventy who have had hip and other joint replacements.²²

Riding a Segway is somewhat of a cross between walking and being on a bicycle, only it's much faster, safer, and efficient. Its internal electronic gyroscope responds to your body movements, providing a sense of power and speed, safety and control. Lean slightly forward and it moves forward. Lean slightly backward and it moves backward. Gently move to the right or left and it turns instantly in the direction you want to go. Its sensors and accelerometers take measurements of the terrain and the rider's body position a hundred times a second.²³

The Segway company recommends a three-component safety training regimen including reading materials, a video presentation, and hands-on training for all its users, whether they're purchasing a Segway or a first-time user renting one for a group tour by a Segway-authorized business. Tour groups require participants to wear helmets to prevent head injuries. Although relatively rare, accidents have occurred, primarily with inexperienced riders and tourists.²⁴

Ironically, the only death report to date was that of a highly experienced rider, James Heselden, age 62, the owner of the Segway company. In 2010, he fell to his death off a thirty-foot cliff and into a river while riding a Segway near his home in West Yorkshire, UK.²⁵

Nintendo Wii Video Games Wake Up Couch Potatoes

The Wii video-game console made its debut at the Tokyo Game Show in 2005, and its popularity soon soared. Almost 83 million Nintendo Wii Sports games have been sold around the world since it was launched in 2006.²⁶ Regardless of gender, age, and body type, the games—which use motion-sensing controllers—provide a fun way to play and get light exercise at the same time.

The Wii opened the door to gaming for a new range of consumers, especially women and the elderly. It soon became the most popular platform, preferred by 80 percent of female gamers in the United States.27 Many senior centers and retirement homes used Nintendo's Wii systems to help elderly people participate in low-impact indoor exercise, including Wii bowling, tennis, and golf. Grandparents and grandchildren can play together without leaving home.²⁸ Healthcare providers have been using the Wii as a teaching aid to help seniors learn balance techniques that can help prevent falls.

The Wii may help treat symptoms of Parkinson's disease, a degenerative disease that impairs motor skills. In an eight-week pilot study, a research team at Medical College of Georgia led by Dr. Ben Herz followed twenty Parkinson's patients who spent an hour playing the Wii three times a week for four weeks.²⁹ Patients were all at a similar stage of the disease, where both sides of their body were affected but they had not yet suffered from gait disturbance. According to a report in Science Daily: “Participants showed significant improvements in rigidity, movement, fine motor skills and energy levels. Perhaps most impressively, most participants’ depression levels decreased to zero.”