Fittle is an educational puzzle for the visually impaired to learn word construction in braille. 
Each fittle has a form of an object. Individual letters in the spelling of the object is embossed on the puzzle pieces. The learner is supposed to join the pieces to form the right spelling as well as the form of the object.

Original concept designed by Centre for Technology and Innovation, L V Prasad eye institute.

As a part of my graduation project / thesis project, I worked on redesigning the version 1 of fittle at CFTI as per the requirements of visually impaired children as well as vision rehabilitation specialists and educators. 

See Full Graduation Project Document >

Design Brief
Research and understand the possibilities and drawbacks of the existing braille learning
puzzle - Fittle and gather insights to design similar puzzles for each letter of the English alphabet.

Research Insights

• Connectors donot fit well and wears out over time.

• The puzzle forms are not close to reality.

• Difficult to sort individual puzzles from a mixed set.

• Takes very long to solve a puzzle. 

New Concepts / Iterations

• The Spine narrows down in size towards the end. This enables only the right piece to fit in.

• The first letter is always the piece with the spine and the last piece has a cavity. This make solving the puzzle a lot easier.

2. Story

A story was developed in order to guide the solving of each puzzle. The gameplay was planned such that it is guided by a teacher or a parent.

3. Magnet Connectors

Magnets were used as connectors. This was a previous idea that the team already had.

Out of the three, the magnet concept was decided to go with the final set after user testing. (Images for user testing are in the full document ).

Features added to the final set

1. Signifiers for sorting

First letter of the object is embossed on the backside to identify pieces of the same object. 

The backside is identified by the slight depth in the back.

Full set before sorting

Sorting by reading the back

2. Signifiers for solving 

The first magnet versions had flat connector sides. This was modified into irregular sides. 

• The new connector is more makes the game play more intuitive with trial and error.
• The joints attach better than before and the snap has improved.
• The finished pieces are stiff and does not detach during the game play.
• The pieces doesn’t easily get mixed up in a full 26 alphabet set.

Final Set

An object list for all 26 alphabets were given to me by the rehabilitation department. Most of the suggested objects were finalized for the set. A few objects that would work better as an extruded 2D form were changed.