(Context: longer reply to the tweet thread at: https://twitter.com/Lollardfish/status/687807074416234496)
I tend to favor participatory design (your phrasing) and the practical ... in this space, I see product design as fitting into 3-4 levels. (Actually a spectrum; they subdivide further and the boundaries are hard to distinguish. Categorical perception, of a sort.) Gonna talk about this in terms of wheelchair tech, but it applies to other tech, both assistive- and not.
- The only barrier is "not on the market". "A wheelchair like my current one, but it should have USB power to charge my phone, the joystick should display the date (in addition to the time it currently has), and its throttle should range from current-minimum to twice current-maximum." This product is not really novel,