Color Comboz

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Color Comboz is a tactile 3D color wheel and board game designed to help people with visual impairments effectively use color, understand which colors go together, contrast, etc. This understanding is crucial for participating in arts and crafts, feeling confident about the clothes they wear, nail varnish used, make-up worn, and numerous other areas. Each color is represented by a distinct shape, while different shades are indicated by varying heights. Color Comboz comes with interchangeable attachments that teach color combinations and transform the wheel into a board game. I envision a future range of open-source products focused on helping visually impaired individuals use color confidently. This color wheel could serve as the core learning tool from which these future products are developed. By combining shapes and braille, Color Comboz allows both braille readers and non-braille readers to use it. Imagine giving this product to kids to play and learn with, and as they grow older, they can utilize products incorporating similar elements, such as clothes tags or make-up lids, ensuring they feel confident about wearing different colors and combining them in their work and play. Color Comboz is designed to be an inclusive game that brings together kids both with and without visual impairments. It incorporates various fun and tactile game-like uses. Using pegs, it teaches children the basics of shapes (with speed assembly games) and color combinations by dropping different attachments onto the center circle. Kids can see and/or feel which colors are complementary, triadic, and analogous. Remove combo attachments, add an arrow attachment, and play a game inspired by UNO and Twister to reinforce lessons learned. For example, each player gets 6 or 9 pegs; they spin the arrow and put down a peg matching the color it lands on. They can put down an extra peg if they name the color combo it creates. The first one to get rid of all their pegs wins! My printing tests were conducted in blue as that was all I could obtain during my college days. When using the product with non-visually impaired users, the wheel and pegs may need to be printed in different colors and shades or covered with paint or color paper. I designed Color Comboz to be printable by low-end printers and to fit within their printing beds, which are more common and less expensive than higher-end ones. For this reason, the braille is scaled up 1.5 times, and the product is relatively compact. Print settings: Printer - Ultimaker 2+, Nozzle & Material - 0.4mm PLA, Profile - Fast Print - 0.15mm, Infill - 18%, Speed - Print = 60mm/s, Travel = 150mm/s. Higher settings can be used but are not necessary.