A friend of mine today thanked me for a present I had given them for Christmas which was a leather oyster card holder because it became very useful and durable. After the phone call I started to look at my own oyster card holder and I started to think how useful mine had been to me because I carry a variety of cards. I then began to think how I can recognise the different cards because of the colour and how sometimes when I handle cards at work I can guess the type of card the customer is using 80% of the time.

This idea then led to how do partially sighted people differentiate their own cards. And how useful it would be to help them distinguish a card from another like their oyster card against their Master Card. I thought it would be a very useful invention to have an oyster similar to mine.



Here is a basic net of a traditional oyster card holder that I had made out of paper... I thought that there could be braile on the front and the back of the cover saying which card is which.



Inside is where the card would be inserted. However I thought that the idea of implimenting sound into this but it would be way too chunky to integrate it into it... If I had enough time to find a smaller and flatter device then the product could be further developed.

After a few sketches and disgrams of how to make this product work nicely... I decided to actually move away from the oyster card holder frame and thougth that each card could hang off a keyring... this allows the cards to be freely moved around and can easily see each card. Bold cards are a must and braille can be placed. Along with the oyster card I had included Visa and Mastercard, and also a medical card holder since most people may loose their sight due to health problems. I also brought a large keyring and might later attached one of those hook keyrings you find when you absail....