By conducting multiple interviews, it became clear that people suffering from such conditions often find great difficulty in performing simple daily activities that are often taken for granted, such as drinking from a cup. “Teta stopped drinking tea, her favorite hot beverage out of fear of spilling and burning herself,” one interviewee said. Celine’s only memory of her great grandmother, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease, was the fact that she used to drink Arabic coffee from a plate. It turned out that there exists over 35 million individuals suffering from a similar plight, with the number of hand tremor diagnoses reaching around 57,000 new cases per year.

Consequently, we developed SpillProof, a line of tremor friendly cups and accessories that allow people suffering from hand tremors to have a worry-less day to day drinking experience. Our products are simple to use, discrete, and can handle even the most intense types of tremors. What we aim to achieve with SpillProof is a user-friendly yet highly effective design which resembles that of a standard drinking cup. That way, our users will not feel alienated for using an assistive technology, which ultimately eases the feelings of guilt and shame that often accompany degenerative neural disorders.