- Based on your life experience, skills, and interests, what would a design process that is both uniquely yours and effective look like? Overall, to solve a problem, you must understand it holistically first.
- Understand
- Immerse ourselves in the problem to better understand it
- Travel to the geographic location
- Talk to people who experience the problem themselves
- Learn about social, cultural, religious, economic, political practices of the community
- Example: Try to understand the effects of SCA in SL by talking to the locals and seeing how their life is impacted by the disorder. Additionally, we would observe their current way of life and see how they have been treating the disorder. We can also ask for their opinions and thoughts on a test strip being implemented into the health system, especially for youth.
- Define
- Use information from the Understanding step to create an outline of what exactly needs to be solved.
- Identify the main problem and the side effects that stem from it.
- Example: See the impact of SCA on the locals and what other correlated issues may arise from the disorder that was not known before.
- Ideate
- Collaborate with local experts.
- Consult the people you seek to help to develop a sustainable and desirable solution that meets their needs.
- Example: Connect with the professionals and people affected by SCA in SL to understand what kind of solution is desirable and acceptable. Inform them of the purpose of our test strip, why it is important and how it is a viable solution.
- Act
- Put the idea/solution into action using the gathered information.
- Observe outcomes from this action and see how they can be improved in the future.
- Improve based on received feedback until the solution is ideal.
- Example: Implement the solution, the test strip, and listen to the feedback. Improve based on the feedback until the general public is content and satisfied.
2. Identify your three most important stakeholders and list five UNIQUE attributes for each one of them.
- Patients in Sierra Leone
- Direct beneficiary: these are the people who will use the device for screening and who the device is created for
- Possible reluctance to trust device and western medicine because of difference from traditional spiritual healing
- Stakeholder who relies on the quality of the device the most
- May have no other alternative
- Provide critical feedback of user experience
- Sickle SCAN
- External stakeholder
- Our competitor (a for-profit company)
- Cannot screen newborns
- Created by professionals, not students
- Already a fully developed and functional product
- Undergraduate Research Student Developers of Test Strip
- Internal stakeholder
- Responsible for coming up with an innovative product that is low-cost and easy to use
- Motive: lowering the mortality rate of children in Sierra Leone through educating and addressing sickle cell disease
- Run by college students, not professionals
- Still in the testing phases, not a fully functional product
3. Identify three ways in which you will validate your project concept, technology, usability, and business model.
In the testing stage of our design process, we will find shortcomings in the technology of the strips and work on improving them. This is initially done in the lab but will eventually be used on people in SL. We can use data analytics to ensure the specificity and sensitivity of the strips.
- [Usability] Integration of product in Sierra Leone healthcare system
- Interview community health workers in Sierra Leone about their opinions on the test strip to ensure that our project has the intended effect on the community
- Validation: local doctors and healthcare facilities accept the product and teach others how to use the test strip, thus integrating it into their healthcare system
- [Technology] Lab testing for sensitivity and life span of strip technology and releasing statistics and information that backs up these claims.
- [Concept] More infants receive symptom management after getting tested
- More infants with symptom management due to knowledge.
- This metric will gauge the outcomes of our device in both terms of its technology and infrastructure, as both must be adequate to lead to such change.
- Ultimate validation is a lower death rate due to SC, but this is a goal to be achieved far off in the future.
5. Give three examples of something very interesting you learned from a friend that was a completely alien concept to you.
- K-pop: I had a friend in high school who introduced me to k-pop. At first, I wasn’t too open to it but it grew on me quickly. Now. it is one of my most listened to music genres and I would say it has impacted me a lot. My interests changed with k-pop and I met tons of people that I wouldn’t have before.
- Filipino Culture: My best friend in high school was Filipino so I learned a lot about her culture such as the traditions and etc. For example, I learned that karaoke plays a big part in their culture and that popular foods include sticky rice and jackfruit. She also brought in sapin sapin, a Filipino dessert, to school once and it was really delicious to try.
- Education System Around the World: I have a friend in China and another friend in Singapore and it was really interesting to hear about how school is different over there. In both of those countries, tutoring is really popular after school and on the weekends. Additionally, school is around 6 days a week instead of just 5. The education system in Singapore and China appears to be much more time-consuming.