1. Based on your life experience, skills and interests, what would a design process that is both uniquely yours and effective look like?
I think my design process would be based around my enjoyment of staying organized in my work. I think that being a student athlete for many years has forced me into learning effective time management and staying organized goes right along with that. When I make major decisions I prefer to lay out all the, information, pros and cons, and try to educate myself first. I also, like to allow myself time to sit on decisions to eliminate an emotional response. Often this helps me get away from my gut decisions or reactions and make an educated and level-headed decision. Based on this I think my design process would be in three phases. The first of which would be to gather all the information I can. The second would be to give myself a few days to sit on the information. The third would be finalizing a design/decision.
2. Identify your three most important stakeholders and list five UNIQUE attributes for each one of them.
- One important stakeholder in this venture would be the children who are going to be the main target for sickle cell disease screening.
- The fact that they are children means that they have a unique level of autonomy. It needs to be noted that they do not yet have full decision making power as they may be infants or toddlers when they are being tested and cannot give informed consent to being tested.
- Children may require pediatric healthcare that may not always be available in Sierra Leone.
- Educational programs may need to be suited for both adults and children so that they can learn about sickle cell disease effectively. Children will not be able to handle the same content as adults, but still need to be informed.
- Children may be more inclined to be screened if their is some small treat that goes along with it. (more suitable for toddler age than infant)
- Schools may be a good place to hold mass screenings.
- Another important stakeholder would be the parents of Sierra Leone.
- This group is important because it has most of the control over deciding to be screened.
- The parents may have varying levels of education and information should be suited for that.
- Parents may have varying access to transportation and screening should be made convenient for them.
- It should be noted that children are not always born in a hospital and thus screening may need to be centered around a system that reaches more of the population.
- Parents are likely to have a low level of income and the product should be made affordable by their standards.
- A third stakeholder are the people that work in the healthcare systems of Sierra Leone
- They require a product that is easy to use and yields reliable results.
- Instructions should be clear and concise so that there is a high level of repeatability.
- The mobility of the healthcare system should be assessed so that we understand the reach that each facility and staff can have.
- Standard of training is likely different in Sierra Leone and that should be assessed when creating product instructions.
- Design should be made similar to other products that these health workers are familiar with to allow fast integration.
3. Identify three ways in which you will validate your project concept, technology, usability, and business model.
One way the effectiveness of SicklED’s concept/product will be validated will be through data collected through repeated lab testing. This justification would take time and repetition, but eventually should yield reputable results. Another way to make the concept validated would be to observe the success of similar programs and use their success to justify our path or plan for progression. A third way would be to have conversations with health professionals and get their opinion/consultation on our product and process. This along with their support could add reliability to the venture and allow it to spread more quickly. Depending on the magnitude of the professional’s renown, this could be more or less effective.
4. Give three examples of something very interesting you learned from a friend that was a completely alien concept to you.
One alien concept was the restaurant etiquette of other countries. It was very strange to me that waiters and waitresses were paid a normal wage in most places. I am so accustomed to the American custom of the staff being paid a very small wage and working for tips as their main source of income. Another foreign concept to me was that many people find that they cannot do work in their room. The idea of going to a library to study or be productive does not really make sense to me because I have never had trouble just doing work in my room. This is interesting because it gives an idea about how different people function and are effective workers in different spaces. A third concept is how some artists, musicians, etc. believe that they do not come up with any of their ideas for their work. Essentially, there is an idea that many believe to be the case, which is that there are ideas in the ether that exist and sometimes people catch them. This idea is very interesting because it does sometimes feel as though inspiration strikes people abruptly and ideas just occur without warning.