Tour Vietnam District Hospitals
Get a first hand look at some of the Hospitals that DtM visited during the December 2011 field study.
The Ninh Giang District Hospital NICU taken December 2011.
Take a look at more hospitals that DtM has visited.
Project Postcard: Many Thanks
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Nurse Bui Van Ha places baby Nguyen Van Hai into Firelfy during DtM’s visit to Hai Duong Provincial Hospital.
/ Lincoln Design Solutions
/ Boston Design Solutions
/ Excellus Engineering
/ Optics for Hire
/ Actinica
/ Project Advisors from Cooper Perkins, IDEO, and MIT
The Firefly Phase 2 team, from left to right: John Dunn, John Ellis, Leon Hiemstra, Huan Tran, Oakley Thomas, Dave Duncanson, Elizabeth Johansen, Greg Dajer, Mike Damiano, Will Harris, Joe Galibois, and Timothy Prestero .
Until Next Time,
Tim, Elizabeth & Will
Firefly Clinical Trial Initial Feedback
It has been almost two weeks since the Firefly clinical trials began, and we are receiving great feedback from doctors, nurses, and mothers. Below is a PDF with a few photos from the field, with user quotes.
Firefly Phototherapy Treats First Infant
On December 9, 2011, Firefly officially cured its first case of infant jaundice, restoring severely jaundiced Le Bao Chan. His was cured in only 17 hours using Firefly, which doctors predicted would have taken 2-3 days with a standard overhead phototherapy device. The feedback from doctors and nurses has been overwhelmingly positive, below are a few of the feedback we have received:
“This is very easy to use: you put the baby inside and turn it on! You don’t need to adjust the height of the light which makes it better than an overhead.”
- Dr. Nguyễn Thanh Hả, Director, National OBGYN Hospital
“The overhead phototherapy systems are tall, so you can’t clean on top of it or even see if they are dirty. Bugs can get inside the overhead units. Firefly is very small and easy
to clean.”
- Dr. Nguyễn Thanh Hả, Director, National OBGYN Hospital
"The Firefly has very good light intensity for what we need - there is a top and a bottom light and it is very intense. Where other machines might take 3 days, this should take no longer than 24 hours.”
- Dr. Khuất Than Bình, Vice Director, Moc Chau District Hospital
Project Postcard: Cured
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Baby Le Bao Ngan being fed by Mom, Vu Ngan Ha, 3 ½ days after birth by cesarean section. Baby Ngan is the 3rd infant to receive full treatment from Firefly.
Born at a healthy weight of 3700g (8.4 lbs), baby Chan’s only challenge was overcoming jaundice. When he was 2 days old, a doctor identified the tell-tale yellow skin color indicative of jaundice. Jaundice is a symptom of an excess of the chemical bilirubin in the blood. A bilirubin blood test was ordered and confirmed a level of 295 μmol/L, which placed him in the highest risk category for developing permanent defects including brain damage.
Instead of the usual 2-3 days of treatment, Dr. Le Minh Trac determined baby Chan was cured only 17 hours later! “We’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” said Dr. Le. 60% of all newborns worldwide suffer from jaundice in the first weeks of life. If left untreated, an estimated 10% of jaundiced newborns would suffer life-long injury. We are so happy Firefly can help!
Until Next Time,
Tim, Elizabeth & Will
Project Postcard: Firefly Takes Flight
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Baby Nguyen Huong Giang, the first infant treated in Firefly!.
Six infants received one-hour treatments while their temperatures were monitored continuously during the day one final safety check. The babies, ranging 6-9 lbs, all looked calm and comfortable in the perfect-sized bassinet. NICU Director, Dr. Nguyen Thanh Ha asked, "Why are you doing all these extra tests today? We trust Firefly! There is no need to worry!"
One mother, Tran Ha Phuong, came to visit her newborn during his treatment. Ms. Tran commented, "I am happy to see my baby is being treated by the latest technology."
If the next month runs even half as well as day one, plans for rapid expansion of Firefly into its intended context of rural district hospitals will begin in 2012.
Until Next Time,
Tim, Elizabeth & Will
Firefly Unveiled at TEDxCambridge
DtM Designer Will Harris unveiled the Firefly beta prototype at TEDxCambridge this past Saturday, held at Harvard University's Northwest building. It was the first time for the public to get a hand on demo with a beta design, which resulted in an overwhelmingly positive response.
We would like to thank everyone who stopped by the demo, as well as the TEDxCambridge team for putting on a great conference!
The Firefly beta prototype on display at TEDxCambridge.
ABOUT TED
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The annual TED Conference invites the world’s leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes. Their talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The annual TED Conference takes place in Long Beach, California, with simulcast in Palm Springs; TEDGlobal is held each year in Oxford, UK.
Project Postcard: Ready for Impact
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The Firefly Beta prototype, assembled and ready to begin treating newborns in Vietnam.
groups that donated time and materials:
/ Solid Concepts
/ Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks
/ Brigham and Women's Hospital Newborn Medicine
and our donors for their help on making this possible:
/ The Lemelson Foundation
/ Mr. & Mrs. Eijk Van Otterloo
/ The Bohemian Foundation
/ and an anonymous donor.
Until Next Time,
Tim, Elizabeth & Will
Project Postcard: Playing it Safe
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Pictures from the Firefly beta design process, from thermal testing to various design reviews.
/ industry standards - Firefly has been designed to the same IEC standards as all European and U.S. devices.
/ experienced team - the Firefly engineering team applied the same rigorous methods they used previously to design medical equipment for the U.S. market.
/ design reviews - additional professionals participated in key design reviews including Bob Hartmann of Cooper Perkins, Scott Mackie of IDEO, and Mark Jeunnette of MIT.
/ partner guidance - DtM partner, Medical Technology Transfer and Services, added additional requirements to prepare for the harsh operating environment and will perform the same safety testing as with their prior three newborn technologies implemented across Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
Until Next Time,
Tim, Elizabeth & Will
NeoNurture featured in Metropolis magazine
"Of course, having your heart in the right place is no guarantee of success. There have been reasons for optimism, like the Quinta Monroy housing project in Chile—low-cost, expandable residences developed with the families who live in them. But there have also been some spectacular failures. "
"These mixed results have tempered the first flush of enthusiasm, and the design community is finally asking hard questions about its urge to do good. The upshot from that debate is the same one we hope you’ll take away from the following infographic, which maps the relative success of 11 key projects: realizing a great social-design idea is a long, arduous process, with some necessary lessons in humility along the way. Saving the world may still be a distant dream, but at least we seem to be learning."
- Avinash Rajagopal, Social Design | Easier Said Than Done, Metropolis Magazine, 14Apr2011
Design for Impact Lab: Barefoot Power
ABOUT DESIGN FOR IMPACT LABS
Design that Matters’ Design for Impact Lab offering gives social enterprises a chance to get valuable advice from experts in design thinking methodologies. Over the course of 1 hour, the Design that Matters team tackles a challenge of the organization’s choosing ranging from how to conduct inspiring user research to detailed engineering problem-solving.
technologies that increase income and/or improve health.
ABOUT BAREFOOT POWER
A global, social for-profit enterprise that manufactures and distributes solar phone charging, lighting products and business development services to people at the base of the global economic pyramid. Over 1.5 billion people lack access to electricity and Barefoot Power is on a mission to bring affordable renewable energy and efficient lighting to help eradicate energy poverty. How will they do that? By bringing electricity to 5 million people by 2012 and 10 million people by 2015 that currently use kerosene lighting and walk far for phone and battery charging. The design and distribution of their solar product range will help reverse the traditional process of rural electrification by replacing inefficient, expensive and harmful lighting sources while reducing the global carbon footprint.
Design for Impact Lab: Water.org + Kiva.org
Assumptions were then sorted according to how certain we felt they were true, and how big an impact they would have on the collaboration if they were proven wrong. This is a risk management technique commonly used at Innosight and Design that Matters. All the participants walked away energized, ready to tackle their organizations’ work together as well as their next, tough innovation challenges.
"I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to meet with you all; not only did it really help frame/re-frame Kiva.org + Water.org ideas and scenarios, it also helped me think about applying this process to a wider set of things in both my professional and personal life. Again, thanks!" -- April Rinne, Director of WaterCredit, Water.org
Michelle Kreger from Kiva.org and April Rinne from Water.org generating assumptions about a potential collaboration during our SOCAP11 Design for Impact Lab.
ABOUT DESIGN FOR IMPACT LABS
Design that Matters’ Design for Impact Lab offering gives social enterprises a chance to get valuable advice from experts in design thinking methodologies. Over the course of 1 hour, the Design that Matters team tackles a challenge of the organization’s choosing ranging from how to conduct inspiring user research to detailed engineering problem-solving.
technologies that increase income and/or improve health.
ABOUT WATER.ORG
Water.org is a nonprofit organization that has transformed hundreds of communities in Africa, South Asia, and Central America by providing access to safe water and sanitation. Water.org works with local partners to deliver innovative solutions for long-term success. Its microfinance-based WaterCredit Initiative is pioneering sustainable giving in the sector.
ABOUT KIVA.ORG
Kiva.org is the world's first personal microlending website, empowering individuals to lend to an entrepreneur across the globe. Founded in 2005, Kiva.org's mission is to connect people, through lending, to alleviate poverty. Over 634,000 people have loaned more than $253 million to 651,000 entrepreneurs in 60 countries. Kiva.org is headquartered in San Francisco.
DtM Featured on CNBC show "Science on the Street"
You can watch Tim working on the Firefly Beta prototype CAD model at the start, and hear his brief interview 1:20 through the video.
Elizabeth Johansen presents at SOCAP 2011
The panel titled, Reframe: Bridging Research and Action, gave a brief introduction the work of each company, including DtM's Project Firefly, while illustrating the ways each group synthesizes their project research into a tangible solution.
After a brief introduction on how to synthesize reaserch, the attendees were asked to use the tools they had just been given to reframe research that Thinkimpact had collected in South Africa.
DtM's Director of Product Development, Elizabeth Johansen, discusses Design that Matters collaborative design approach.
ABOUT DESIGN FOR AMERICA
Design for America is an award-winning national initiative using design to create local and social impact. Our mission is to be a network of student-led studios creating local and social impact through interdisciplinary design. DFA equips this generation with the mind-set and skill-set to create social impact. We aim to look locally, create fervently, and act fearlessly.
ABOUT THINKIMPACT
Headquartered in Washington, DC, ThinkImpact is a global social enterprise that provides university students and young professionals the Innovation Institute, America’s premier immersion program in rural Africa that trains the next generation of social entrepreneurs.
Session attendees begin to synthesize user needs and local skills into viable products and services.
ABOUT SOCAP
A new form of capitalism is arising that recognizes our ability to direct the power and efficiency of market systems toward social impact, leading to a more balanced set of “returns”.
SOCAP is a multi-platform organization dedicated to the flow of capital towards social good. Our event series connects leading global innovators – investors, foundations, institutions and social entrepreneurs – to build this market at the intersection of money and meaning.
Learn more about SOCAP
Read Elizabeth's interview with SOCAP
Design That Matters a Finalist for the 12th Annual National Design Awards
The 2011 National Design Award nominations were solicited from a committee of more than 2,500 designers, educators, journalists, cultural figures and corporate leaders from every state in the nation. Nominees must have at least seven years of experience in order to be nominated, and winners are selected based on the level of excellence, innovation and public impact of their body of work. This year's jury of design leaders and educators from across the country convened by Cooper-Hewitt reviewed the nominations and chose Lifetime Achievement and Design Mind recipients, and selected winners and finalists in the Corporate and Institutional Achievement, Architecture Design, Communication Design, Fashion Design, Interaction Design, Interior Design, Landscape Design and Product Design categories.
The Corporate and Institutional Achievement Award recognizes a corporation or institution that uses design as a strategic tool of its mission and helps to advance the relationship between design and quality of life. DtM was recognized for its work over the last eight years in partnering with social entrepreneurs to design products that address basic needs in developing countries. Prior awardees and finalists in this category include Apple Computer, Patagonia, Nike, Google and Jet Blue.
The Firefly Phototherapy Alpha Prototype illuminated. Firefly was created to provide low cost infant phototherpy in Vietnam.
DtM's core competencies include ethnography, design and engineering. The company has built a collaborative design process and a network of partners in academia, medicine and industry that together translate the needs of social enterprise into breakthrough products and services for the poor. DtM leverages over US$8 in donated or reduced-rate time and materials from its corporate and academic partners for every dollar they spend, allowing the firm to address what the Rockefeller Foundation recently described as the chief barrier to design for social impact: affordability.
DtM's academic contributors include students and faculty in engineering, design and business at MIT, Stanford, Harvard, the Rhode Island School of Design and Cambridge University in the UK. In medicine, DtM contributors include Children's Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital and St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston, the Kanti Children's Hospital in Nepal, the National Hospital for Pediatrics in Vietnam and the Cut Nyak Dhien General Hospital in Indonesia. DtM's corporate partners include IDEO, Fisher Price, SolidWorks and Optikos.
This diverse and growing network has allowed the nonprofit design firm to tackle a broad range of global issues, with projects completed in health care, education, microfinance and renewable energy. The company has a global scale, impacting communities in Mali, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia. DtM clients include the East Meets West Foundation, Solar Ear, World Education, the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology's Global Health Initiative (CIMIT GHI), the Centre for Mass Education in Science (CMES) in Bangladesh and the Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank in India.
DtM Fellow Tom Weis and the Neonurture Infant Incubator
DtM's work is made possible by the thousands of hours donated by over 800 students and professional volunteers, pro bono legal assistance from Choate Hall & Stewart LLP and Littler Mendelson PC, and generous financial support from the van Otterloo Family Foundation, the Lemelson Foundation, the Lynch Family Foundation, SolidWorks Corporation, the Draper Richards Foundation, Ashoka, the Bridgeway Fund and many others.
First launched at the White House in 2000 as a project of the White House Millennium Council, the National Design Awards were established to promote excellence and innovation in design.
ABOUT DESIGN THAT MATTERS
Conceived by graduate students at the MIT Media Lab in 2001, Design that Matters is a nonprofit design company that partners with social entrepreneurs to design products that address basic needs in developing countries. Led by cofounder Timothy Prestero, over 800 academic and professional volunteers have worked together to create dozens of product concepts, including a projector for night-time adult-literacy education in Africa, a low-cost neonatal incubator using spare car parts, and, most recently, a phototherapy device for treating newborn jaundice in Vietnam.
ABOUT COOPER-HEWITT, NATIONAL DESIGN MUSEUM, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum is the only museum in the nation devoted exclusively to historic and contemporary design. Founded in 1897, the museum has been a branch of the Smithsonian since 1967. The museum presents compelling perspectives on the impact of design on daily life through active educational programs, exhibitions and publications.
Read more:
2011 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards
Media website:
Cooper-Hewitt Press Release
Design for Impact Lab: Ayzh
Ayzh's clean birth kit enables safe infant delivery currently for thousands poor women living in rural contexts. Now they want to take it to the next level: educating women to understand the value of a clean birth. Zubaida and Habib believe women have a right to understand the elements of a sanitary birth and why the kit is being used.
Design that Matters and one of our volunteers: Caitrin Abshere of Innosight, worked with Zubaida and Habib to lay out a framework highlighting moments in a woman's journey through pregnancy and delivery that could be opportunities for education about clean birth and general maternal/infant health. Then we had several brainstorms to generate ideas around channels of communication and specifically how to use cell phones to communicate the message.
Ayzh left with some new ways to approach their clean birth awareness campaign - a good start to their next step in improving maternal health worldwide.
Habib Anwar of Ayzh posts an idea about a channel for increasing maternal awareness of clean birth during our Design for Impact Lab.
ABOUT DESIGN FOR IMPACT LABS
Design that Matters’ Design for Impact Lab offering gives social enterprises a chance to get valuable advice from experts in design thinking methodologies. Over the course of 1 hour, the Design that Matters team tackles a challenge of the organization’s choosing ranging from how to conduct inspiring user research to detailed engineering problem-solving.
ABOUT AYZH
Appropriate technology is needed to alleviate physical labor and improve the quality of life and economic power of rural women. AYZH is a social venture looking through the eyes of women to identify the tools they want and need to help improve their standard of living. AYZH serves the needs of impoverished women worldwide by bringing them affordable appropriate technologies that increase income and/or improve health.
IDE FELLOWSHIP: Human-Centered Design Innovation Lab Fellow
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Interested in designing extremely affordable innovations to tackle problems that are of life-and-death importance?
IDE is building the first Human-Centered Design Innovation Lab in Cambodia. And we need you to help us launch it. IDE is looking for a design-thinker, with 2-4 years experience in mechanical engineering and product development. You will be the lead mechanical engineer on a multi-disciplinary team, based in Phnom Penh for a 1-year Fellowship.
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This is an opportunity to work on real-world problems alongside a close-knit, international, top-calibre team. You’ll wear many hats, including that of a coach, to grow HCD in Cambodia. You will have a rich experience that will touch the lives of those who most need life-changing opportunities. And at the end of the year, if we see a mutual fit, you’ll be offered an opportunity to stay on as full-time Leader at the innovation-Lab.
Project Postcard: Made to be Made
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Manufacturing techniques identified include:
Vacuum Forming- an affordable technique to create a modern medical exterior with plastic.
Extrusion - an inexpensive way to create a metal housing that reduces heat for our top light.
Tube Bending - cheap, hand-powered tools create strong, precision metal tubing structures that can support our top light.
Until Next Time,
Tim, Elizabeth & Will
Project Postcard: Realizing Firefly
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Please welcome the Firefly concept development team:
Actinica - optics and electronics
Boston Design Solutions - integrated electronic
product design
John Dunn - thermal design and analysis
Lincoln Design Solutions - design and engineering
Optics for Hire - optics, mechanics, electronics, and
systems
Until Next Time,
Tim, Elizabeth & Will
Project Lynx gains new advisor, Andrew McGrath, AuD
Students from MIT and the Rhode Island School of Design have been working on the challenge of helping children with hearing loss in the developing world as part of MIT’s Product Design and Development class. Named Project Lynx, the aim of this effort is to help Design that Matters and Solar Ear develop a hearing aid for children that is fun, comfortable, easy-to-use, and affordable for those living on $5 or less per day.
The team began the semester by holding a series of interviews with health care professionals and advocates who have extensive experience in the United States and in the developing world. In order to get a grasp of hearing loss and hearing aids, the students sought the professional help of Andrew McGrath, AuD, a clinical audiologist in Providence, RI.
In his role as the team's Clinical Advisor, Andrew explained different aspects of hearing loss including diseases and syndromes that are associated with hearing loss, the different types and degrees of hearing loss, and how hearing loss can progress over time. Andrew also spoke with the students about the different types of hearing aids currently on the market as well as some of the more important features of hearing aid design. Understanding the difference between programmable and non-programmable hearing aids, analog and digital hearing aids, digital sound processing, and directional microphones guided the team on how to proceed with their low-cost design solution.
Rhode Island's Women & Infants Hospital Director of Audiology, Andrew McGrath, AuD
Andrew has been a great help to the team and Design that Matters looks forward to working with him as Clinical Advisor to Project Lynx after the students have gone on to do other amazing things in the future.
Andrew is the director of the Department of Audiology at Women & Infants Hospital in Providence, RI. He is on the faculty of the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and is a former faculty member of the Yale University School of Medicine. A published author, some of Andrew’s specific areas of interest are newborn hearing assessment, management of hearing loss through the use of hearing aids, and assessment and management of dizziness and balance disorders.
Design for Impact Lab: PATH
Design that Matters (DtM) had the privilege of working with Sita Shankar Wunnava of PATH during a Design for Impact Lab session at the 2011 Unite for Sight conference. We tackled two activities together: brainstorming to generate ideas and creating an analytical framework for decision-making.
At PATH, Sita has been working on a partnership approach which she hopes to take to another level by designing a distribution channel. The plan is to promote effective and efficient operations and a model to reduce infant mortality. Currently, local women in each village have been recruited to encourage women to have safe, clean births in an institutional setting under the ASHA program. Sita is working on a plan whereby ASHAs could take on the role of social entrepreneurs in the constrained rural landscape in India, by selling or renting a series of products that prevent infant mortality during rural home births.
Design that Matters and two of our volunteers: Caitrin Abshere of Innosight and Erin Tochen of the Lemelson Foundation, worked with Sita to generate ideas encouraging sanitary practices for infant warmers that could be rented to multiple families by ASHAs. We then laid out a framework to help analyze what other existing infant care technologies may be appropriate for ASHAs to sell or rent to reduce incidence of sepsis, respiratory distress, and hypothermia: the three leading causes of infant mortality.
The lab provided Sita with several new techniques for generating and analyzing technologies as well as a poster full of ideas informed by DtM's significant past research in infant health care that will hopefully help this project move forward to provide low cost health options to save lives of neonates..
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(from left to right) DtM volunteers Erin Tochen from the Lemelson Foundation and Caitrin Abshere from Innosight, Sita Shankar Wunnava of PATH, and Elizabeth Johansen of Design that Matters analyze infant care technologies regarding appropriateness for the village context. (Will Harris of Design that Matters photographer and Lab participant).
About Design for Impact Labs
Design that Matters’ Design for Impact Lab offering gives social enterprises a chance to get valuable advice from experts in design thinking methodologies. Over the course of 1 hour, the Design that Matters team tackles a challenge of the organization’s choosing ranging from how to conduct inspiring user research to detailed engineering problem-solving.
About PATH India
PATH is an international nonprofit organization that creates sustainable, culturally relevant solutions, enabling communities worldwide to break longstanding cycles of poor health. By collaborating with diverse public- and private-sector partners, we help provide appropriate health technologies and vital strategies that change the way people think and act. Our work improves global health and well-being.
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(from left to right) PATH Design for Impact Lab participants Caitrin Abshere - DtM volunteer from Innosight, Sita Shankar Wunnava - PATH, Will Harris - DtM, Elizabeth Johansen - DtM, Erin Tochen - DtM volunteer from the Lemelson Foundation.
DtM Founder and CEO to talk at IDSA Northeast Conference
DtM Founder and CEO Timothy Prestero will be speaking this Saturday at the yearly IDSA Notheast Conference held in Providence, RI. He will be kicking of the Design for Social Good section of the Conference at 1:45 in the RISD Auditorium, discussing our latest project, Firefly. Drawing from his experience in designing the NeoNurture car parts incubator and our new Firefly low-cost phototherapy unit, Mr. Prestero will provide valuable insights on the challenges faced while designing newborn care technologies for the developing world.
Following his talk, DtM Alumni Sami Nerenberg, now at Design for America, will discuss the ever expanding definition of design, and the designers new role outside of the profession. Its an event not to miss, we hope to see you there!
Learn more about Project Firefly
Firefly prototype design review with doctors and nurses at the Dai Tu District Hospital in Vietnam. Feedback from users and domain experts is a vital part of DtM's product design process.
DtM Designer Will Harris interviewed by IDSA
As part of the “What do you design4” series sponsored by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), DtM Designer Will Harris was asked what drives him to design. While originally drawn to the field due to “the opportunity to solve problems while also creating a unique and beautiful form.” His perspective changed through personal experience as he watched several family friends, as well as his mother, become diagnosed with cancer.
“It was a period that caused a dramatic shift in how I saw the world and the role of design. I was fascinated by the correlation between the comfort of care and the mental will to overcome. More and more it became evident to me that the comforting cloud like curves of an MRI machine made a dramatic difference on a patients trust in their treatment, a drastic improvement from the cold metal machines of the 1970's and 80's. As I sat in the waiting room meeting the other patients, I was struck by the steady decline of those receiving treatment, discovering that one of the patients had just passed away. It was overwhelming to see these individuals who had such great odds against them, maintain a stubborn will to survive, even as they watched those around them succumb to their condition.”
DtM Designer Will Harris unveiling the Firefly Phototherapy Alpha Prototype in Dai Tu District Hospital, Vietnam.
It was this experience that cause Harris to realize that design has an immense power to influence the lives of others, both via the physical interaction with a product and the mental drive to overcome a seemingly unwinnable battle. Believing that the core of design was empathy, Harris now firmly believes that a designer’s job is to empathize with the user and attempt to live in the user’s shoes. “Through this process a designer can have an unimaginable impact upon their users’ lives, empowering them in a way that I do not believe many other fields can.”
“Ever since that time, I have been driven by my desire to use design as a tool to truly empathize with the needs and challenges of others, hoping to ease the daily battles we all fight, be it a medical condition or tying ones shoe.”
- Carly Ayres, Will Harris | Design that Matters, IDSA Blog, 28March2011
DtM leads first Project Lynx brainstorm
To kick start the next round of concepts, we held our first brainstorm session with students from MIT & RISD’s joint course Product Design and Development. Throughout the meeting a great deal of topics were addressed, from mapping the daily routine of typical children in rural India, to understanding how a hearing aid can effect each activity.
After mapping the different scenarios, we took a look at the current concepts created by the students, ranging from a compact mp3 player like device that clips onto the back of a child’s shirt to a unique necklace that has interchangeable animal themed slip covers. Through reviewing these concepts, we began to see ways that the separate charging station may fit into the daily activities of the children and their parents.
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DtM Director of Product Development, Elizabeth Johansen showing the student one way to rate and narrow down concepts from the initial brainstorm.
With this in mind, we posed two questions:
How might we design a solar charging system that reduces risk and perceived risk theft?
How might we design a solar charger that maximizes sun power?
In answering these questions, the team created a vast array of concepts that will help guide the next iterations of their concepts. Below are a some of their solutions to the first question.
Concepts created by the Lynx team in response to the question, "How might we design a solar charging system that reduces risk and perceived risk theft?"
Students at MIT & RISD kick off Project Lynx
This February, a team of eight students from MIT and the Rhode Island School of Design have accepted the challenge of helping children with hearing loss in the developing world as part of MIT’s Product Design and Development class. Nicknamed Project Lynx, the aim of this effort is to help Design that Matters client, Solar Ear, develop a hearing aid for children that is fun, comfortable, easy-to-use, and affordable for those living on $5 or less per day.
The team began the semester by holding a series of interviews with health care professionals and advocates who have extensive experience in the developing world and the U.S.. These interviews will serve as inspiration for concepts yet to come.
One of the hearing aid concepts created in MIT’s Product Design and Development class.
So far the team has created an array of initial ideas, ranging from an over the ear hearing aid that looks like a pair of running headphones, to a teddy bear that holds the electronics during charging and has its own hearing aid. The team's prior experience in the domains of product design and international development along with their enthusiasm and creativity bode well for the concepts they will develop this Spring. We cant wait to see what they create next!
Students from MIT & RISD presenting one of their concepts.
Firefly Kicks off Solidworks World 2011
Executive Vice President of Dassault Systèmes and former Solidworks CEO, Jeff Ray, today introduced Project Firefly to the CAD community. After featuring the NeoNurture Incubator in Solidworks World 2009, Jeff used this years conference to express the continued work DtM has accomplished in "truly making a difference in the fight against infant mortality."
Former Solidworks CEO, Jeff Ray, and DtM Designer Will Harris pose with Firefly.
Learn more about Project Firefly
Firefly Featured in Metropolis Magazine
"Nature has spent thousands of years devising countless mechanisms that we have toiled to translate into industrial products. What designers need now is a basic understanding of science in order to utilize biological systems in making our products."
"Light is the basis for the existence of most life on earth, and is an incredibly useful tool when correctly utilized. The ability of light to power, nurture, and heal has been understood by humans for centuries and still is the basis for much of our lives.
Of course, human dependence on natural light has a large part to play in the design world as well. Design That Matters has hatched a clever way to cheaply (and effectively) treat infant Jaundice. Dubbed “Firefly”, this light-therapy device cures the newborn by shining a certain spectrum of blue light on him. The blue light penetrates through the skin, changing the molecular structure of the jaundice, allowing the baby to pass it through urine."
- Matthew Kihm, Science and Design, Metropolis Magazine, 25Jan2011
The Firefly Phototherapy Alpha Prototype illuminated.
WE CARE Solar’s Design for Impact Lab Feedback Implemented in Solar Suitcase for Liberia
After our recent Design for Impact Lab with WE CARE Solar, Dr. Laura Stachel was able to immediately use both the techniques we practiced and suggestions we made to improve her prototype for release in Liberia in March. Only one week later, WE CARE Solar integrated a number of our suggestions from the short session into the next iteration of the Solar Suitcase including adding icons, relocating switches to optimize the user experience, helping minimize dust in the field, and more. In the words of Dr. Stachel, “needless to say...you took us a great deal forward.”
These new changes are a true testament to the power of design, and its ability to break down a system into tangible parts. We hope Dr. Stachel and WE CARE Solar are able to continue using the tools gained within the Design for Impact Lab to further refine their work, allowing them to have a larger impact with their wonderful work. Good luck WE CARE Solar!
WE CARE Solar Co-Founder Dr. Laura Stachel, using the methods she learned during DtM's Design for Impact Lab, to revise and refine the design of Solar Suitcase.
About “Design for Impact Labs”
Design that Matters’ Design for Impact Lab offering gives social enterprises a chance to get valuable advice from experts in design thinking methodologies. Over the course of 1 hour, the Design that Matters team tackles a challenge of the organization’s choosing ranging from how to conduct inspiring user research to detailed engineering problem-solving ...
About WE CARE Solar
WE CARE Solar promotes safe motherhood and reduces maternal mortality in developing regions by providing health workers with reliable lighting, mobile communication, and blood bank refrigeration using solar electricity.
Learn more about WE CARE Solar
The revised Solar Suitcase designed by WE CARE Solar after the DtM Design for Impact Lab
Next Limit Technologies Donates Software to Help Design that Matters Receive Better Feedback From Users
After hearing more about DtM's work at Solidworks World 2011, Next Limit Technologies donated several licenses of Maxwell Render to Design that Matters (DtM). When talking in San Antonio, the DtM team expressed the importance of being able to accurately convey their concepts to users across the world, while not having to travel to that location every time a concept is created. Next Limit recognized this need and offered to donate its state of the art photo realistic rendering program, Maxwell Render.
With Maxwell Render, DtM will now be able to create realistic, in context renderings of recent concepts, bridging the gap between cultures. Thank you Next Limit Technologies!
ABOUT NEXT LIMIT TECHNOLOGIES.
The mission of Next Limit Technologies is to provide cutting edge simulation technologies for a broad range of applications in Computer Graphics, Science and Engineering. Next Limit boasts a young, multidisciplinary team with expertise in physics, mathematics, computer graphics, engineering and visualization. They all share a common vision for the creation of new products that connect science, simulation and visualization using novel paradigms and innovative methodologies.
Next Limit's products include "RealFlow" (fluid and dynamics simulation for 3D visual effects), "Maxwell Render" (physically accurate light simulation and render engine) and "XFlow" (CFD software for engineering and scientific applications).
A rendering of Project Firefly, created with Next Limit Technologies state of the art rendering program, Maxwell Render.
RISD profiles DtM Designer Will Harris
"Harris initially got involved in the project as a senior via an Industrial Design Advanced Studio Course titled Product Design and Development. “It was a really great course. It paired with two programs at MIT, LGO (Leaders for Global Operations) as well as their Sloan School of Management, so you get these joint teams of business majors, engineers, and designers,” Harris said. The course, taught by Matt Kressy, brought in various companies who would pitch projects to the students. Harris chose a project pitched by Design that Matters to create a low cost phototherapy device for curing infant jaundice."
"In speaking to how he felt his RISD education applied to this experience, Harris said, “I think RISD forces you to challenge things and really not accept what’s ‘good enough.’ I think especially in the development of that course it forced me to push the concepts of what was truly ‘good enough,’ giving me an advantage over others without that background.” Harris also gave credit to the great shop equipment and material courses in the department that taught him how to actually fabricate objects, even with limited resources. “Just being able to understand simple metal bending and various materials techniques gave me a great advantage that many design students don’t have the ability to learn,” he said. “RISD is really good at that.”"
- Carly Ayres, Will Harris | Design that Matters, RISD ID Blog, 01Feb2011
DtM Designer Will Harris unveiling the Firefly Phototherapy Alpha Prototype in Dai Tu District Hospital, Vietnam.
The Hindu highlights Design that Matters
“Firefly is a similar project that we are working with East Meets West Foundation. We found that two-thirds of all newborns are afflicted with jaundice within the first 48 hours of life. If left untreated, the disease could leave children with serious neurological disorders,” Mr Will Harris, one of the three-member team of Design That Matters, told Business Line.
A few bouts of exposure to phototherapy would help get rid of the problem. But majority of children, particularly those in countries like India, could not afford to go for phototherapy sessions as they are expensive.
The Cambridge company has also taken up Project Firefly, and developed a prototype of phototherapy unit using 3D design capabilities which is ‘significantly' cheaper than those available in the market."
- K.V. Kurmanath, Old car parts bring to life hospital incubators , The Hindu Business Line, 01Feb2011
Firefly, a low cost phototherapy device, designed to be manufactured with locally accessible materials.
To read more Design that Matters news, return to the DtM Blog Main Page, or choose one of the article archives from the drop-down menus at the top of this page.
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Check out our 2012 Annual Report!
After a banner year in 2012 with projects in agriculture and newborn health, we look forward to conquering the next challenges in global health, pushing the boundaries of rapid prototyping as an affordable manufacturing technique for our designs, and setting the bar for design standards and practices to benefit developing world communities.
DtM's Elizabeth Johansen Profiled on Womenetics
Design that Matters' Director of Product Development, Elizabeth Johansen, was profiled for the online periodical, Womenetics.
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