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“Human-centered design is a creative approach to problem solving.” -IDEO
From May 31, 2017 to July 21, 2017, PennDesign Master Students, Laura Colagrande and Chan Voong, who have a mixture of design, medical, data visualization and public health backgrounds, had the opportunity to visit and work in Botswana. The team conducted a human-centered design exercise with multiple nurses and health care auxiliaries who had experience using Peek Vision technology for screening vision in school-children. The goal was to develop a product that would hold Peek Vision equipment, and encourage optimal, efficient, and sustainable use of Peek and other mHealth technologies. This creative approach in creating a kit to solve workflow inefficiencies was organized into the three HCD phases of inspiration, ideation and implementation. The assignment was led by Ryan Littman-Quinn of mHealth Innovation and Sustainable Development at Penn Center for Global Health and Sarai Williams of PennDesign.
Chan writes:
The project started with the most important people who we were designing for – the users. First and foremost, it was extremely important for us to get to know users and learn about their day-to-day activities. Once a week, we traveled from Gaborone to the Good Hope District and other remote locations to get to know Peek screeners and supervisors who had experience using Peek technology for school screenings. Our first visits focused on sensitization of the project and getting to know screeners at both a work and personal level. As relationships were built, the emphasis of our visits moved towards learning about Peek pilot’s various aspects, understanding Peek pilot’s workflow and finding out what is needed for the Peek Vision kit. These trips served us to witness first hand local challenges and better comprehend cultural attitudes and users’ needs.
In Sekhutlane, a remote location that struggles with internet and electricity, we interviewed two clinic managers who were also Peek screeners. During this interview, they asked us to imagine driving 3 hours to reach the closest grocery store or pharmacy. After a quick google search, we learned that Botswana has 2.26 million people throughout its vast lands (224,607 sq mi). With a population density of 9.6/sq.mi, it was apparent that reliable transportation and access to people and services are the serious challenges that healthcare workers and patients face every day.
Laura writes:
During this journey, we had the opportunity to leave the city of Gaborone, and travel to several areas in Botswana including Good Hope, Molelpolole, Serowe, and Sekhutlhane, as well as to countries like Namibia and South Africa. This exploration provided invaluable insight into other landscapes and cultures. By learning about, immersing in, and understanding user’s lives and environment, we were able to articulate and state what the problems our work had to address. Throughout our multiple site visits, we learned that screeners packaged materials into a brown, paper envelope and then into larger brown boxes for transport from classroom to classroom. Though it was obvious to Peek that they needed a kit to eliminate this problem, it was feared that this wasn’t exactly what the user wanted. Nonetheless, these concerns subsided when screeners unevokingly revealed that they needed a carrying case for their materials. Furthermore, learning about cultural attitudes was essential in understanding what really happens “behind the scenes.” We experienced hierarchical environments, difficulties in decision-making and prioritization, cultural misunderstandings and trust issues, and the desire for short term benefits opposed to long term planning. Of course, these problems are not generalized for Botswana alone, and are often seen as global and systemic conditions.
