Losing your hearing is a problem, no matter where in the world you live

The project is based around designing a hearing aid that will be remanufactured from unused, yet perfectly functional, NHS hearing aids and distributed in less economically developed countries.The aim is for the hearing aid to be suitable for use straight after delivery with diagnosis and fitting carried out by the user or anyone, regardless of whether or not they have a medical background.

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Initial Investigation

The current lifecycle of the hearing aids was investigated and the obstacles and opportunities in the hearing aids second life considered.

Personas

Primary research wasn’t possible, however information from secondary research was fed into the design process primarily through a set of personas, selected with view not just to present conditions in Afghanistan but with an optimistic outlook in which infrastructure conditions have improved and more people will be in education having missed out whilst at school going age.

Prototyping / Ergonomics testing

A lot was learnt from carrying out user interview questionnaires which was helpful in developing the project. Below is the third iteration, the testing was accompanied by an interview/questionnaire.

Final Product

The product – with a simple assembly process,instructions,packaging and service outline were all key deliverables.

Evaluation

The overall project was evaluated by Thomas Fiddian (senior designer at RNID).The service outline was evaluated by Ray Mines of Motivation, a charity which teaches communities in various developing countries to design & build wheelchairs.

Making urban housing more sociable

This project was not just about social housing but about how to make all housing more sociable for emotional wellbeing and environmental reasons. It culminated in a 31 page document outlining Spaced Out’s philosophy on sociable housing to be used as a tool to explain and prompt feed-back.

Does everybody need everything?

The world has a finite amount of resources. This means there can be only a finite amount of washing machines, fridges and televisions. Do twenty households need twenty washing machines? Sharing facilities was a key idea presented, along with others such as increasing people’s weak ties (acquaintances not in your inner social circle) through living corridors.

Document Design

Planning documents are often dull and barely read. Designing an engaging document for the audience – planners and developers was a key aim.

Insights and ideas on how a social network might help reconnect people, land and food

Agrarian Renaissance, advocates of sustainable farming were seeking guidance on designing a service to help people connect with the food they eat, the farmers that grow it and the land it grows on.

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Insights

A wide selection of farmers (five in total) were interviewed, chosen to give a balanced perspective. How farmers engage with technology was a key aspect therefore young farmers as well as old were chosen. These insights were presented to members of live|work team & Agrarian Renaissance so a ‘hot house’ could be conducted to generate ideas.

Ideas

The ideas and propositions were developed into four presentation boards. It was proposed that ‘consumers’ would join as families as this is how shopping is conducted and food consumed. A visual way of displaying the food grown in your locality was a key idea as well as a system for farmers to gauge how much support there is for a new project.