Our team conducted desk research and literature reviews to better understand the impact lack of access to clean water has on people’s lives.
When disasters hit, they can destroy or contaminate entire water supplies, such as water points, wells and wastewater treatment facilities.In the aftermath of disasters, infectious disease outbreaks are common due to the spread of sewage, the breakdown of water and sanitation services and the diminished ability to practice good hygiene.
Our team also conducted research on space technologies that can be used to solve issues related to water. Through research, we discovered two space technologies that we believed could be utilized to address our problem space
To determine the added value our solution can add and to identify gaps to fill, our team conducted benchmarking. We compared our design concept with the current solutions available, looking at distribution and ease of use and/or installation.
While there are a number of other methods to either distribute or filter clean water during disaster relief situations (life straws, boiled water, bottled water), they all experienced roadblocks when it comes to quick mass distribution requiring minimal manpower.
In our design, we sought to address this issue by ensuring that not only will it easily provide access to community members in need, but that its ease and independent use will lift the burden on relief workers.
During the early stages of our design process, we found it challenging to narrow down the problem space. Once we identified access to clean water as our problem space, we were unsure about whether the problem would focus on solving a system-level issue or a temporary issue at the individual level. Creating an affinity diagram and a journey map helped us get through these chaotic phases.
We created an affinity diagram to help us narrow down our ideas into concrete themes. We compiled a list of design considerations and categorized them into an affinity diagram by themes. Potential solutions for all 5 categories included using Nanoceram and Aquaporin
A journey map was created to visualize the steps users would go through while interacting with the Ominet system to achieve their goal of accessing clean, filtered water after a natural disaster occurs.
After compiling a list of design considerations, our team used the value vs. effort matrix to evaluate various features and make structured feature prioritization decisions
Our team created two user flows, one from the point of view of a community member and another from the point of view of an Ominet operator
Creating a user flow from the point of view of a community member helped guide our design ideas and allowed us to visualize the various interaction points that users would encounter throughout their journeys.
Creating a user flow from the point of view of an Ominet operator helped us understand how to connect the various systems as well as pinpoint vital information needed for our design. It allowed us to visualize the various interaction points that users would encounter throughout their journeys.
As a team, we decided early on that we wanted to include various shades of blue throughout our design to represent water and cleanliness. We utilized cool blues and neutral colours throughout our system to keep the theme coherent. We felt that these colours would invoke a non-threatening and calming motif for the product and its user interface.
Our goal was to build an autonomous system that was simple and efficient to deploy, allowing our systems to easily be shipped by train, plane, truck or ship. The rest of our designs within the system were inspired by autonomous machines, we hoped to create a “water robot” which would go on to be known as the Camel within The Ominet.
When designing the user interface, the design team created different iterations of the initial wireframes. Our sketches allowed us to develop some initial ideas.
We collectively went through each design, discussing the various features and ideas that we liked and disliked, and incorporated all the things we liked into a final design that would become our high-fidelity prototype.
Before focusing on visual design, we wanted to focus on the functionality and flow of information for these interfaces.Our focus for each screen was to create an easy view of information for users. We wanted to ensure that the flow of information is as seamless and consistent as possible across each page.
After conducting a round of usability testing, our team decided to implement the following changes into our high-fidelity user testing:
Introducing The Ominet, a digital product that is used to monitor all systems involved in the water filtration and transportation process remotely.
Using The Ominet, an operator is able to keep track of the locations, battery life, filter health, water levels and quality of the different systems all across the globe and quickly send an alert to deploy someone to fix any issues found, such as low filter health.
I enjoyed working in an interdisciplinary team because it allowed me and my team to experience different ideas, concepts and design approaches. We all had varying opinions which made the design process more enjoyable as we were constantly challenging each other and building on each other’s ideas.
Overall, the entire design process was interesting and it was particularly enjoyable to design a product that could potentially help save the lives of people in the aftermath of a natural disaster and could be deployed in communities with poor water infrastructures.
If you like what you see and want to work together, get in touch!
taniodukale@gmail.com
