ME 309: DESIGN PROJECT

PRODUCT DESIGN OPPORTUNITIES

GROUP SUPERVISOR: Dr. MATEREGO

SEARCH FIELD: HEALTH CENTRES OR DISPENSARIES IN DAR ES SALAAM

GROUP MEMBERS:

• Laiser, Debra Elibariki

According to design methodology course (ME 201), There are basically three techniques of
opportunity identification. These are as follows;
➢ Product planning and innovation
➢ Looking around and deep thinking
➢ Field search
The design project however, emphasizes on field search technique, as it requires students (in
distinct groups) to identify product opportunities from a given search field followed by
finding a design solution. Eleven search fields were proposed including design, production
and central workshops at CoET, UDSM, Material Technology and building materials
laboratories at CoET, UDSM, TDTC workshop at CoET, UDSM, and secondary schools in
Dar es Salaam to mention a few. For the case of our group, the search field provided was
Health Centres or Dispensaries in Dar es Salaam. The coming sections illustrate the
procedural approach done to obtain product design opportunities on the basis of our search
field.
SUB – SEARCH FIELDS/ TRIGGERS
With the aid of group brainstorming, the given search field (health centers or dispensaries)
was broken down into the following triggers where an effective investigation can be
performed to obtain product design opportunities;
➢ Laundry and washroom conditions
➢ Waiting corridors/environments
➢ Waste and sewage management systems
➢ Water supply
➢ Patient handling facilities (in wards, dressing and examination/consultancy rooms i.e
hospital beds, doors, seats and wheelchairs to mention a few)
➢ Laboratory facilities
➢ Physiotherapy equipment
➢ Surrounding environment
POTENTIAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION
To obtain useful and deeper information at the trigger sites, the group has organized the
sources in three main groups, where distinct results are expected from each group with the aid
of interviewing techniques. The sources are grouped as;
➢ Skilled staff: this category involves all workers with some professional skills in the
field of medicine or health matters. Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, counselors,
receptionists, cashiers, and laboratory technicians constitute this group.
➢ Manual staff: as the name suggests, all manual laborers working in the visited health
Center such as laundry workers, gardeners, and sanitation workers fall under this
group.
➢ Patients: this constitutes a sample from the population of all victims receiving medical
treatments at a given health center or dispensary. In addition, the non-sick people who
have escorted their sick patients are also part and parcel of the group.
FIELD SEARCH TOOLS
As instructed in the design project task, searching product opportunities at the fields was
achieved via the following methods/ tools;
➢ Brain storming within the groups
➢ Making observations, studying the situation and taking pictures
➢ Interviewing workers and other relevant stakeholders (section 1.2), followed by
documentation of collected information.
The group managed to visit a total three search fields, two health centres and one dispensary
for investigating the demanded product design opportunities. These fields are;
➢ University of Dar es Salaam Health Centre: located within the main campus, less than
100 meters from the Cafeteria bus stop.
➢ Sinza Health Centre: located in Ubungo MC Sinza C, opposite to palestina bus stop at
Shekilango road.
➢ ARAFA Dispensary located at ubungo few steps from unungo maji DART terminal.
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
The group managed to prepare a set of questions for each group of potential information
sources (i.e. skilled staff, manual staff and patients) where first hand information was
collected and further aided in generation of product design ideas in conjunction with the rest
field search tools (i.e observation, taking pictures and brain storming).
I. Interview questions for the skilled staff

➢ Has there been any complaint about the safety of your professional facilities?
➢ If yes, kindly share some or all of them with us
➢ Would you propose any alterations or modifications to improve the quality and
effectiveness of the facilities?
➢ How many patients do you serve per shift, is that number limited by the nature of
your facilities?
➢ On a scale of one to ten, can you give a comment about the possible contamination
risks during service provision?
➢ If the scale is high (>3), what possible solution would you recommend?
➢ Lastly, if there is any facility or equipment that is not present in your service
environment but you wish it was as it could make your work easier, what would it be?
II. Interview questions for manual staff
➢ What is the equipment or facilities that you use to perform your daily tasks?
➢ How good are they in terms of ergonomics and performance?
➢ How friendly do you find the waste and sewage management systems in relation to
the environment here at the centre?
➢ If not so friendly, then why, and what would you recommend?
➢ Would you propose any alterations or modifications to improve the quality and
effectiveness of the facilities?
➢ Lastly, if there is any facility or equipment that is not present in your service
environment but you wish it was as it could make your work easier, what would it be?
III. Interview questions for the patients

➢ How comfortable do you get with the place and the facilities addressed to you? i.e
beds, mosquito nets, wheel chair, seats/benches e.t.c
➢ Do you feel safe with them?
➢ If not, then why, and what would you recommend?
➢ Do you have any comment on the hygiene status of the centre?
➢ Would you propose any alterations or modifications to improve the quality and
effectiveness of the facilities?
➢ Lastly, if there is any facility or equipment that is not available here and you think it
would make the service provision even better, then what would it be?
PRODUCT DESIGN IDEAS
I. FROM UDSM HEALTH CENTRE ;
a. Product design ideas from UDSM health centre
➢ Hospital bed
➢ Foot operated door handle
➢ Patient hammock
➢ Kick bucket
➢ Garden trolley
➢ Dustbin for waste disposal
➢ Cleaning cart
➢ Comfortable waiting bench/ chair
➢ Walkers
➢ Walking crutches
II. FROM EDWARD MICHAUD HEALTH CENTRES
b.Product design ideas from Edward Michaud Health Centre
➢ Hand trucks
➢ Blood draw chair
➢ Labor table
➢ Medication cart
➢ Handwash Basin stand
➢ Ladder and step facility
➢ Garden Scissors
➢ Wheelbarrow
➢ Wheelchair
➢ Foot step double
➢ Medical Height and weight scale
III. FROM ARAFA DISPENSARY
c. Product design ideas from Arafa Dispensary
➢ Sliding door
➢ Examination lamp support
➢ Baby Cradle
➢ Cleaning Cart
➢ Waste Dustbin
➢ Manually operated washing Machine for laundry
➢ Toilet Paper Holder
➢ Foldable Hospital bed
➢ Foot Operated handwashing machine
EVAUATION OF GATHERED IDEAS
Using SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) the above product
design ideas were filtered to obtain the following five best ideas for prioritization.
➢ Labor table
➢ Wheel chair
➢ Hospital bed
➢ Examination lamp support
➢ Medication Cart
PRIORITIZATION
The filtered product ideas were judged using Rating and weighting matrix method , whereby
the following general criteria were used;
➢ Degree of Demand (crit 1): the product idea with higher demand possibilities will be
given more consideration in the matrix and vice versa.
➢ Cost of Production ( crit 2): refers to how cheap or expensive a product idea can be
implemented . cheaper ideas are given more priority than the expensive ones.
➢ Manufacturability ( crit 3): the easiness of manufacturing a product after the design is
complete. The easier the manufacturability, the higher the weight and rating in the
matrix.
➢ Availability of materials (crit 4): the focus here is the extent to which the materials
required can be obtained. A product idea with more material availability will be given
more priority in the matrix. The opposite is also true for an idea whose material are
not easily available.
➢ Usability ( crit 5): the emphasis is on the ergonomics point of view. An idea that is
more ergonomic is considered more useful and hence more weight and rating is given
to it.
➢ Relevance ( crit 6): a product idea that is more relevant as far as the field is concerned
will be given more credit in the matrix than the one with less relevance based on the
group opinions.
Key
1=poor
2=satisfactory
3=good
4=very good
5=excellent
 RATING AND WEIGHTING MATRIX

Criteria Factor Weight PRODUCT 1 PRODUCT 2 PRODUCT3 PRODUCT4 PRODUCT 5

Weight Score Weight Score Weight Score Weight Score Weight Score
Crit 1 5 0.250 3 0.75 4 1.000 3 0.75 4 1.00 1 0.25

Crit 2 4.5 0.225 2 0.45 4 0.90 1 0.225 5 0.9 2 0.45

Crit 3 4 0.200 4 0.800 4 0.800 4 0.8 3 0.60 1 0.20

Crit 4 3.5 0.175 3 0.525 2 0.35 3 0.525 3 0.525 2 0.35

Crit 5 2 0.100 5 0.500 4 0.4 5 0.5 5 0.500 4 0.40

Crit 6 1 0.050 3 0.15 5 0.15 3 0.15 4 0.2 3 0.15

1.000 3.175 3.6 2.95 3.725 1.75