Studio Technical Drawings Resubmit

Capstone Proposal

THE ISSUE:

This capstone project is aimed at decreasing the negative impacts of long term hospitalised children for Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). The products are designed to assist young primary school aged patients in their rehabilitation and treatment of CKD. The goal is to help encourage understanding and growth of these patients, reducing hospital time, and ensuring less of a negative impact left on the child.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) and renal failure (RF) have been recognised as a significant medical problem for most of the last 2 centuries and, until relatively recently, were uniformly fatal. Chronic kidney disease is characterised by an irreversible deterioration of renal function that gradually progresses to end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Chronic kidney disease has emerged as a serious public health problem.

SIGNIFICANCE:

(Data gathered from the Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) registry, Kidney Health Australia, ItalKid and North American Pediatric Renal Transplant Cooperative Study (NAPRTCS))

• The incidence of kidney failure is rising among adults and is commonly associated with poor outcomes and high cost.

• In the past 2 decades, the incidence of the chronic kidney disease in children has steadily increased, with poor and ethnic minority children disproportionately affected.

• Children constituted 5.3% of patients with chronic kidney disease seen in a referral hospital.

• Studies reported a mean incidence of 12.1 cases per year per million in the age-related population (age range, 8.8-13.9 y) and a prevalence of 74.7 per million in this population.

• However, underreporting due to lack of recognition may suggest an even higher prevalence in children.

• About 70% of children with chronic kidney disease develop ESRD by age 20 years. They have a 10-year survival rate of about 80% and an age-specific mortality rate of about 30 times that seen in children without ESRD.

• The risk of death was associated with the year in which renal replacement therapy was initiated, the age of patients at the start of that therapy, and the type of dialysis used.

BENEFITS:

Everyone who has kidney failure, adults and children alike, will experience medical complications, which may include extreme fatigue, inability to concentrate, weak bones, nerve damage, depression, and sleep problems. Additional problems for children can include effects on their growth and development.

The isolation people feel because of kidney failure is especially a problem in children and adolescents because of the importance of making friends and fitting in at this age. The products designed will hopefully aid in ensuring that a child with kidney failure can become an active, well-adjusted adult.

How does this project suit your abilities or interests?

I first looked into this project because as a child, I had a family friend who suffered from chronic kidney disease (CKD), and it affected her in all aspects of her life. I didn’t understand the implication or extent of it, I just recalled that her bedroom always had devices which resembled a hospital. These machines were large and bulky, and took up a considerable amount of room. Looking back, from a complete stranger’s point of view, the equipment design made it fearful to touch or use, and it was alienating to visitors.

Recalling this now, I wanted to have a close look at CKD, and redesign the main devices used throughout the treatment course.  I wanted to incorporate the treatment devices into everyday use, and encourage those who have questions, to ask. I wanted to be able redesign medical devices for regular household use, because to someone who suffers from CKD, these treatments mean life or death.

I also believe that the childhood years are of the utmost importance. The medical products today for CKD are not geared towards being user-friendly in homes, and definitely do not account for children. There needs to be a change in this, because there has been a rise in the rate of diagnosis of CKD in children in the last two decades.

What is your approach or method to ensure that you deeply understand your problem topic and your user?

To ensure that I really understand the problem at hand I will be completing the following measures:

•  Primary research: Interviewing patients, and family and friends of patients. Hospital staff could provide in depth understanding as well.
• Secondary research: Reading scholarly articles, researching into existing designs and understanding the technology involved.
• Character profiles: Building character profiles of my user, and in this case, primary school children. This will help better understand who I’m designing for.
• Behavioural mapping: Understanding how my user behaves, documenting their activities during a certain time. E.g. treatment times during the week.
•  Draw from the experience: Similarly to character profiles, but gathering how their experience has affected them, and designing to combat negativity, or to encourage a faster healing process.
•  Scale modelling/experience prototyping: Working closely with my target market, and creating a product that encompasses what they need in their lives. 

Studio Week 11

The idea behind SwiftGift is a convenient, no fuss way to donate to a good cause. There are 6 main reasons why people don’t donate, and some of those reasons are Parochialism – where people need to find a relatable cause, Diffusion of Responsibility – where they assume others will donate and Money - where directly asking for money makes people less willing to give. So targeting these 3 points in particular, SwiftGift aims to steer people into a fuss-free, gratitude inducing donation scheme. Research shows that when people feel good about giving, they’re likely to donate more often, and thus more.

Consumers don’t want to be deterred from their daily errands in order to just make a donation, so SwiftGift incorporates its donation scheme into the lives of these consumers seamlessly. It targets those who want to give to a good cause, and supports petrol stations which are aiming to do the same thing. The idea behind SwiftGift is to educate consumers while they are standing idle waiting for the tank to fill, and thus give them the choice of helping those in need. As they fill up, there is an automatic 1c p/L added to their bill, and on the side of the screen there is a metre showing them just how their donation will help those less fortunate than them. This idea basically works off the fact that they have control of the trigger, so the donation is up to them.

Of course it is not compulsory to give, so there is an option to decline from making a donation. However, this is option is placed after the consumer has been educated on how their donation helps, so instead there is a larger incentive to help.

Peer Comments:

• Dominic See - http://dominicsee.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/project-2-pss-collaborative-consumption.html?showComment=1382310678970#c2853954135901266326
• Christina Le - http://christinaale.wordpress.com/2013/10/20/pss-collaborative-consumption/#comment-69
• Rowena Goodall - http://rowenagoodall.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/blog-post.html?showComment=1382856638256#c145726094459557667
• Matthew Patane - http://mpatanestudio3b.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/final-presentation.html?showComment=1382856856387#c9119791491911998835
• Christine Liang - http://mad-attic.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/fabric-pots.html?showComment=1382857046305#c649665151882252420

Studio Week 10

Today i presented this powerpoint to Tom.

Tom gave me some really good feedback, and drew my attention to my system map in particular. He said that it had to be more focused on how it affected the user, and the steps they took to complete the task. With that in mind, i'm going to redraw the entire thing. He also gave me a lot to think about in terms of the service i was providing. I had to make it seem more realistic and achievable. 

Studio Week 7

Today was the first consultation with our new tutors for Project 2. My tutor was Tom, and i presented him with 3 ideas to do with my chosen brief for the RSA Student Awards: Innovation in giving or 
fundraising: how can we encourage people to be more generous with their time and money for good causes.

Feedback From Tutor:

Tom particularly liked the first two concepts, and said that out of the 3 they were the ones with the most "innovation", and i agreed. For my first concept, he suggested i look at ways i could activate sensors from the car: e.g. flashing of lights or beeping of horns. We talked over a couple ideas, but i realised i had to do some research to see if the technology would be advanced enough to do what i needed it to. Tom suggested that for my second concept, instead of putting it in a public place such as shopping centres, i should consider implementing this into places such as the airport. But he liked the consideration that the money could go towards different charities, and donation boxes would be placed in multiple areas along the escalator.

Feedback From Peers:

I talked to Christina Le about my designs, and she liked the concepts, however was worried if maybe working the etag with one hand might be dangerous whilst driving. I also talked to Max Glanville about my designs, and he took a particular liking to my first one. He said i should include a 'fun' factor into donating, by possible uses of a billboard.

Other Tutor Session:

I listened in on Mar speaking with some of his students, and he suggested that a lot the ideas had been done previously. He said that we needed to think of more innovative ways to conduct our project, and suggested we get inspiration from what has already been done, and what needs to be done.