graphic design>product design>craft

“The collection is the outcome of group research interrogating glass objects of varied ethnic and historical origins — Lebanese, Italian, Egyptian and French to name a few. Each final piece is a hybrid object, juxtaposing and challenging possibilities, to create surprising, eclectic, multicultural objects. Importantly the designers worked closely with each other and Massimo Lunardon throughout the process, permitting a vocabulary to be built together, from the initial drawings to the free blowing of the objects in the Artisan Workshop. The richness of Shared Glass is in the tension between community and uniqueness, characterized by the particular mix of interesting people, and what is possible when they talk together around a table.”

http://www.fabrica.it/project/shared-glass

TED talk by Tim Brown of IDEO, worth watching for inspiration on larger design projects.

Design is too important to be left to designers.

Tim Brown of IDEO suggests a different view of design- less on objects and more on design thinking. He calls for a shift to local, collaborative, participatory “design thinking.” Integrative thinking- ability to exploit opposing ideas and opposing contraints to create new solutions. Application of design thinking to tackle new kinds of problems. Design is human centered as it always starts with what humans need.

Here’s a pdf of the project’s brief: Project_Masiluleke_Brief

Key contacts: Leetha Filderman, PopTech, leetha@poptech.org
Krista Dong, MD, iTEACH, woodil.iteach@gmail.com
Zinhle Thabethe, iTEACH, zinny.iteach@gmail.com
Gustav Praekelt, Praekelt Foundation, gustav@praekeltfoundation.org
Robert Fabricant, frog design, robert.fabricant@frogdesign.com

From PopTech site: http://poptech.org/project_m

Project Masiluleke is a signature program of the PopTech Accelerator – a social innovation incubator designed to foster breakthrough, interdisciplinary solutions to pressing global challenges. The Accelerator aligns world-class companies, foundations, NGOs, funders and thought leaders to collaborate on outcomes none could achieve independently. Each PopTech Accelerator program will focus on using new technologies and approaches to effect scalable, replicable and sustainable social change.
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When Krista Dong and Zinhle Thabethe came to the 2006 PopTech conference in Camden, Maine, they hoped to expand their fight against HIV/AIDS, one of South Africa’s greatest problems. They were the founders of iTEACH, an HIV/AIDS and TB prevention and treatment program in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Impressed by their story, conference organizers and Robert Fabricant of frog design came together with iTEACH to address these real-world challenges through the conference’s vision – accelerating social innovation through technology.

http://www.frogdesign.com/work/project-m.html – more photos and a video
http://poptech.org/project_m 

Almost 90 percent of people in South Africa own a mobile phone, allowing Project M to use mobile technology in three crucial ways: to encourage use of low-cost diagnostic test kits (which frog created; see video, below); to walk patients through the at-home testing process; and to guide people into care should they need it and encourage healthy preventative behaviors if they don’t.

1 Million Texts Per Day

Project M launched its first phase in 2009 when a text message was sent to 1 million phones to encourage people to be tested and treated for HIV/AIDS. The Economistcalled it “the world’s largest field trial in mobile health technology.” This campaign helped triple the average daily call volume to the National AIDS Helpline, encouraging more than 150,000 people to reach out for information.

Since the initial launch, we’ve done more extensive user testing and added treatment and compliance reminders in the form of an SMS-based alert system for HIV and TB patients. Our long-term goal is to show how mobile technology can positively influence healthcare issues in Africa, so we can build a series of alliances around the world that bring together mobile operators and distributed diagnostics.

The Future of Digital Healthcare

We see a future in which local healthcare providers, NGOs, and government agencies can log onto a website and configure a cost-effective diagnostic solution tailored and scaled to their needs. They will be able to increase access to diagnostic tools and regimens in some of the world’s most under-served regions.

Article from the Economist

Project Masiluleke, or Project M for short, has been a cause celebre in several design subfields since its primary announcement last October. The project, which centers on text messaging to distribute information about HIV/AIDS treatment in deeply afflicted parts of South Africa, has been warmly praised by interaction designers, proponents of socially conscious design, advocates of technological leapfrogging in the developing world, and much of the design and innovation press as well (like Fast Company…and us).

If there were any concerns that this was a well-meaning but impractical solution that succeeded better in the minds of designers than the hands of users, though, they can be confidently put to rest, as this special reporton health care and technology in April 16th’s Economist points out.

The article, aimed at as pragmatic an audience as any publication on earth, introduces the project with a touch of skepticism, observing that “modern wizardry like molecular diagnostics and digital medical records seem irrelevant” in much of the developing world, and describing initial doubts about the effectiveness of high-tech to improve lives in the poor places of the world, by none other than Bill Gates.

It then proceeds to note that “the response has been spectacular,” and outlines numerous related health care projects in Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere that are succeeding in providing services to populations that had formerly been written off as unreachable:

The most promising applications of mHealth for now are public-health messaging, stitching together smart medical grids, extending the reach of scarce health workers and establishing surveillance networks for infectious diseases. The use of the technology is spreading: a recent report funded by the UN Foundation and the Vodafone Foundation, two charities, documented more than four dozen projects across the developing world.

It’s truly wonderful to see such an idea catch on and gain traction — one that’s both clever and full of conscience — but a little bit of a bummer that the design expertise that’s made it so successful gets such short mention. Project M is introduced as a co-operative project between South African outreach program iTeach, mobile carrier MTN, and “American academics and several other innovative groups.” Careful followers of the project will recognize that frogdesign is one of those “innovative groups,” and the extensive effort the consultancy has put into the structure of the project and some of its future extensions (like a locally appropriate testing kit, which the article does mention) has been key.

Still, we’re not complaining. In a design environment where the most awarded products rarely make an impact on more than a handful of enthusiasts, a project with this kind of global reach and positive influence is worth a little short shrift.

COOPA-ROCA in Brazil is similar to Kala Raksha in India in that they combine craft and design to generate income for poor communities.

COOPA-ROCA, Rocinha Seamstress and Craftwork Co-operative Ltd., is a cooperative that trains, manages, and coordinates the work of female residents of Rocinha, who produce artisanal pieces for fashion and design markets.

The Cooperative was established in the early 1980s, with the mission of providing the conditions for its members, female residents of Rocinha, to work from home, thereby contributing to their family budget without having to neglect their childcare and domestic responsibilities.

The work developed at COOPA-ROCA has allowed the craftswomen to improve their quality of life and, indirectly, that of their families. In addition to allowing Artisans to work from home and supplement their family income, COOPA-ROCA contributes to improve their vocational skills, and to foster growth in self-esteem and collective learning.

With a professional approach, COOPA-ROCA values artisanal production based on the continuous improvement of cooperative members. COOPA-ROCA’s vision is to expand the social impact of its experience in Rocinha, becoming a national reference for the social integration of low-income communities. Today the Cooperative includes approximately 100 Artisans.