Course: Industrial Design Fundamentals-In Practice | Carnegie Mellon University
Project Team: Josh Jenkins | Jeremy Jiang | Ming Li | Mo Zhang
OBJECTIVE:
To research, develop, design, and prototype a first aid kit for a self-defined target user group.
RESEARCH & DIRECTION:
We started the project by generating a list of a variety of contexts in which a first aid kit would be needed. From this, we settled on a first aid kit for universities and college dorms because we thought that, as students, we could easily relate to our target user group. Having selected a direction, we researched the types of injuries that commonly occur at universities and how often they occur. Because of the multitude of activities that take place at a university, we found that a huge range of injuries occur from small cuts to alcohol poisoning. As such, we saw many areas where a typical store bought first aid kit would fall short.
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT:
For our concept, we decided that out first aid kit needed to be large enough to store enough supplies to service an entire floor of a college dorm. The supplies also needed to be easily accessible, and the kit needed to be simple to use and easy to spot and recognize as a first aid kit. This way universities could purchase our first aid kits and place them all over campus. For this part of the project, our team split into two groups with one group working on the graphical interface and presentation of the first aid kit and the other working on the physical prototype of the first aid kit. I was part of the group in charge of making the physical prototype.
FINAL PROTOTYPE:
Our final prototype was a first aid kit that had two interlocking halves. The front half contained the necessary supplies to treat cuts and scrapes, deep wounds, burns, and sprains and strains. The back half contained medicine, sharp tools, and cleaning supplies. The kit was designed to be wall mountable with the front half being easily removable so that the most essential supplies could be brought to any location. All of the supplies in the front half of the kit were strapped to fold out panels that kept things organized and that could be easily laid out on the ground for easy access. Each fold out section was also color coded so that it was easy to locate the correct instruction card. Finally, the front half of the kit was designed with a large red cross decal to make it easy to spot and recognize as a first aid kit.