Reducing the Inequity Gap: Designing for Affordability
Under that theme, the top three winners of the 7th annual Design Challenge at the Stanford Center on Longevity were announced today. Following this contest since its inception in 2013, for fun I always review the finalists and choose my top three, and compare to the actual outcome. In addition, each year I do follow-ups on previous winners to see how they have progressed in the global marketplace. Part of the Design Challenge Introduction for this year’s event by Director Ken Smith was a special note to the potential entrants about what Stanford meant by Affordability:
“What is affordable in a major city in a developed country may be out of reach for those in a rural developing nation. For that reason, we are asking you to go beyond just projecting a cost for your design. We also want you to tell us about your target market and why you believe your solution is affordable in that context.”
In my January 28th post, I also added, significant to this, the notion of Accessibility. At what point do any of these affordable product designs gain enough traction in any market so that they are readily recognizable, available and practically beneficial to everyday people? Affordability + Accessibility. However, what Ken Smith and the Stanford team or any of us could not ever have anticipated at the time was the arrival of the COVID-19 global pandemic.
Design Challenges for Affordability + Accessibility + Necessity
So as I was reviewing the videos of the eight Design Challenge finalists, a third important element came to mind – necessity. Most of the technology design contestant’s presentations addressed the urgent health necessities of populations around the world and strongly drew attention to the inequities experienced within unhealthy environments, from African countries such as Ghana, to India and China. In a demonstration of the timeliness of health inequity, one presentation directly referenced COVID-19
Looking at the designs through this lens made it harder to determine a winner for this year. Perhaps I viewed it with immediacy of humanitarian needs fulfillment in mind. The health necessities addressed ranged from water purification to food-borne illnesses reduction to child immunization tracking, and more. The technologies adopted were quite diverse, from low to high tech and some that were purely tangible material design, not based directly on things like robotics or artificial intelligence.
In the end therefore, these became my choices, which to a certain degree were because of the globally pervasive narratives told as they have been for some time. You can click on the links to view each video, which for the first time in the Design Challenge made it more universally open to public view. Normally these presentations are at a face-to-face event but are all on Vimeo, due to the pandemic and physically distancing. Let’s see if this becomes the standard for next year.
Shishu, Sui aur Dhaaga (Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, India) – Translates from Hindi to “Child, Needle and Thread.” Converts a common local cultural practice into an immunization tracker for infants in migration, using a version of a bracelet called a Nazar Band.
SoCOOL Affordable Solar Cooling and Filtration Technology (Pan-African University, Algeria) – A solar powered refrigerator intended to preserve food longer and reduce food-borne illnesses.
The First Desk (Beijing Institute of Technology, China) – An extremely low cost education station for rural families left behind. This also accomplishes inter-generational connectivity and home school educational needs. Very topical right now and into the future.
So how did I do? Two out of three – almost spot on as it happens – the top three for this year’s Stanford Longevity Design Challenge are:
1st Place – Shishu, Sui aur Dhaaga
2nd Place – School in the Sky
3rd Place – The First Desk
You can see here all the videos for the eight finalists. Who knows what the theme for 2020/21 Challenge will be but one thing is for sure, the promise of our longevity, how we experience aging in a healthier more prepared decade will be the top agenda for current and future generations. New technologies respectful of basic and immediate human needs will be in demand.