Alëna : Balanza Verde Testing

Phase 3 has brought about many changes in my project, the most crucial one of which is switching to a different target audience for the proposed recycling unit. Although, most of the relevant research has been outlined in my Phase 2 report, further research had to be conducted on the interests and lifestyles of elementary students in Lota.

As briefly described in my last post, one of the most touching experiences I’ve had in Lota was a visit to Escuela Adventista. Speaking with the children about their future, listening to one of the girls play violin, and laughing with them has influenced me greatly. The interviews with the children of Lota indicate that they are concerned with the lack of waste management in the city. This includes improper disposal of waste on the streets of Lota, lack of community engagement in the cleanup process, and aggravation of the problem after the February earthquake. Children feel powerless and lack information or incentive on proper disposal of waste. Since children will ultimately be the decision makers for the community, teaching personal responsibility for solid waste early on can only benefit Lota in later years.

Thus, I have decided to invest my time in waste management education program within schools of Lota that teaches about waste reduction, re-use, and recycling strategies, while engaging the students in the process. The project will address a waste management device for schools of Lota to encourage and educate children about benefits of recycling system.



As a result of my shift in focus, the purpose of the device, its aesthetics, and additional functions have been rethought in a more playful way to encourage children to engage with in the process. The user testing will be conducted on the premises of York Street Public School, with the permission of the parents and the principal. The issues to be addressed are:

• Unit form and its dimensions. This will be tested through a game, in which two teams run to different containers and place respective recyclable/non-recyclable items in them.

• Anticipated mistreatment of the unit. Obviously, it’s a school environment - a child’s creative mind can think of million ways to misuse an introduced artifact.

• Determining the fun and educational factor. A swap-box, in which children can place their newly created recycled art for an exchange of another hand-made masterpiece, is one of the key elements of the unit. Ideally, the model will be left at school over several days after other experiments have been conducted and children are familiar with the idea of a swap-box and its function.

• Maintaining the unit. This test will be conducted during the design charrette in Toronto with my fellow students from IwB and DuocUC. The main purpose of this study is to determine how an adult might clean the unit and refill it with clean bags.

• Understanding the meaning of instructions, labels, and general purpose of the unit. This test will be done with both my fellow students and the children of York Street School. I hope to conduct unstructured interviews with students by placing different labels on the unit and asking them what they want to do when they see this label/colour/picture.

I have built a life-sized model out of cardboard, which I can use in some of the testing. The other three tests will need to be conducted with a wooden model for a sturdier effect. I hope to gain many insights by the end of February.

Phase 3 Update

Phase 3 clarified all of the features the fish kiosk will have, and clearly showed where more time needs to be spent developing form, function, or both.

The main areas I will be addressing through my user testing are:

• portability - the cart will be moved a short distance on a daily basis over somewhat uneven city terrain, such as curbs, bumps or hills. I will be testing 2 different wheel sizes over an obstacle course.
• awning set up and take down - the weather protecting awning is an integral part of the cart. Keeping the fish in the shade, making it comfortable for the vendor to stay there all day in all weather conditions are two priorities.
• storage - the cart will be used to store various elements over night as well and during the day when it is in use. By figuring out how much space is required for this function it will determine how big the cart needs to be.
• visibility - the cart will be approached from all sides, so keeping the product for sale in clear view is an aesthetic and security issue
• setup of display surfaces - will the fold, slide, pivot?

I built one full size cart that will be used for most of the tests. It is a simple frame that doesn't express any of the final form the cart will take on, other that the general size.

Phase 3: Testing

With phase three winding down we're really getting into the final stretch!

Since my last post at the end of phase 2 my project has started to take a different direction. I've strayed away from traditional wayfinding to develop a concept that will brand Lota, and improve the state of their public spaces, while still directing visitors to points of interest throughout the city.

The proposed concept will be a public art project to create unique seating solutions for Lota's public spaces. They will be modular and made from a combination of concrete, metal, and possibly wood. The residents of Lota will paint each piece either by themselves or in groups, and then deliver them to a public area for display. It is my hope that the final products be colourful and eclectic. This will, not only draw attention to them from afar, thus, luring curious onlookers into the spaces they inhabit, but will create an interesting visual effect that mimics the colourful, beautiful spirit of Lota and its people and becomes a memorable feature for outsiders.
Because Lota has many graffiti artists, the painted furniture will be painted and altered by them as well, thus changing Lota's landscape as its people change or see fit for it to change.

During phase 3 we are supposed to develop a test plan to identify which issues need to be tested, and how this will be done. We are also meant to begin building test models for phase 4.

The three pictures to the right illustrate my process of pouring concrete. This was done to create test samples to be painted on during one of my tests, but through working with the concrete I also learned quite a bit and it helped me to refine my test plan further. It helped me to visualize how concrete is mixed and poured and how it settles. It also helped me to get a clear idea of how exactly the final product could be manufactured and it helped me to gain an appreciation for just how heavy concrete is (each 10x10x4 tile I made is approximately 15 pounds).

As far as my test plan itself is concerned, below I have outlined each test to be carried out, and what types of models I will need to produce to complete each test.

Test 1: Formal Configurations
This test will help to refine the final form of my design. In this test I will provide scaled models to users who are familiar with Lota. With these models they will be asked to choose their favorite and arrange them into patterns.

Test 2: Social interaction
Once an overall form is chosen from test 1. A few fullscale rough models will be produced and subjects will be asked to sit in the chairs in groups of 2 or 3 to have a casual conversation. This test will assess overall comfort, and give me a clear idea of how people will use the product, and how effective its design is.

Test 3: Radii
With full scale models, similar to those used in test 2, I will determine the comfort of the edge radii behind users' knees and on the inside edges of the arm rests.
Test 4: Connectors
After sourcing a number of different connectors, and discussing my project with professionals that have experience using concrete I will attempt to determine the most appropriate method of connecting the furniture to one another so that it is relatively simple to assemble, but more difficult to disassemble to discourage vandalism.

Test 5: Painting
Using the test tiles featured above i will test how paintable the surface is, find out which tools work better than others, and gain an understanding of how the final product will look.

Rahim Bhimani - Phase 3: Testing

Hi everyone, so there is close to 2 months left! Right now were currently going through the testing phase. To refresh you, I have slightly changed my focus.

Project Description:A toilet system designed to aid individuals trying to recover right after a natural disaster.This toilet system will be a flat-pack system that can easily be shipping following a disaster.The system includes a tent to create awareness of the system and for privacy.
User Scenario:
Following a natural disaster, as aid is being shipped out, these flat pack toilet kits will also be part of the aid/care package.
Criteria:
The idea of the toilet is to be simple enough for any user to easily put it together. Due language barriers, this product must be very intuitive for the user to simply put the together for use. The tent portion of this design is to create awareness and to allow individuals to know that the toilet is located at the specific location of the tent. The Red Cross and universal bathroom symbol will be also located on the tent. The cart is designed so that it can detaches form the toilet and can be easily disposed in a pit solves the issue with the waste.

So the first thing I did to begin my testing, was make a full scale model it turned out to be a lot bigger than I thought!

The massive thing you're looking at is the tent, which has 2 main functions, create privacy for individuals using the toilet and for creating awareness that this is a location for going to the b

athroom.

The second part of my design is the toilet!

I decided to go away from the idea of a composting toilet becuase of the complexity of the use of a composting toilet and the fact that individuals would probably not want to compost their waste following a natural disaster.

This is a rough idea of the concept I am trying to figure out and develop. The toilet stays put, and the idea is to pull the cart away from the toilet which will make discarding the waste a lot easier.

The is an idea of how the system would work.

The back of the tent will have a flap, which will make it easy to pull the cart out and dispose the waste.

TESTING:

I have decided to narrow my testing to 5 main test to help me develop my project:

Test 1: Structure/Material: Toilet Strength

Test 2: Folding Mechanism

Test 3: Ease of User

Test 4: Tent Entrance

Test 5: Appearance of the Tent

My main goals for this phase:

1.Finalize what to do with the waste.

2.Figure out a form/design of the toilet

and I am sure I will think of many more as my testing continues.

Thanks for reading:)

Lota Agua

The project will be focused on a low tech shower and bath with the reuse of grey water for gardens and green space for Lotina communities living on illegal land with no potable water, where the full use cycle is taken into account.

When researching the temporary housing, every interviewee mentioned that their primary issue is water. The issues related to water are mostly political ones, however what the people of Lota in temporary housing need is a reliable system now, not in decades if the political situation is ever resolved. After all water is a basic need for survival.

Currently, there is no running water and transportation, storage and pouring is accomplished through the use of buckets. In some houses, water is stored in large garbage cans. Such communities have no managed method of water disposal and often grey water is poured to a body of water surrounding them. Others wash their bodies, clothes or dishes by the river with toxic chemicals. Most of the housing in illegal land have difficulty washing themselves as there is no running water.

There is opportunity for a personal and possibly communal washing space since the biggest problem is the act of washing and since is no designated space for the disposal of used water, a possible garden. Infact this all can be part of the same system. Currently in the community, buckets are used in order to store, trasport and use as a tool for pouring.

Although many were relocated and the municipality provided materials for housing and some help with plumbing, many people due to delayed allocation of land moved to illegal land where they made their own houses with the supplies given to them. These communities remain with no running water and have simple temporary housing, with temporary bathrooms, no showers and sometimes no stoves. Many still wash their clothes in the body of water nearby and others dispose their water in the dirt pathways around the house where greywater sits and can be more contaminated. I went to several temporary housing communities. The one that made me realize design can be a solution to is temporary housing number one and two. Even when i asked the communities, where do you throw the water you use, they kind of put their head down and said that in the nearby water or road. Infact in the Lota charrette at DUOCUC the residents of lota were very concerned about this issue.

Finally, when i went to the Toronto Charette in November, ironically I had the chance to work with the water group and we designed emergency shipping containers that could serve a need, in this case water. We worked on this project for days and every day at 5:00pm we talked to experts in Water, Industrial Design, Architecture and Development. And what I came to realize is that although basic needs are very important, sometimes design is about added value, its about dignity and about social and psychological aspects. Many of Lotina's needs are met but the in the most crude and uncomfortable way. They CAN wash themselves, they CAN get water to drink but it is not something they look forward to. I want to design a scenario where you look forward to doing the activity.

Imagine:

warm water falls from your shoulders, run down your body slowly, you breathe in, you can feel the warm air, the steam of it all, makes your body relax. As you sit and ponder about the day and the people you are around, you take in slowly the most incredible, indescribable aroma of lavender and herbs that you are softly stepping on. You are sitting in a space where you can gaze in to the ocean, its endless.

As the water drips down your face, down to your chest, to your legs , knees, feet, it finally reaches the ground... now the soil is drinking it in, thirst is replenished and the water runs down travels slowly through the soil, filling every hole where thirst made a home.

This is what I want. I want to create an experience that is much beyond meeting a basic need, because sometimes thats dignity, pride, and a sense of self.

Chile Recicla

Yanira Moncada is currently working on an environmental project, and has sent me a link to the Triple Bottom Line being developed in Chile. The "Santiago Recycle" is an initiative that aims to raise awareness about the importance of recycling in the metropolitan area and nationally.

Temporary housing in Lota

Here is a video of a gentleman, who has kindly invited us into his home. This is a typical temporary house, which he built himself following the earthquake. It is so cramped, that most of the things have to be stored outside. The blue bin that you see in the kitchen is a typical container, which is used for storing water, fuel and garbage. Things that should not be compatible. Since HIMCE trucks are not able to go down the roads in these neighbourhoods, he has to transport this giant blue container uphill to one of the main roads.