Research on first aid
The class began the assignment by conducting research on the types of first aid kits and products that are currently on the market. We then examined how a few of these kits are used by doing a talk-aloud protocol, where one student was given a “small-injury” scenario and was asked to use the kit to repair her wound, and talk another student through the process as she was using the kit.
Busy parents and first aid
We then needed to decide on a specific user group to design a new first aid kit for. I decided on “busy parents of school-aged children” as my user group. I then conducted a round of user research—I did online interviews with several friends of mine who are parents of young children, asking them about what their recent experiences were like with first aid kits. I asked them questions about how they use their kits, what types of items are in them, what things they’d like to see in first aids kits for children, and the things that frustrated them about their current first aid kits. My interviews are summarized in the slides below:
Ideation and prototyping
I then began sketching and prototyping ideas for a first aid kit for parents of small children. I used the findings from my research to determine the function and shape of the design, exploring several different iterations and ideas. Based on my interviews with parents and first aid, I learned that kits needed to be as portable as possible: dads wanted wallet-sized kits that could fit in their jeans pockets, if possible—and moms wanted kits that could fit easily in purses and diaper bags. The parents I interviewed often added new items to their existing kits, and frequently replenished items like cartoon-character bandages and cleansing wipes to their kits, too. Many parents mentioned the importance of having a kit that could be easily opened to quickly attend to their children, and the flexibility to add specialized items (like Epi-pens and baby sunscreen) and toys to distract to their kids.
Some of my sketches for the portable kits I started thinking about can be seen below. I iterated on several sizes of kits that would be customized to wallet-size and purse-size for ease of use and access. (I also thought about including a wrist strap on the small kit, and later abandoned this idea.) These kits could also be stacked inside of one another, and even stuck together like LEGO, so parents could carry two kits easily in their bags without losing them:
Storytelling: parents and first aid
I then crafted a user scenario (below) of how a few different parents and kids might use these kits on their way to the park, where they would all be meeting for a play-date. The final product, called “Boo-boos-on-the-go” is described in this scenario, which, in conjunction with the final prototypes (also below) became my final presentation to the class.
