Designs to educate and normalise hygienic practices during COVID19

by Aaron Lane

Designs to educate and normalise hygienic practices: Hand hygiene & Respiratory PPE

Project Description

2020 has been a year where we have experienced great social change; during our pandemic, we have realised the inadequacies of our hygiene practices: specifically, proper hand sanitisation and personal protective respiratory equipment (PPE) . This has inspired two hygiene-centred projects:

1) Bathroom Buddy - Interactive Soap Dispenser: The bathroom buddy aims to teach proper hand sanitisation to the most impressionable of us - children. Studies have found that those who utilise proper hand hygiene practices are strongly influenced by their childhood experiences. The dispenser presents a visual 20-second countdown timer, separated into five sections, and "stares" at the user until the proper duration of hand sanitisation is achieved. This aims to instil the technique and duration and mimic the experience of a child's parents watching over them.

2) E-Breather - Electronic mask: aims to normalise the use of respiratory PPE by incorporating elements allowing clear visual facial communication, user comfort, and a safe breathing environment when using respiratory PPE. The design addresses visual facial communication by its construction of transparent silicone, which is more adaptable in sizing, allowing a higher level of comfort and adaptability among facial sizes and shapes. It creates a comfortable breathing environment by electronically circulating air, allowing for a less humid breathing experience.

These projects aim to change societal practices, utilising behavioural psychology in order to encourage new social norms over successive interactions and the formation of new user stories.

Bathroom Buddy: Interactive soap dispenser

Product operation and education technique

E-Breather Electronic Mask: Translucent mask allows for clear visual communication

Bio

Everything is interesting; the more you learn, the more you realise how interconnected skills, ideas, and interests are. A focus on human behavioural psychology has led me to develop an analytical viewpoint on what triggers the visceral emotional response which people can have when they truly enjoy the experience of using a beautifully designed, human centred product. I place a strong emphasis on sentimental sustainability; that is, the emotional appeal of a product, which not only involves how a product looks or how it is used, but also focuses on the lasting emotional impact that a design solution can have on the user.

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