DAY 2: November 14, 2010

Refinement

The second Designing A Difference workshop began with the team focused on choosing and refining a single concept direction. In addition to welcoming new team members, we were joined by Jason Gifford and Tony Quartarone from Samsonite, who have generously provided financial sponsorship of the Designing A Difference program.

The day started with a recap of our first workshop and a review of the updated journey map showing key user touch points. In between the first and second workshop the team completed several rounds of concept development. The team explored a range of ideas from mobile to stationary systems. See a sample of these concepts below.

Jason Gifford, Design Director at Samsonite provided an introduction of the company, their work, and how they can support Designing A Difference. From there the team presented the final concept directions to Sean Hewens, Executive Director of Smallbean and Ross Lohr, Executive Director of the Netwon Tanzania Collaborative (NTC).

There was much discussion and brainstorming about the effectiveness of and how to implement each direction. With some new information from the Smallbean and NTC team regarding the opportunity to create and utilize what they’re calling their “Launch Pad” facility, it soon became apparent that the right direction would go beyond a single product to a integrated system of products. Launch Pad is planned to be a rural innovation center in Kwala, Tanzania where products and systems like this project can be implemented and tested.

In the end the team decided the solar panels would be mounted on Launch Pad which will be near the school, all the laptops and additional parts would be charged and stored safely there as well. Every day the charged laptops, back-up batteries, and a projector would be transported to the school. A portable carrying case for multiple laptops will be developed for this purpose. The team will also design a portable carrying case that can be used by students to bring batteries home. These batteries will allow them to use electricity in their homes at night for lights, radios, or for charging portable devices. The batteries also provide a revenue stream for the school in that they can be rented to others in the community.

The team ended the workshop pleased to have refined the concept directions down to one system architecture, the next step is to develop each part of the system, and in the third workshop begin prototyping.

Thanks to the designers, our friends at Samsonite, and the teams from Smallbean and NTC for making Day 2 a success! Stay tuned for the next phase of Designing A Difference.

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