Hey all!

Let me first introduce myself and explain my project.

My name is Gert Groeneveld and I am a dutch student from the department Industrial Design, University of Technology Delft.

Nicolas invited me to join this blog since I will try to design a prototype with the Pin & Play kit. Currently, I am doing my graduation project and I have to design a medical information system for women in rural India. Luckily I don’t have to worry about the content and I can fully concentrate on making a mobile device which is adapted to the Indian climate and is designed with a female friendly interaction. The prototype will be field-tested in rural India.

Actually, the only demand for the prototype is that it has to display a Windows PowerPoint presentation.

The results of an initial test with a pre-designed prototype were very promising. The test was conducted with a professor of Cultural Anthropology in the University of Amsterdam. She has over 40 years of experience in India and her main goal in life is to empower the women of rural India.

My idea of the prototype was to get maximum feedback with a tangible interaction with large objects, which can be hold in their hands. The physical objects also give a powerful interaction.

The Pin & Play prototype:

The prototype consists out 4 balls which each represent a Windows PowerPoint presentation with different content. Two presentations are about maternal health and the other two are about menses. Because I had to build the prototype rather quick I had no time to make 4 colourful balls. Pictures of the content were put on the balls to give an indication of the content of the PowerPoint presentation.

All balls stick to a push button by means of double sided adhesive tape.

My primary concerns with the prototype were about touching the pictures when pinning the balls into the foam, because of stigmatization of maternal health and menses issues. But it seems that, because the women come to the prototype in a select group with only other women, they are not hesitant to touch or speak about these health related problems.

The professor found the interaction quitte interesting and imagined that the women in rural India would also like to push the buttons more than once (if they are in a select group with only women).

My next idea is to design the balls in some kind of stamp, where the pins can be protected.

Well, this is it for now. I hope you like the project, and I will keep you informed!


All the best!


Gert