(highlight:: it's 97% less expensive than a standard incubator this clever design keeps premature babies warm and would save millions of lives across the developing world it was ranked number one in Time magazine's 50 best itions of
the year but the neon nurture incubator never made it into hospitals in fact the only baby ever placed inside the device was the one during this promotional photo shoot how can such a highly praised design fail so spectacularly the problem was not with the technology the idea was actually really smart in developing countries even the most advanced Tech will break down if you don't have the components or technicians to repair it but spare car parts and skilled mechanics are available all across the developing world the problem was that the designers were from the US
and they missed some major cultural nuances they probably thought hey people in developing countries improvise with makeshift materials all the time let's apply that thinking to an incubator but it's not that simple have you ever seen poorly translated T-shirts from overseas that try to copy luxury Brands they get this superficial approximation but they miss the subtleties or sometimes they miss it completely when you're not embedded in the culture you only get a surface level understanding of it and that's what's happening with this incubator the designers thought they had
all their bases covered by interviewing people from the developing world but they still missed a couple of key factors for example they overlooked the fact that in many countries decisions on medical device purchases are made by larger government departments not individual hospitals and definitely not the patients themselves these government organizations don't want to buy a medical device that's made from car parts they want to be taken seriously this design is functional and solves a lot of problems around maintaining the device but it looks cheap and untrust trustworthy and I mean it kind of makes
sense would you trust a medical device that's made out of spare car parts would you trust your baby's life with it they've seen American TV shows like gry's Anatomy or the good doctor they know what these devices are supposed to look like many Hospital owners and doctors would rather have no equipment than something that looks poorly made or ugly we do this too this car is perfectly functional but you're not going to see me driving this to a client meeting or park it out front during a job interview whether you like it or not looks matter N)
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(highlight:: want to be taken seriously this design is functional and solves a lot of problems around maintaining the device but it looks cheap and untrust trustworthy and I mean it kind of makes
sense would you trust a medical device that's made out of spare car parts would you trust your baby's life with it)
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(highlight:: malaria is a serious disease it claims half a million African lives each year
and affects Millions more annually these nets are great for preventing malaria but they're also great for catching fish now this might sound crazy but when you're faced with a choice between feeding your family now and possibly Contracting malaria later it makes a lot of sense a regular fishing net costs about $50 which is an enormous expense in a place where many live on just a few dollars a day traditional Reed Nets take days to make and are far less effective but these mosquito Nets are wreaking
havoc on African fish populations they have much smaller holes than other fishing nets so they drag across Lake bottoms and Destroy marine ecosystems plus they're laced with insecticides like Promethean which is highly toxic to fish not only are fish populations at risk but so are the people relying on these water sources a study around Lake tanganika showed that 87% of households use mosquito Nets to fish on one hand people should be free to use tools that are given to them in a way that suits their needs they want to use the nets for fishing instead of malaria
prevention that's their choice one mosquito net fisherman interviewed in a New York Times article actually lost his toddler sun to malaria they're very aware of the risks far more than we are but on the other hand we shouldn't enable the destruction of marine ecosystems the governments of several African nations have made it illegal to use these nets for fishing but they lack the resources to enforce the law even some local fishermen oppose mosquito net fishing because they've noticed a decline in their daily catch due to ecosystem destruction caused by mosquito
net fishing there's no easy solution for this but it highlights a critical point effective Aid is about understanding and respecting local needs and contexts mosquito Nets are highly effective at preventing malaria but their use for fishing highlights the importance of ongoing design iterations we can't impose Solutions without considering the intricate realities of the communities we're designing for when you provide a tool to a different culture don't be surprised if it's adapted in ways that suit their immediate needs and context)
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(highlight:: you can't solve outside of your inherent geography with Solutions built
in your current geography in other words the place you grow up informs the way you see the world the way you approach problems and the tools that you use to solve those problems your thinking won't always translate well to other cultures and geographies the projects I've mentioned were addressed using Western mindsets tools and philosophies imposing your thinking on other cultures usually fails now I'm not saying that designing for the developing world is bad but it does need to be approached with a lot more humility)
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