Team:NYU-AD/Integrated Practices
Best Integrated Human Practices
In the beginning of summer, we decided to create a device that addressed the lack of food safety regulation in many developing countries. After extensive research and discussion, our initial idea was to create a device that could detect the presence of Shiga-like toxin outside a laboratory setting. To direct the development of our project, we interviewed people from a number of countries outside the UAE, where unregulated food is more prevalent, and got feedback and insight into common food practices there.
We then applied these suggestions to the project, deciding to fashion a small, portable device that could ideally be available and purchasable on the market for consumers to use and test on food before each meal. After finalizing the process and modeling the design, we conducted a focus group and sent out a survey to local people in the community with questions regarding the use, applicability, and demand for such a device. After getting their responses, we realized the prototype we had designed could not be applicable to the intended audience and that the survey responses indicated the public would generally not support the use of this product.
Using this feedback, we changed the target users to actual food vendors themselves, and not individual consumers. Instead of testing food before each meal, the vendor could affirm the quality of his food through the corroboration of our device. Our human practices were not only informative and engaging, they were also integral in developing the basic concepts of the project, and they directed and changed the applicability of the device as a whole.
