If you haven't already read Luz Upegui's Part I to this blog series then STOP READING RIGHT NOW and check out her amazing Part I to our final design concept for this semester! If you have already read her initial part, then welcome, sit down, get comfy, and enjoy Kerb Care Part II - Next steps.
During our design review reception (thank you again to any of our readers that were present) we received a lot of questions on what we would do if this was a real life project or if the project were to last into another semester. At first this wasn't really something we had thought about. You know how it goes, you start a project and by the end your rushing so fast to get all your ideas out on one board that just for a second you stop designing. I think we can all admit that the production phase of our workload can get out of hand, but never-the-less this is a good question. What would we have done to our project?
I would love to think of this as a project that would exist in real life. I mean there have been examples of different kinds of mobile healthcare around the world, and even a few of our reviewers mentioned they were either part of designs like these or have heard of designs like these. That being said once we thought about this question we easily came up with our next steps for the project.
Design first steps of how these would be initiated into the community and gain trust and understanding amongst community members.
Initiate the project in other communities utilizing other design patterns
Study and review the project to see if our strategy helped the community and if individuals started to have a healthcare routine and wellbeing knowledge.
Starting with number 1. This was a topic that was brought up to us toward the end of our review and we couldn't believe that we hadn't thought of it. We had our entire rebranding idea and hotspot idea to incorporate trust into the community, but we hadn't thought about how to first initiate the physical trucks. We really didn't want to just send out a massive fleet of trucks into the community hoping adults and kids would step in...sounds a little weird doesn't it? Instead we discussed with the viewers that a different approach could be starting with our pockets of success and first only sending out the trucks that are needed for survival: the grocery truck, the laundry truck, the shower truck, and the sleeper truck. These are design initiatives that individuals are more likely to try out because they offer things that they really need. Once community member can gain trust in these trucks they will easily gain trust in the healthcare trucks!
2. From the beginning our design was meant to be modular in appearance and in function. While we felt like the 10 minute walking radius was the best solution for the north and south Lawndale communities we were open to the idea of the same design initiatives being used in a different pattern in another community. Could this be a solution that could also help areas like Englewood? Maybe the initiative for their community would run in a more linear line instead of circulate around a radius. If this project was dedicated another semester it would be interesting to research other communities that have some of the same economic statuses of Lawndale and design a pattern for them.
3. And finally, and this one would need a lot more time, but if this was a real life project it would extremely interesting to see if an initiative like this would help the community grow to learn about the importance of a holistic wellness. After people started receiving help from the Kerb Care Trucks would they start to correlate doctors visits with wellness? Could this evoke a trust between the medical community and underprivileged communities? Maybe once community members used the trucks for a couple years they would then start to understand regular healthcare upkeep and continue their patterns of appointments. Would the no-show rates be decreased if this design was implemented and then researched over time? These are just a few of the questions that we would love to research if our design was to actually be implemented into a real life scenario.
If our ideas did work and individuals started using the Kerb Care Trucks and Plaza's regularly could the built structures that reside on the Plaza's become health centers? Maybe these could be places that private practice doctors would start to take over seeing the need for their services!
Could what started with a purple ribbon end up changing the health of a community? This seems like a crazy sentence, but hey! in a design studio anything is possible!
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