Problem:

The diabetic patients of the UC Flying Samaritans medical clinic in Chapultepec, Ensenada need a better way to maintain the health of their feet because they rely on their feet to walk long distances and because their diabetes causes frequent foot problems.

The initial problem was centered around the physical taxation of carrying groceries for the poor locals of Ensenada, who struggle to commute long distances due to chronic corporeal pains. From our research, we noticed that because of their low socio-economic status, many of the patients tend to walk uncomfortably for long periods of time while carrying their heavy groceries.

With regards to education, many people in Chapultepec only speak Spanish and have a junior high school school level of education. Physiologically, much of the community suffers from chronic health conditions, such as diabetes, bad blood circulation, limb loss, and other physical challenges that make mobility difficult and/or uncomfortable. Still, the Flying Samaritans clinic is limited in its financial flexibility and provisions for the local community, since it operates based on donations and volunteers.

Understanding:

1. The diabetic patients do not have a lot of money and need a cost-effective solution. The clinic is also limited in funds.

2. The diabetic patients need a system to help them carry groceries from the store to their home.

3. The patients have had previous solutions in the past such as grocery carts(thrown away when broken and only a couple people got carts) and diabetic shoes (expensive) but they are mostly ineffective.

4. The design solution needs to be cheap and easy to use/build.

5. The design solution needs to consider sustainability (economic, ecological, and socio-cultural) and reusability.

Initial Design:

From our initial problem of diabetics needing help carrying groceries, we generated several design concepts:

1. Cart Me Away: a grocery cart. Idea was scrapped for being too expensive.

2. Internal Heeling: A specially-designed insole. Idea was scrapped for being expensive and ineffective.

3. Education on the Right Foot: a brochure on foot health. Idea was chosen for being inexpensive and easy to utilize.

Final Design:

How do we create a solution that is both cost-effective and helpful? Our group ultimately decided on creating an informational flyer since it is cheap to print and administer and can be quickly taught throughout the entire community. Many of the other concepts were expensive (economically, ecologically, or socio-culturally), and difficult to administer. A flyer met most of our criterias and we proceeded to iterate on that concept.

The flyer had to be easy to understand (include many pictures), easy to read (includes an English and Spanish version), and simple (includes simple and impactful topics)

We researched all of the topics ourselves to determine which informational pieces would be the most helpful to teach and sent our drafts to the staff at the Flying Samaritans clinic for approval.

Our initial flyer was in English and was sent to a translater to be translated into Spanish. We also created a guide to be sent to the clinic with a how-to guide on how to create and distribute our flyers.

The flyer is also sustainable:

• Economic: The design solution costs less than $0.20 to produce and can be supplied by the Flying Sams clinics.

• Ecological: All of the supplies will be provided by Flying Sams UCSD division, which will deliver a consistent and sustainable volume of handouts. The solution will most likely create more paper waste in the community that the clinic is situated in, but as long as it goes to the intended waste facilities, the impacts are minimal

• Socio-cultural: We hope our solution promotes a social impact by spreading the awareness and education of proper foot care to everyone in the community of Ensenada, Mexico via a trickling effect where the information spreads throughout the society.

Future Considerations:

It would have been immensely helpful to have visited Chapultepec and immerse in the culture to gain a better understanding of what the residents go through.

Applying more in-depth foot care to the diabetic residents would also be helpful. It would be helpful doing more research into various other foot care treatments that we could also apply.

Learnings:

Chapultepec is an entirely different place that many of us in this group experienced for the first time. We learned about the culture and lifestyles of people very different from ourselves. Immersing ourselves in this community has given us a new perspective on how people deal with different issues than what we are used to and will allow us to apply new techniques and ideologies to future projects.