John
John Sauer
Population Services International
WASH Senior Technical Advisor
[email protected]
PROBLEM
When applying UCD to sanitation, describe a problem your organization was trying to solve?
Liberia: develop a standardized toiled design based on consumer preferences to be socially marketed in Liberia
SOLUTION
What solution did you design to solve the problem?
- Low-cost, durable, safe, hygienic, easy to clean toilet that does not require desludging
- Commode designed by Liberians for Liberians
WHAT WORKED WELL
What part(s) of the UCD process did your organization do very well?
- Empathy research and insights
- Involving government private sector, community stakeholders in market development workshop get everyone on board for HCD
- Different levels of stakeholders
- FGD
- Turn talk into actual prototypes
- Informal approach by PSI staff
WHAT DIDN'T WORK
What part(s) of the UCD process did not go well?
- Too much in too little time: wanted pit latrine layout, commode and building structure
- Traditional FGD guides were rigid and didn't allow for participants to freely express themselves
TOOLS AND FRAMEWORKS
What UCD tools or analytical frameworks did you use?
Integrated WASH market facilitation:
- government, private sector, community, NGO (MDA)
- empathy research
- prototyping (commode only)
- used typical HCD process - IDEO field guide
WHAT WAS REALLY HARD
What were your biggest struggles?
Shifting mindset of the HCD challenge team from more traditional sprint research standards to HCD approaches
BIGGEST A-HA
What was your biggest a-ha moment?
The original discussion guides, created to follow PSI/Liberia’s strict research standard were too rigid and limited participants being able to freely express themselves. So after the first FGD, the team decided used a more informal tone of the discussion and stopped taking notes during FGD. As a result, community members felt more comfortable and shared more.
MY PIVOTS
So then what? What did you do? Discard the idea? Change course?
- The team decided to be more informal in tone of discussion and not take notes whilst doing FGD
- After 3 FGDs data saturation was reached, so the team shifted to one-on-one conversations
TIPS
What advice would you give other organizations?
- Avoid taking notes to fully engage
- Record conversation and listen again later