Safe Water Project

Extended User Testing (EUT) Study

Between March and December 2009, Quicksand placed five commercially available, multi-stage gravity filters in 20 low-income households in rural and peri-urban Andhra Pradesh. Over ten months, the team observed how people used the filters, where they failed, and how they fitted into daily routines.

Methods included:

• video ethnography and shadowing, following people at home and at work over several days;
• in-depth, in-context interviews with household and community members;
• role plays;
• participatory design workshops, including focus groups and co-design sessions;
• feature preference exercises, comparing products and testing responses to scenarios;
• self-documentation using disposable cameras.

The study surfaced practical barriers, such as cleaning difficulties and breakage. It also revealed deeper perceptions of taste, safety, trust and status. Its findings shaped PATH’s HWTS product strategy for base-of-the-pyramid markets, and gave PATH a process for researching and designing products for low-income users.

From Research to Product

PATH then brought Quicksand into product development to design a low-cost, gravity-fed, multi-stage water treatment device. The brief was to set a new benchmark for the category:

• under half the cost of existing products;
• far better ergonomics, durability and robustness;
• comparable treatment efficacy, against stricter safe water criteria;
• a product system that could be adapted for different users and regions.

Quicksand led the industrial design and user experience work, collaborating with engineering, manufacturing, technology and project management teams in India and Seattle. As product design partner, Quicksand:

• guided development as the custodian of the user research;
• balanced user needs against engineering, commercial, marketing and manufacturing constraints;
• tested concepts with users and other stakeholders.

From concept to functional beta prototypes, development took six months. The team met all the cost of goods sold (COGS) and user experience targets set at the start. PATH planned to pursue commercial partnerships to bring the product to emerging markets in India, Africa and South Asia.

Outcomes

The project produced a low-cost water filter designed around the realities of underserved households. The EUT methods were documented and shared with PATH and its partners as a toolkit and design guidelines. The project also showed the value of bringing design research into strategy from the start, rather than at the end.