Germs No More
Project Overview
As a part of the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Design Challenge in 2020, my team took part in this 3 day intensive challenge to ideate devices to limit the spread of Coronavirus. We were tasked with finding an area of need, generating concepts, and presenting mock-ups to potential investors and faculty at Johns Hopkins.
Initially, my team identified two areas of need - the first being that there was a need for a continuous reminder to practice good hygiene prior to and upon entering the home setting. Secondly, we found a need for implementation of efficient and easy to use technology that advocates for better hygiene within a home or business setting.
Generating need charts, conducting user research, and conducting analysis led us to ultimately develop an automatic surround door handle sanitizer to offer users the ability to forget about the concern of constantly disinfecting at-home door handles.. This challenge pushed me to work on my rapid ideation skills, SolidWorks assembly, and design research as we delved into the current issues surrounding the spread of diseases and user compliance, all in a matter of days.
Discovery Research and Ideation
With almost 140,000 cases and more than 2000 deaths in the US due to COVID-19 at the time of this challenge, the potential impact of this product is limitless. If each American were to buy a canister of Clorox wipes a month at $11.97, over 4 billion dollars would be spent a month. Our idea was to significantly reduce the average Americans spending on cleaning products per month. Furthermore, we wanted to offer users the ability to forgo the concern of cleaning at-home door handles. Our easy to use product could vastly reduce the spread of COVID-19, as well as other viruses, by being implemented within the home and public setting.
Having rapidly brainstormed and ideated several conceptual ideas for our two areas, my team identified the greatest community need was implementation of efficient and easy-to-use technology that advocates for better hygiene practice within the home setting. Using our innovation targets to guide our synthesis, we brainstormed various possible solutions and researched current solutions. After discussion we ranked each possible concept according to versatility, feasibility, and desirability determine the best concept going forward.
Final Solution Mock-Up
Picture this: you’ve just made a necessary grocery run. You took all the necessary precautions. Gloves were worn, a mask was donned, you even skipped the aisles that were inhabited. Then you arrive home. You open the door with the gloves you wore to the grocery store, carry in the groceries, and then decide you should wash your hands to be extra safe. With gloves still on, you open the door to the bathroom, remove the gloves, and scrub away. You think you have done everything right, but what about all those door handles you touched with the gloves that are potentially contaminated by anything you may have come in contact with at the grocery store? This scenario or similar, has been the downfall of many Americans and others around the world.
The automatic surround door handle sanitizer is a motion sensored disinfectant dispenser. This device will be attached to the door, and placed around the door handle, which is a high-contact surface within the shared living space. The device consists of 2 spray dispensers that are placed above and below the door handle. The spray dispensers contain motion sensors embedded in the base of the dispenser, which are activated once a hand approaches the handle. The nozzles dispense a predetermined amount of fast-drying disinfectant solutions onto the handle after a delayed period of time.
Many of the current alternatives simply include traditional disinfectant wipes and aerosol sprays that are dispensed from hand-held cans. Americans have been stocking up on wipes and sprays in an attempt to ward off the virus. The failure point for these products occurs at the needed compliance by the user. With people worrying about loved ones and attempting to work from home, it is no surprise that the frequency of door handle cleaning may be forgotten.
Potential Impact and future Goals
Having virtually modeled our concept, our team developed future guidelines highlighting physical prototyping, user validation, and marketing. Our team received positive feedback from the Johns Hopkins committee, and we advanced through two rounds of the competition. Our device has the potential to be a cost-friendly device that home and business owners could easily implement to protect themselves, family members, and customers.
This project taught me the value of always keeping the end - user in mind and considering the most desirable product that I can design, rather than just the most feasible. This competition put my team and I in a high-pressure situation and I was able to better hone my skills in quick brainstorming, SolidWorks creation, and project management.