FindMe Tag - Facilitate rescue efforts during disasters through culture-sensitive design

Sammanfattning: Over the last decade, 1.8 billion people worldwide have been affected by disasters triggered by natural hazards and 740 000 lives have been lost. Due to climate change, these numbers are predicted to rise dramatically in the upcoming years. In disaster prone areas, remote communities and lower income countries are disproportionately affected and often lack the resources to prepare. Locating victims and prioritizing where to help after a disaster is hard and speed is crucial. The aim of the project is to develop a wearable device capable of assisting rescue efforts in finding victims and deciding where to dispatch rescue teams for maximum impact during and after a disaster in remote communities and lower income countries. The project is conducted in collaboration with frog, Sony and UNOPS. In addition to the project aim, how one can design for a large population is explored as well as how one can design for a target group that is distant from the designer in terms of distance, culture and socioeconomics. The project has a human-centered design approach, following the Double Diamond design process model. A great emphasis has been on understanding the user needs and designing the final product with culture-sensitivity. This was, among other things, achieved by a field study in Antigua and Barbuda during three weeks. The final product is a wearable device worn around the wrist capable of tracking the wearer’s location, health data and movement in the event of a disaster triggered by natural hazards in order to share this information with rescue teams to facilitate rescue efforts.