Jessica A. Artiles // PROJECT

Re-designing the Charcoal Burning Process

This project required intimate knowledge of the charcoal design process, but most importantly, close observation of user studies conducting the process. Our team explored ways to make the charcoal redesign process safer for agriculture workers in Nicaragua. Our process interventions make the women feel more confident in their charcoal burning and therefore more empowered to produce a good that is highly coveted in the community: charcoal briquest for their charcoal burning stoves, a method much safer than cooking with wood. After spending a week with these inspiring women, we took our learnings back to the lab at MIT and developed tools that they could easily adapt and make in their own workshops. After some testing and back and forth, we finalized a set of tools that proved effective at helping them regain their confidence. Las Mujeres Solares were back in business!

Client

Mujeres Solares of GrupoFenix in Totogalpa, Nicaragua

Details

Group work
Travel to live with users in the field

Skills

User Feedback Sessions
Expert Interviews
Experience Design
Prototyping Skills

Links

Final Presentation

The dangers of tipping over the barrel when it is ready to be enclosed. In the next couple of frames of this video, the barrel tips over onto one of the women and the nearby ground begins to catch fire.

Our proposed process improvements.

The women in Nicaragua using our improved sheet metal design to cover burried holes, thus reducing the need to tip the flaming barrel over!

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