Our initial focus was to help the Brown team develop their prototype by providing some pertinent information that could help facilitate human-centered design. The process starts by doing research on Ghanaian agriculture, as well as empathizing and learning from the people you’ll be providing the service for, in our case Ghanaian farmers. These human factors—including needs, capacity, perception, and culture—are all considerations that shape what the prototype will look like and how it will perform. Human-centered design emphasizes giving the community or beneficiaries a central voice and role in the development goals, implementation, and improvement. However, this poses an obstacle for the Brown and Cal Poly teams, who are geographically displaced from the Ghanaian culture and unable to receive community feedback.
We initially intended on testing out the prototype here in California at the Student Experimental Farm on campus. This would allow us to troubleshoot and determine the practicality of the prototype, as well as where there may be room for improvement. In his senior project, Kyle Venell will likely set up a long-term, perennial crop (tree collards, beets, etc.) were the prototype would be implemented for several months. The other option would be for him to perform DU (Distribution Uniformity) tests on the prototype in several locations throughout the farm.
Objective: We want to use the knowledge and perspectives we have gained through UNIV 391: Appropriate Technology and apply these concepts to real world challenges. In doing so, we hope to empower the farmers of Ghana with a self-sustaining system that allows for increased production in a simple, yet efficient way.