Safe&Clean - An eye shower redesign
Design by Constantin Boes and Niklas Mellmann
Assignment
The project was developed within the scope of a workplace analysis in the medical laboratory of the University Hospital in Mainz (Germany). Through a process analysis and the observation of work processes, employee surveys and the personal interaction with the working environment and the existing instruments, it should be determined how working can be made safer, easier and more efficient.
Research and problem statement
One of the first things that was noticed during the observation and questioning of the employees was the lack of experience in using the emergency instruments and the first-aid tools. The eye shower should be mentioned in particular.
An eye shower is normally installed in every laboratory or workshop in order to be able to shower the surface of the eyeball with fresh water in the event of any contamination by infected liquids or similar. Normally, the eye shower should be easily operated by any laboratory employee in an emergency. However, this was not guaranteed due to the lack of discussion with the product and the poor design. In particular the commissioning as well as the switching off necessary after the use posed the staff before great problems. Either they failed to switch on the eye shower or they were not able to switch off the water without problems. The intuitive and simple operation of this basic instrument in an emergency is not possible.
Functionality and processes
In order to simplify the handling of the eye shower, after analysis of the existing problems, the operation was reduced by means of 2 buttons to a more intuitive control with one button. With this button the water can be switched on when pressing and when pressing again the button is released and the water is switched off. The use of a pushbutton with locking mechanism makes it extremely easy to use
Results
