Summary of project and outcomes

Personal motivation to start the project I chose this topic because I like doing things different than everyone else. I get motivated by doing things that really make a difference. At the beginning of the project I didn’t really know where to aim. It started with wanting to do research to find a need for a tool I could make during this project. But quickly after I started I got in touch with Somaya Ben Allouch. Somaya produced face mask straps for OLVG Oost and Cordaan together with Cees Boschman. Besides this project being a nice oppertunity to contribute in this strange period, the time progressed and the amount of people who got infected increased as with every virus. So as the time progressed interns at my girlfriends internship got infected too. She’s doing an internship at a hospital, studying to become a nurse.

Description of the concrete outcomes Starting with this project, with the insights of Somaya and Cees, I decided to make a strap that is easy to clean, more comforable, creates a better fit and is easy to use. Extensive use isn’t only having wear a facemask for a long time, but it can also be that you often put on and take off a facemask. For that reason it is nice if a strap is easy to use. In addition, this also fits well with my study Communication and Multimedia Design.

If I had more time, I would have paid more attention to large-scale production. For the delivery of these straps to healthcare institutions, it is interesting that it can be produced quickly, for example. Results from testing What I thought would go better of in my tests was the ease of use. It was difficult for the testers to clamp the elastics in the splits. I tested it with a few people, including (intern) healthcare providers.

The the round edges close to the splits are too subtle, because of that the round edges don’t guide the elastics as well into the splits as I thought it would do. This causes it to go wrong a few times before it gets into the splits. And during a number of attempts, the elastics of the face masks also broke.

Facemask when elastics are adjusted. Image: Kaz Bison

In addition, it is not obvious that people adjust it. Apparently it does not really suggest that you can adjust elastics with the strap. It doesn’t have a good affordance. Ideally, by seeing the strap, someone immediately knows how it works, without any explanation. After explaining and demonstrating it once, the testers succeeded to adjust the elastics with the strap.

After the testers had a good idea of how the strap worked and also had the strap of Somaya and Cees on, I was able to compare the two. The bottom line is that the strap of Somaya and Cees is easier to use, but mine creates a better connection and is slightly more comfortable.

Strap when it’s placed more on top of the. Image: Kaz Bison

Still there are oppertunities to create a better design. Like creating a design that’s more on top of the head, to create a better comfort because with my strap some part of the elastic still touch the top of the ear. And when looking upwards the strap feels weird in the neck.

Strap when looking upwards. Image: Kaz Bison

What was not immediately apparent from the test, but what I do think is that my prototype creates a more personal fit. Because of the possibility to adjust the bottom and top separately. This is possible because the strap is jammed.