iMobiMaMa

Three-pronged

South Africa’s primary health care has expanded to more than four thousand clinics across the country, however, Unicef states that “thousands of children under the age of five die every year of mainly preventable causes”. iMobiMaMa aims to prevent maternal and infant mortality in South African peri-urban environments by focusing on three areas.

Firstly, using an mKIT helps bring perinatal information in a dynamic format to patients using video and audio. Secondly, and with the aid of a mHUB, it provides a touch point to register mothers, monitor pregnancy progress, and, if a complication arises, forewarns the mother via mobile messaging. Thirdly, it allows Community Health Workers (CHW) to bring a consulting and dispensing point to communities in need.

The industrial, interface, and mechanical design were all informed by initial field work findings. Data was obtained from site visits, interviews with CHWs and specialists, and through running preliminary trials with basic mock-ups. The design, which rather than being an end solution, functioned as an exploratory prototype to evalute diverse ideas, user-interactions, and technologies. It can function as a public or private consultation point, and it can collapsed into a compact volume for carrying on public transport.

Where the research design phase uncovered the CHW and patients' unmet emotional and functional needs, the industrial design, user-interface design, and mechanical design phases helped test these needs and assumptions, and strategise what technology stack iMobiMaMa should ultimately adopt.