Designing for the pandemic: individual and collective safety devices

Abstract

The rapid spread of COVID-19 has generated a demand for health-related safety equipment. The development of these emergency products raises several questions, in particular the possible lack of concern for health, satisfaction, and safety of users in addition to the immediate safety against the COVID-19. Considering these issues, the objectives of this work are to categorize, identify trends, and propose strategic approaches to the development and alteration of individual and collective safety solutions for facing the pandemic. For that, we conducted a review and categorization of industrial design products developed during the pandemic using the database Behance. We found 171 developed products. Of these, we classified 99 as individual safety solutions, with the majority being masks and face shields, 59 as being collective safety solutions like disinfection booths, physical transparent separators, and sanitary dispensers. And 13 were solutions geared to hospital use such as hospital furniture, testing solutions, and medical safety procedures. From the analysis of these products, we noted four major themes: protection from the infection, isolation, and physical barriers for enabling safe interaction, disinfection, and testing that can be used as a strategic guideline for the development of new solutions for this context.