Who am I? What is the goal? Why am I doing this?
As a Product Designer Student about to Graduate with a Partner living with Type 1 Diabetes I have seen the challenges, the discomfort and exhaustion that comes with Type 1 Diabetes. I have experienced as a loved one what Diabetes burnout and anxiety can look like and I would like to tackle these issues as well as needle phobia a little more. As my partner was diagnosed as a child, I am interested in making injecting less intimidating for children too or their parents who might assist.
This project is for university, where it began, but the goal is to market this in the future and create a start-up to help people within Diabetes and expand the comfort of injecting into healthcare - like vaccines and more later. I am dedicating my university honours project to my partner in hope to make Diabetes a little more comforting and showcase the world how there are various ways Diabetes designs could be improved upon. I believe that Type 1 Diabetes and the injection methods needs to be more comforting as many do not have access to more advanced technologies like insulin pumps and more. I am therefore looking at creating comfort to people who might lack access to more advanced technologies or prefer to stay on manual care.
I am aiming to continue my interest in helping the lives of people living with Type 1 Diabetes with the right financial support to enter the start-up business life.
What is the money donated used for?
Funding my design project from pocket is very challenging whilst studying and paying the bills. So I would use the money to fund my project, to be able to use higher quality material, be able to experiment and test with more materials and equipment. To begin thinking about how I could potentially register the design or patent it.
The project is still in its earlier stages of still being under development with experiments, prototypes and testing still to be made. In the long run, my product would require mould making of injection moulding so for higher quality making manufacturers would need to be contacted and payed for which can become extremely expensive. I could hire other experts and professionals with enough money to help me bring my project into a marketable state.
It is also difficult to get people including professionals or the public to help without financial rewards for their participation and time can be precious. Therefore, some money if needed may go towards requirement.
*No money donated would go towards personal use* - all donations would be kept and used towards the start-up business idea - the development of the design, its making, testing and prototyping and purchases needed for its creation.
What's in it for you?
You could possibly be contibuting to helping many people with Type 1 Diabetes. You are giving me a chance to design a possible solution to improving the lives of many who live with this health condition including children and adults who need constant injections to live.
Other possible rewards based on amount:
Donators would recieve a guaranteed written mention as sponsors when presenting the work publicly like within my Graduate Show this year - on the end of printed or digital documents which are about the project.
Donators would recieve a preview/sneak peak at the product at its more advanced stage through an email (if interested, with the limitation of a non-disclosure agreement).