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User Stories > A Human-Centered Approach to Cookstoves > Prototyping Cookstove Liners from the Field, with a Little Help from Mama Shigella

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Prototyping Cookstove Liners from the Field, with a Little Help from Mama Shigella

Prototyping in the field is always an interesting but challenging process. While conducting research in Tanzania, the IDEO.org cookstoves team proves that this process can yield some really helpful insights.

Our IDEO.org cookstoves team has been struck by the challenges of differentiation in the local cookstove market. Many people in Mwanza, Tanzania owned some sort of cookstove, but people often chose durability over efficiency. It was a battle that the improved cookstoves often lose because of the large quantity of poor quality cookstove inventory on the market.

With this in mind, we wanted to test whether the addition of features could elevate the improved cookstoves over one of its main competitors, metal cookstoves without a liner. (The difference between the two stove types is the clay liner, which can help improve the efficiency and reduce the emissions of the stove dramatically.) We conceived of the idea of a clay liner insert that people could buy to add to improved cookstoves. It would allow people to vary the size of their charcoal use, allowing for less charcoal when using the small liner insert.

To test out our idea, we paid a visit to Mama Shigella. A producer of high quality clay stoves for more than 20 years, her workshop was a perfect location to build our prototype. We brought with us two stoves that we had purchased, one that already had a clay liner and another one that was just a metal stove. Mama Shigella taught us how to sift the clay and rice husk ashes (her secret ingredient for stronger stoves), add water and knead the mixture (imagine making bread dough), and then line the clay in the actual stove.

Robin, Emily, and I excitedly threw ourselves into the process. Emily even provided some additional insight from her pottery class days! Our liners were not the prettiest creations, but a solid first effort. We did learn the challenges of quality production. We were also able to share some creative inspiration with Mama Shigella, who had never before thought about the idea of liner inserts or some of the techniques we tried.

And in case you’re wondering, our liner inserts were perfect for our needs. We brought them along with us to our end user interviews the following day. Everyone responded to it positively. We were even able to test the added monetary value that such a feature would bring to the stove. The prototype also added a new level of engagement to our conversations. Prototyping in the field was an unplanned venture, but our research experience is most certainly better for having done it!

How did you use the HCD Toolkit and / or human-centered design as part of the project?

By speaking with cookstove customers in Tanzania, we learned that there were several market-based reasons that potential customers were not purchasing more efficient cookstoves. We were able to build a prototype in the field to quickly test if inserting a clay cookstove liner into existing lower-quality metal stoves might be succesful as a means to increase efficiency of existing stoves.

What was the biggest challenge that the project faced? Did you overcome it?

Protyping in the field is really difficult due to a lack of access to tools, supplies, a shop, etc. However, thanks to Mama Shigella and her cookstove workshop, we were able to overcome this challenge.

What is (or will be) the impact of your project?

We proved via some quick field prototypes that it might be possible to convert existing lower-quality metal cookstoves into more energy efficient models via the insertion of a clay liner.

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Ricardo Gomes – SFSU; DAI Dept; Design Center for Global Needs; Shapira Design Archive San Francisco, CA 443 days ago

Great practical demo on improving the existing cookstove or "Jiko" in Tanzania. In regards to the reduced need for charcoal, due to the reduced space (volume), was there any assessment, testing, or evaluation done on the heating/cooking efficiency? With the smaller volume of charcoal, was there a need to change the charcoal more often? Did the reduced volume and additional clay liner give a more concentrated, insulated heat? Was there any additional benefits to the use of the liner insert like heat insulation and less heat transfer/loss to the exterior metal surface? If so, did this create for a "safer" Jiko/Cookstove? Reduction of potential burns to children, or the user/cook

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Kayvan Mojtahedzadeh – SFSU-DAI department San Francisco, CA 441 days ago

From the looks of it, seems that it would not be an easy task to cook on these cook stoves. Although
I can guess that Tanzanians have probably developed skills/methods to overcome shortages in the product's functionality, there should be many ways to improve it still. One question that comes to my mind is how do they control the amount of heat? Can it be done more easily/accurately? Or do they have difficulty using big pots on it (It seems prone to toppling over)?

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Julia Sevilla 439 days ago

Great comment Kayvan. Will you consider observing how users use the clay lining for further improvement on the product? Liz, you definitely make sound rapid prototyping so easy :) well done!

Vincent Cheng – OpenIDEO + IDEO North America 439 days ago

Love the idea of additional efficiency inserts to decrease charcoal usage (along with associated costs: monetary, health, environmental, etc.) when cooking smaller portions.

Like Ricardo, I'm looking forward to hearing about future prototype test results!

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Elnaz Davoudi United States 430 days ago

It is such a great idea and reveals the extensive behavioral research behind it. I like the fact that the inserts are made of accessible local material. Yet, I am wondering if clay is resistant to frequent heating process. You have mentioned that durability is one of the most important factors. Do you have an idea of how durable they clay inserts are?

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Liz Ogbu – California College of the Arts - Center for Art and Public Life Africa 428 days ago

Thanks for the great comments everyone. In answer to some of your questions, we didn't have a chance to actually test results in terms of things like efficiency or heat control. For sure, those are worth deeper study. For us, this was primarily a way to bring tangibility to this early research phase. We were curious about what would cause people to value the stove more. Rather than simply ask the question, we used this rough prototype to test people's reactions. It's a bit like a cardboard study model that an architect might make before building the building. The prototype also made our conversations far more dynamic than just asking questions. And as a result of what people responded to, one possible recommendation might be for stove designers to consider how to create more efficient stoves that incorporate greater flexibility to accommodate various cooking needs.

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Zsofia Gutvill – San Francisco State University San Francisco, CA 426 days ago

Thanks for sharing the story and the fun photos. It’s great to see the hands-on approach and the role, value and impact a rough prototype can have for a project. It was great to read about how prototyping in the field resulted in a true co-production and benefited every participant. I loved the local expertise, the recipe and secret ingredient for a stronger material. I hope the smart prototype will serve as a great catalyst for further research and improvements to find solutions with greater flexibility.

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