Design can change the world through creative problem solving.

Introducing Designing A Difference, Design Museum Boston’s campaign to educate the public on the transformative power of design by helping nonprofits find innovative solutions to economic, social, and environmental problems.

Each project will unite a nonprofit in need of design services with a carefully assembled team of local design experts. Through a series of charrettes, or design-days, the team will collaborate to design, develop, and prototype useful solutions.

Design Museum Boston will document the design process from beginning to end and post the team’s progress online. Each project will culminate in an online and onsite exhibit showcasing the nonprofit and the team’s design work with the ultimate goal of educating the public through the practical application of design.

Designing A Difference begins with smallbean, a nonprofit based in Boston, Massachusetts. Smallbean operates the Citizen Archivist Project (CAP). They teach technology skills and document community life around the world. Their initiatives are enabled by solar power (1) and the in-kind donation of personal electronics (3). Participants in the CAP learn technology and computer skills while uploading and processing oral history interviews, photographs and video footage capturing a snapshot of life in communities around the world through the eyes of local citizens (4).

Smallbean provides electricity to schools in the developing world through the use of a prototype solar suitcase (2), a compact airplane-carry-on that contains the necessary electronics to convert the sun’s rays into usable energy to power the Citizen Archivist Project. Smallbean also envisions a revenue-stream for schools that will sell excess power generated by the solar system to village residents seeking to light their homes or charge devices such as cell phones with sustainable clean energy. This excess power would be distributed throughout the village by students delivering rentable batteries.

Design brief: Design, develop, and prototype a production-ready solar suitcase that is easy-to-use, language-neutral, portable, extremely durable, and capable of charging multiple swappable batteries. Also design, develop, and prototype a rechargeable, durable, and distributable battery solution.

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