Chinese manufacturers to build products based on PATH’s reference design

PATH has finalized agreements with three Chinese manufacturers to develop, produce, and sell gravity-fed household water treatment and safe storage (HWTS) devices designed especially for and with low-income households. The new devices will follow general design guidelines and lessons learned from a prototype gravity filter developed by PATH, which was developed, refined, and validated during several rounds of user experience testing in India. Each manufacturer will interpret the reference design style based on its own market knowledge, thus differentiating the products from each other and creating competition between product lines. The products will be marketed at trade shows to distributors who typically buy water treatment devices from the Chinese, brand them, and sell them in Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

Effective use of market forces

By partnering with private-sector companies who already have manufacturing facilities and well-established sales channels in low-income countries, PATH is making use of market forces to supply a proven and effective product to households in need.

Last summer, PATH screened more than 60 potential candidate companies in China to co-develop HWTS products based on our reference design and design guidelines. Nearly all the candidates are involved in some contract manufacturing and currently manufacture variations on a HWTS product known as the “Mineral Pot,” an affordable and attractive gravity-fed filter popular in Asia and the Middle East. From among these candidates, PATH identified partners with a proactive and entrepreneurial business approach and an interest in developing their own products for the low-income market. In February 2011, PATH signed agreements with three Chinese manufacturers who will receive technical support from PATH to develop, manufacture, and sell variations on our reference design head-to-head in the trade-show market. PATH will also work with these partners to verify that the new products meet performance specifications set forth in our design guidelines. In this corner of the HWTS market, cost is king, and the new design concepts from our Chinese partners will compete directly with each other as well as the myriad variations of the Mineral Pot.

User-defined specifications

What makes PATH’s reference design unique is that it was carefully created with multiple stages of input from low-income users. Recognizing that choice is an important component of uptake, we began soliciting input from users four years ago by simply trying to understand how low-income households in Asia relate to and use water. Using existing HWTS devices already available in Asia, we then placed a range of products in households to get specific feedback from users about product features and design elements. Our extended user testing study in India provided rich evidence about what worked and what did not, what users grew to like and what they grew to dislike about the products, and how that affected use over time. Surprisingly, we learned that no single product in the study satisfied users’ needs. Users explained why each product was too expensive, too fancy, too simple, too complicated, or too fragile. Interpreting this feedback with our partners Quicksand Design and Cascade Designs, Inc., we returned to users with a wide range of ideas for design concepts, including pumps, hanging filters, and durables—most of which were outright rejected by users. We discovered that users wanted something simple with familiar styling, something that fit their mental models for what a HWTS device should look like, and thus a simple gravity filter shaped the direction of our work.

Over the next several months, we produced multiple functional prototypes and appearance models, landing on three alpha prototypes in February 2010. The prototypes were refined and adapted and finally a single beta prototype was tested in households at the end of 2010. The results of the beta testing led to final design changes and validation of concepts, all of which are captured in our design guidelines and the final prototype.

Now, with Chinese partners on board, the prototype is ready for differentiation and production. Our expectation is that these new products will seed a new category of HWTS filters and expand water treatment choices for low-income users. The new products will also help spur much-needed competition in the low-income market for HWTS filters, leading companies to compete on design, price, and outreach strategies to target consumers.

Photo: PATH.