Designing for Sustainability: A Web-based Tool for Water Reclamation

Technological innovation has increasingly become important in addressing the most pressing problems in society. To create better and sustainable solutions, project teams often strive to bring the people they are designed for to the innovation process. While the human-centered design approach has become popular in guiding design in the private sector, its place in addressing larger challenges beyond human needs is still not well defined. Using our experiences in designing the WasteWATER app, an open-source decision making tool intended to help design sustainable water reclamation systems, we illustrate the synergy between analytical research and human-centered design, through the convergence of design and anthropology in creating applied outcomes in universities. Analytical research can help understand complex problems such as the sustainability of water reclamation. At the same time, embedding design thinking in applied research projects can help researchers in academic institutions refine their solutions through collaborative and iterative design with stakeholders.