Our group's community partner is Mrs.Huang, the cleaning lady responsible for 8th floor at NYUSH. There're two main problems for her: an easier way to carry the bucket filled with water and the inadequate arrangement of her tool room. To have a deeper and more accurate understanding of her problem, we followed her daily working routine. Also, we sat in her tool room and tried to observe the room from her perspective.
For the first problem, we found that Huang Ayi needs to mop the floor several times per day. Although Huang Ayi is only responsible for cleaning 8th floor, its still heavy workload to carry a heavy water bucket all around the floor. For the second problem, the tool room is where Huang Ayi usually takes a rest. However, the room is quite small and narrow in size. And her cleaning equipments even capture more spaces. In this case, it's hard for Huang Ayi to have a good rest inside.
My first proposal is to visually make her room bigger because we can't change the physical structure of the room. By sticking reflective paper onto plastic bottles and hanging them on the ceiling, it will both make the room look bigger and prettier. I have played with reflective paper before and it's really visually pleasing. Also, considering about the hanging problem, the reflective paper is so light in weight which is easily to hang on by using the string.
My second proposal for the problem is to make a trailer to carry the bucket by using plastic bottles. Plastic bottles are made of PET, which is a very light and stretchable material that can endure heavy lashes. In this case, they can carry the bucket filled with water too. By using the trailer, Huang Ayi can pull the trailer directly instead of holding the bucket in her hand. Also, it's easier for her to move the bucket around because the fraction towards the floor reduced significantly.
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