African Class
Mwabu
Recognising how function is massively overemphasised ahead of aesthetics in the education space, and many other industries on the continent, Mwabu wanted to bring a distinct yet appropriate design to their new proposition.
Work Type
Ideation
Idea
Mwabu is a Zambian ed-tech company aiming to revolutionise African education, by creating the interactive curricula, devices and renewable power sources for the modern African classroom.
Evidence
When real user data and feedback has deemed it necessary, Mwabu have invested significant resources into the research and development of bespoke software and hardware to better the classroom and learning experience. On reviewing off-the-shelf furniture to house their built devices, they quickly realised the available options were not up to their standard, which led to a conversation with us.
What We Did
We worked with Mwabu's team in London and Zambia to combine their customer learnings with our industrial design expertise, to produce an appropriately designed physical product for the Zambian classroom. We were able to ideate within Mwabu's functional specifications that included having the product store and induction charge e-learning tablets, hold a classroom projector and a large, solar-charged lithium battery, and meet their design targets that required the product to be locally manufactured and produced for under a target cost.
Since their founding Mwabu has focused on deeply revolutionising education from every angle; from the curriculum and its delivery tools, to the training of both pupil and teacher.
