CASE STUDY
Join the Clean Air Revolution
Storyboard and Camtasia Video
Small business owners, school administrators, community leaders (houses of faith, nonprofit groups, etc).
The Stakeholders
People are getting sick too often. Excess illness is leading to high absenteeism, reduced morale, and lost productivity.
The Problem
I’ve spent the past 6 months consulting with researchers, engineers, educators, and public health advocates at the Corsi-Rosenthal Foundation to learn how to build air purifiers to reduce the spread of illness in my community. I wanted to give back to the foundation by contributing simple, accessible training resources for their audience.
My Role
Image: @TaniaJSpencer for the Corsi-Rosenthal Foundation. This DIY air purifier can be built in 15-30 minutes using a box fan, 4 filters, duct tape, scissors, and a utility knife.
I conducted a needs analysis to determine the gaps between what people are currently doing and what they need to do, and to target interventions. Training isn’t the only solution, so I noted non-training recommendations in my plan.
Needs Analysis
Camtasia, Google Documents.
Tools
Many people think that preventing illness is out of their control, or believe that being sick is good for them due to “immunity debt” myths. This project will require an extensive marketing campaign with an emphasis on increasing motivation.
Different cultures require different instructions, as they use different metric systems and have access to different products.
Many people confuse filtration (cleaning the air, achievable by DIY purifiers) with ventilation (changing the air, requiring expensive building upgrades). Filtration may be solved by training, but ventilation is an environmental problem. We need to communicate the difference between filtration and ventilation without overwhelming people.
Challenges
Many common illnesses are airborne. Washing our hands is not enough - we also need to clean the air.
Video Highlights
THE PROBLEM: Realistic scenarios and recent data make a clear case: airborne illnesses can disable people and tank productivity.
WIIFM (What’s in it for me?): Short explainers and quick statistics prove how fast, easy, affordable, and beneficial it is to clean the air.
CALL TO ACTION: As the music fades out at the end, a glowing, animated arrow compels viewers to click action links in the video notes.
EDITING: I used Camtasia to quickly and easily splice content, balance audio tracks, design transitions and animations, and add closed captions.
Lessons for the Future
The introductory video motivating community leaders to take action has been completed, but this project is still in process. I’m still working with my community to secure grants to build DIY air purifiers, to design a simplified calculator to determine how many purifiers are needed based on room volume, and to brainstorm marketing strategies.
Cleaning indoor air is more important than ever. Data from the CDC confirms that, as of March 2024, at least 17.6 million Americans are living with Long Covid - and that ventilation can reduce exposure. But conducting a needs analysis reminded me that knowledge, skills, and resources are not enough. People need motivation to make change.
Can we create a long-term marketing campaign to increase public awareness about airborne viruses? Can we use art, social media, and other cultural means to help people understand that “immunity debt” is a myth? Can we help people who are understandably tired of hearing about “the pandemic” realize they have more control over it than they think?
These are some of the questions I’m asking myself as I continue to collaborate and problem-solve with researchers and advocates at the Corsi-Rosenthal Foundation, and members of my community in Tucson, Arizona.
