Design of Backpacking Tent Accessories through the Lens of Wilderness Medicine
Abstract
Wilderness medicine is a practice that focuses on medical incidents such as the cuts, stings,
sprains, and bruises can happen at any time when participating in outdoor recreation. While these
medical events would often be minor concerns in day-to-day life, they can quickly escalate to
very serious situations when out in the wilderness, hence the need for a unique field of medicine.
These potential complications are due to the remote nature of these trips – meaning injuries
stay untreated longer - and the increased presence of bacteria and viruses, especially when dealing with a cut or laceration. Often times in the wilderness, these medical situations need to be
dealt with in a very improvised manner and few pieces of gear are designed specifically for this,
meaning that any available supplies or equipment may need to be repurposed. Furthermore, there
is a good chance that if a wilderness medical situation occurs, that the individual will have reduced
physical abilities in some way, shape, or form.
With this knowledge in hand, a thought experiment was devised: what can be learned about
tents and tent usage if examined from a non-traditional perspective, such as that of wilderness
medicine? Wilderness medicine provides a very interesting and complex “lens” to examine
tents through because most of the time it addresses worst-case scenarios – the outliers. Similar
to Universal Design, if designs are focused more on these outlying medical situations – things
that can result in reduced mobility, strength, and awareness, to name a few – then it follows that
accommodation could be improved for all other users. More so, the possibility even exists that the
tent, or aspects of the tent, could actually play an active role in addressing wilderness medical
scenarios. The goal of this project is just that, to first examine tents and all of the intangibles
associated with them through this “lens” of wilderness medicine. Once completed, the second
phase is to examine the information gathered and apply this knowledge to the creation of new
products or components related to current tent technology. The ideal outcome is a new tent whose
refinements and innovations improve a tent’s usability in a wide variety of situations.