That’s a wrap.

Earlier this year UO product design students completed research and testing of current condom brands in an attempt to pinpoint attributes that should be included in a possible next-generation condom design.

The research was published in a Men’s Journal article that also featured a photo slideshow containing the condom brands that rated best among students. They were able to test more than 70 brands on 20 different attributes.

Kiersten Muenchinger, product design program director at the UO, and instructor John Park of the digital arts program conducted the class last winter and organized student research centered on a new, innovative condom design.

Muenchinger and Park chose to take on this particular public health issue in response to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's call for a revolutionary condom that enhances pleasure, strengthens protection from disease and unwanted pregnancy and has more practical packaging. The Gates Foundation’s goal is to encourage men to use condoms more often.

Sitting in small groups behind desks laden with piles of used condoms and blue plastic phalluses, the students began testing. The groups were able to test a variety of condom attributes and were encouraged to develop their own methods for testing qualities such as wear, lubricant, speed, taste and use with visual impairment.

“Everyone really got into it; everyone actively tried to figure things out,” Muenchinger said. “The number (of condom brands) that we had was just so many that no student had the ability to say, ‘This is the clear winner.’ So some of the results were surprising to us.”

Muenchinger believes that the research done by her students is helping advance a revolution in condom design; a revolution, she said, that already has begun.

“There are the origami condoms and the new ‘Saran Wrap condom,’ which is coming from South America,” she said. “The problem is international in scope, but it’s also local and everyone can understand it.”

With such a socially relevant class curriculum, the product design students were able to justify their hard work in ways they had‘nt previously in the world of academia. Muenchinger believes the write-up in Men’s Journal contributed to the feeling of accomplishment both the professors and students felt when their research was published.

“It was just so validating,” she said of the article. “When you’re doing projects in school it’s really nice to know that the work that you do is going to be helpful for someone. The students can actually address real, significant problems.”

―By Nathaniel Brown, Public Affairs Communications intern