Sometimes the most brilliant innovations come from the most personal places. When student designer Yidan Xu watched her father struggle with chronic kidney disease that wasn’t caught until it was too late, she knew she had to do something. Her solution? A simple toilet cleaning tablet that could change everything about how we detect kidney problems.
Meet Urify, a dual-purpose innovation that’s just been recognized as a global finalist in the prestigious James Dyson Award. On the surface, it looks like any ordinary toilet cleaning tablet. Drop it in your bowl, and it does exactly what you’d expect: keeps things fresh and clean. But here’s where it gets fascinating. This little tablet is secretly working as your personal health detective.
Designer Name: Yidan Xu
The magic happens through a clever chemical reaction. When the tablet dissolves, it releases a special reagent that changes color if it detects urinary albumin, a protein that shouldn’t normally be present in healthy urine. When your kidneys start having trouble, they begin leaking this protein, and Urify catches it red-handed, literally changing color to alert you. This isn’t just a neat science experiment. We’re talking about a condition that affects an estimated 800 million people worldwide. Chronic kidney disease is often called the “silent killer” because it typically shows no symptoms until significant damage has already occurred. By the time most people realize something’s wrong, their kidneys may have lost up to 90% of their function.
What makes Urify so brilliant is how it removes every barrier to early detection. No doctor’s appointments to schedule. No awkward conversations about symptoms you might not even have. No expensive tests to worry about. Just your regular bathroom routine with a cleaning tablet that happens to be looking out for your health. The beauty lies in its simplicity. You’re already cleaning your toilet anyway, so why not let that cleaning tablet do double duty? It’s the kind of innovation that makes you wonder why nobody thought of it before. The tablet works completely passively, requiring no special equipment, no training, and no change to your daily habits.
For women especially, this could be game-changing. We’re often the ones managing household health decisions, keeping track of family medical needs, and noticing when something seems off. Having a tool that works quietly in the background, giving us early warning signs before problems become serious, feels like having a health guardian angel. The timing couldn’t be better either. As healthcare costs continue to rise and access to regular screening becomes more challenging for many families, innovations like Urify offer hope for preventive care that actually fits into real life. Early detection of kidney disease can mean the difference between managing a condition and facing dialysis or transplant.
Xu’s personal motivation shines through in every aspect of this design. She didn’t just create a product; she created a solution born from watching someone she loved suffer from a disease that could have been caught earlier. That kind of emotional investment often leads to the most meaningful innovations. The recognition from the James Dyson Award validates what many of us instinctively understand: the best designs solve real problems in ways that feel almost effortless. Urify doesn’t ask us to change our lives or remember new routines. It simply works within the patterns we already have, quietly protecting our health one flush at a time. This is exactly the kind of innovation that gives me hope for the future of healthcare: smart, accessible, and designed with genuine care for human needs.
The post This Toilet Tablet Changes Color When It Detects Kidney Disease first appeared on Yanko Design.