Bittersweet end to the week!

This week at the Lab has been full on and extremely busy for everyone, there has been so much happening! 

On Monday our postgraduate students did a 3 minute presentation on the projects they are working on and the progress so far. The attendees to the event included a mix of AUT and ADHB staff. There was fantastic feedback from the groups that attended and was great to see all the projects together. 

It has been a bittersweet end of the week for us at the Lab. Today we say goodbye to Emme Jacob our amazing Graphic Designer!

Emme joined last year and has been a really valuable part of the team, contributing to a lot of great changes in the Lab.  While there have been many highlights some stand outs include Auckland DHB Values branding and retail pharmacy work done with Josh.  

Emme has tackled everything with real energy and enthusiasm. The Lab would like to thank you for your hard work and dedication.  Your energy and love for what you do will be missed by the team! 

We wish you all the very best in the UK and good luck completing your masters! As much as we will miss you here at the Lab, we know this is a great opportunity and we can't wait to hear about it! We are super excited for you and your new adventure! 

Researcher Profile: Jaye Buchbinder

Our newest member of the lab is Jaye Buchbinder, coming from California to work on research towards the opportunities and stakeholder understanding of the DHW lab. She’s currently a Master's student at Stanford University in Management Science and Engineering, looking at the intersection between management effectiveness and efficiency as well as entrepreneurship and scaling innovation. During her undergrad (also at Stanford), Jaye studied Sustainable Design and Engineering, where she spent a lot of time in the engineering department and design school studying sustainability not only in the environmental sense but also in longevity of design and impact on people.

Her experience with design is a wide range between sustainable engineering at Emeco, an American furniture manufacturer, to materials engineering at BMW, product launch design at Victoria’s Secret, teaching design thinking across Asia, and innovation scaling at the Stanford Hospital for her most recent research project.

She is incredibly excited to be in the land of the Kiwi’s, already addicted to the coffee here, absolutely loves picking up new slang, and always looking to make her trip chockablock of adventures!

Governor General Visits the Lab

Last week AUT was fortunate to have the Governor General, Jerry Mateparae visit the university for the first time.  As part of his visit the Sir Mateparae came to the DHW Lab to find out a bit more about the lab and what we've been doing!

The Governor General had the opportunity to hear from our students,  our team at the lab and also the Co-Directors.

Antonio Wan, presented his redesigned neonatal baby bath and Charlotte Dickson went through her interactive picture books for starship outpatient clinics. Both Antonio and Charlotte successfully completed their Bachelor of Design (honours) qualifications in 2015.

Reid Douglas and Byron Thornhill presented on projects that the DHW Lab has worked recently, including the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) relapse guide and the level 8 overbridge concept design at Auckland City Hospital.

Both Co-Directors, Stephen Reay and Justin Kennedy-good focussed on the vision and purpose of the collaboration between the AUT and Auckland District Health Board and their vision for the future of this initiative.

Leona Wang - Fashion Design Student

Yuxi (Leona) Wang recently completed her Bachelor of Art and Design (honours) and decided to carry on to complete her Master of Art and Design specialising in Fashion Design. 

Leona 's Masters project is to design the next generation volunteers uniform at Auckland City Hospital, collectively known as Blue Coats, while being in line with the proposed interior changes for hospital.

The aim for this project is to create an identifiable and welcoming identity for Blue Coat volunteers that are working in the hospitals community.

Here is a quick snapshot of Leona’s progress so far. 

Welcome new Post Graduates

2016 is well underway at the lab with a range of hospital consulting projects up and running. The academic year is now also in full swing with a new cohort of Postgraduate designers from a range of disciplines working on projects at the lab. 

Keep an eye out for our new student section that will be added as a separate page in the tool bar. Here we will exhibit the postgraduate work from spatial, product, fashion and graphic designers here at the lab.

Researcher Profile: Charlotte Dickson

For her 2015 honours project Charlotte Dickson designed a set of interactive picture books that tell the story of a little girl named Lin and her experiences of visiting the Outpatients’ Department at Starship Children’s Hospital after breaking her arm. Hospitals can be scary places, especially for children whose imaginations often run away with them.

Lin’s story aims to relieve children’s fears and engage them in their treatment experiences by giving them honest information in a fun and friendly format. The five stages of Lin’s treatment are explained in five short modules that children can collect as they progress through their own treatment journey.

Children can also stamp the last page of each module as they complete the relevant stage of treatment. The illustrations include elements for children to colour in, helping to combat the boredom of the hospital waiting room, while allowing them to make the book their own.

Once children complete their treatment the book becomes a treasured keepsake of a childhood milestone.