DHW Lab x Lab 4 Living

This week, some of the team from the DHW Lab are in the UK with our friends at the Lab 4 Living. Based at Sheffield Hallam University, the Lab 4 Living are a research programme who work on a diverse range of design research projects in the area of health and wellbeing. We have established a long term collaboration with the team, dating back to the formative stages of the DHW Lab in late 2013, and they have provided endless inspiration and support these past few years.

The core focus of our time together has been dedicated to comparing and contrasting the different models, context and cultures of our respective design for health labs, and generating opportunities for future collaboration.  

One of the highlights of the week was the symposium held on Tuesday 19th September - 'Intersections of Practice.' Designers and researchers from both the Lab 4 Living and the DHW Lab discussed the nuances of multidisciplinary practice across design and health. We also had an outstanding afternoon spent with the virtual reality and digital designers from the Faculty of Health & Wellbeing, who are pushing the boundaries on how VR can be applied to both training medical staff and improving patient education.

The DHW Lab are incredibly grateful for the time taken to host us in Sheffield this week and for the investment the Lab 4 Living has made into us as Kiwi counterparts. We are looking forward to seeing the team again at the Design 4 Health conference in Melbourne later in the year,  where designers and researchers from both Labs will be presenting.

'The Present'_Reflection by Eujeen Hwang

Designing in the context of health and wellbeing has always been an interest of mine. Doing my project with the DHW Lab was a valuable design experience for me. Especially being able to design  in the field of dementia.

Having lost my family member to dementia made this project a very emotional one for me and it had acted as a motivational push for me. 

The design process was a challenge as usual. One side of me wanting to jump to conclusions and the other side knowing there is more possibilities in it. The feedback I got from DHW Lab team and my lecturers helped me push on, because they also knew there could be more done. When I decided to just let go of that final product image in my head, it was the scariest decision I made in a long time. My previous design which I called it to be final had so many areas that just didn’t seem right aesthetically and functionally, such as adjustable aluminium body with a wooden handle. The proportion of it also was disturbingly unsatisfying. Accepting that, and taking on board the feedback from DHW Lab crew required so much courage but I never regretted that decision. I gained trust in the design process and have become so sure of the “fail often and fast so you can succeed sooner” (-Tom Kelly).

I learnt that there is only a rough road to the design process but that makes it even more rewarding at the end.

I believe the result of my concentrated effort was rewarding. I used academic research on dementia to inform my dual purpose walking cane design, which allowed me to produce a product that considers many of the complexities associated with dementia.

The making process was rough, my plan didn’t go as I expected, I was denied access to machines such as CNC. Therefore my walking cane was 100% handmade. From the hand-making process I learnt so much in achieving a high quality, detail focused process. It was hard but worth it.

For further improvement, it would make sense to embed several more magnets on the wooden ball so that picking up process with the stick (with magnet also embedded) is much easier for the dementia patients. This would be necessary as for some patients it was distressing for them when they cannot pick it up immediately.

For further improvements in my next project (graduation project) I will get on with the design process, especially prototyping widely throughout the whole project. There is NO end to design!

Designing with the  DHW Lab was so valuable for my learnings and it was amazing to be designing in the context of health and wellbeing, which I always wanted to attempt. Thank you to the DHW Lab crew and my lecturers who pushed me on, thanks to my Dementia design team mates/friends/family for the moral support.  Last but not least, a huge thank-you to my granny who made this project more meaningful to me. Miss you heaps. 

I hope 'the present' will be the present for all dementia patients and their families :)

Airbridge Safety

This recently installed design focusses on improving the safety of nurses and doctors using the airbridge that connects the helipad to the hospital. Large environmental graphics highlight safety, warning, and danger zones whilst clear iconography is used to identify health and safety equipment. The corridor is treated as a 'shadow wall', with key items such as stretchers allocated to specific areas on the bridge to maintain an ordered and safe working area.

Design for Next: European Academy for Design Conference 2017

One of our designers at the DHW Lab, Eden Short recently ventured to Rome to present her masters wayfinding work at Design for Next, the bi-annual European Academy for Design conference. This was a huge gathering with approximately 500 presentations over 3 days, with 9 tracks tackling different areas of design. The aim of the event was to be open, inclusive and international. It certainly achieved this, with presenters from around the globe and a mix of emerging and established academics. Seeing the design discipline on such an international scale was incredible, and highlighted that we are all facing similar complexities and challenges in the health and design space. There was a real sense of collaboration and community as people shared stories and strategies of what they had learnt through new projects and collaborations, as well as calls for action from education and industry. 

Eden presented in the ‘Design for Next Healthcare’ track, discussing how we might demonstrate future opportunities of wayfinding in healthcare, using a children’s outpatient department to prototype and test solutions. 

Yours.

A group of third year product design students recently undertook a project investigating the experience of waiting at an oncology clinic.

Take a look at the work of Chelsea Pratt who took a unique and thoughtful approach to this design brief. Learn about it on her blog.

Healing Environments Exhibition

The DHW Lab set up its first exhibition outside the lab, in the hospital waiting area on Level 5. Focusing on the privacy booth developed by the lab, we set up a display and feedback table to ask patients, staff and visitors to take a moment to tell us what they thought about, not only the privacy booth, but what a Healing Environment could be for them in the hospital.

The exhibition was an experiment in both presenting the lab’s work to a broader audience and as a way to gather feedback from the members of the public.

After lots of effort and excitement putting the display together, it was great to see the level of interest generated from a range of patients, staff and visitors. Responses were thoughtful and interesting, and very positive on the whole from those we talked to about the privacy booth and the Lab’s aspirational Level 8 Whanau space design.

The feedback we received through the exhibition has helped the Lab and the team working on the privacy booth validate its purpose and need.

Holding an exhibition in a public space in the hospital proved a great way to put one of the Lab’s ideas out there and get the public’s response. It was also a novel learning experience for the Lab in continuing to create opportunities for others in the hospital to be involved with the projects we do.

Check out the animation below for the full story of the exhibition.