- Why Evidence-Based Design Design has moved on fuzzy grounds for a long time. Decisions have followed best practices, opinions leaders, “good taste,” aesthetic fads, and personal assumptions about what works and what doesn’t. Since the times of William Morris, through the Bauhaus times, well into the XX Century, and even today, many designers worked all their lives on […]
- Navigating the Interstitial Space of Design and Ethics for Healthcare In December, 2014, the Health Design Lab submitted a “blanket” Ethics Application to Emily Carr’s Research Ethics Board (reb) in order to summarize and explain our overall methodology. The goal of this application was streamlining the ethics application process for projects the Lab manages that are very similar in methodology. The following text excerpts some […]
- Uplyft: Connecting People with Primary Lymphedema I was born with primary lymphedema (PL)—a rare, congenital, progressive and chronic swelling affecting primarily the limbs, leading to distortion in size, shape and even function, in my left arm and intestines. PL is caused by a failure in the lymphatic system and contributes to an individual’s physical, social, emotional, and psychological distress. Furthermore, without […]
- Decoding the Restaurant: Nutritional Values of Prepared Foods The British Columbia ministry of Health has established a program called Informed Dining (ID), which seeks to help restaurants provide nutritional information for prepared foods. Administrative staff have identified a need for people to more easily access this information. Emily Carr University of Art + Design students were asked to help. Our team used interviews, […]
- Design as Collective Intelligence Design as an Agent for Change: The Need for Collective Intelligence. We see design as a profession whose aim is the improvement of the welfare of people. To achieve this, the very nature of the problems faced force us to work collaboratively. If one is going to do something important, it’s quite likely one is […]
- Stay Safe: healthcare service design Emily Carr University of Art + Design has engaged in designing for complex problems in healthcare for many years, and recently formed a specific research area, the Health Design Lab, to gather a range of initiatives together into one centre. One of the lab’s partners is Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), a publicly funded regional health […]
- Violence and Aggression in Healthcare Violence and aggression suffered by healthcare workers “has become a significant problem in healthcare professions” [3], causing both physical and mental consequences for workers and wider systemic issues for the healthcare industry as a whole. Violence, in this context, is defined as “violent behaviour that is intentional, or not intentional due to illness or injury, […]
- The Air We Breathe: connecting through air quality monitoring Air quality is an inherently important aspect of both personal and environmental health. This is a problem that many Canadians struggle with due industries’ proximity to residential areas. This project focuses on two communities in Ontario, Aamjiwnaang and Sarnia, which are next door neighbours to Chemical Valley, Canada’s largest refinery of petrochemical products. Health effects […]
- Health Design: Interview with Jonathan Aitken View PDF
- Youth in Transition A 3rd year communication design class considered the problem of youth with chronic illness transitioning from child-centred to adult-centred healthcare. Current systems have focused on paper or web-based education and information recording, but compliance rates are low. In conjunction with the British Columbia Children’s Hospital the class conducted primary and secondary research and proposed solutions. […]
- The Lions Gate Hospital Foyer Project The Lions Gate Hospital Foyer project is a detailed example of how participatory, human-centred research can aid the design process and contribute to more effective solutions in architectural design. In this paper, I outline the unique research methods implemented by a research team of four students from Emily Carr over the course of the project. […]
- Case Study: 02 Moba, The Oxygen Mobility Backpack This paper documents the development of an oxygen (O2) tank carrier for adults dependent on medical oxygen, addressing the users need for comfort and safety while promoting active lifestyle choices. O2 Moba integrates two ergonomic functions: a comfortable backpack for a d-type cylinder and an adjustable rolling system ensuring improved mobility and product longevity. Usability […]
