DesignWanted x Dutch Design Week – Tech for Health, towards a health-conscious society

DesignWanted teamed up with Dutch Design Week and curated an exclusive virtual tour exploring projects that focus on creating a more health-conscious society.

The current pandemic has had a major effect on our lives and the world around us, it has not only shifted our priorities but it has revealed the fragility of global health while shedding a light on how underprepared we have been all along. 

From lockdowns and social distancing, to travel bans and smart working, solutions have been put in place to preserve people’s health, and while these solutions are temporary they have brought us even closer to technology while becoming more open to experiment and adopt new innovative tech-based solutions. 

The Covid-19 outbreak has pushed our limits, and the ones of healthcare even more. And while the sector is always researching and progressing, its main focus has always been on the advancements of drugs and medicine but not on the way people get tested, treated, or experience being in a hospital.

Now that we are even more dependent on it, we have been realizing the paradox in which this sector lives, noticing that there is a very small focus on the human-centered aspects and design of healthcare. 

Conscious about this, designers all over the world have seen an opportunity to redesign the way we approach and view health from a product, experience, and service design perspective.

The following are some of the featured projects, initiatives, and designers who take an innovative human-centered approach to improve the healthcare sector and our wellbeing (more here). 

CHIWAWA – Creative & Health Innovation Ways of Working Analysis

The Creative & Health Innovation Ways of Working Analysis (CHIWAWA) is a cross-cutting research project done by the HU Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, Research group Methodology of Practice-based Research and Research group Co-design.

The project is part of the ‘Create Health – E-health knowledge base for a healthy and active old age’ program by ZonMw that focuses on effective e-health applications. CHIWAWA uses case examples from the ten projects in the ZonMw program to develop knowledge on the use of innovation and creative ways of working in healthcare. 

[ Curious to know more about exhibitions during Dutch Design Week? Don’t miss Isola Design District x Dutch Design Week: From biomaterials to collectible design ]

The Student Service Design Challenge Exhibition

Initiated by Philips Experience Design, co-organized with SERVICE DESIGN DAYS, and in collaboration with IBM and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, The Student Service Design Challenge is a global design award that celebrates and involves young designers in creating people-centered and future-oriented services that improve people’s health, wellbeing and welfare.

The exhibition displays the most inspiring concepts and gives you a deeper look at the research, ideation, and development processes of the designs. 

Bump Galaxy: Virtual Care, E-health, Digital Love

Hosted by Bianca Carague, Bump Galaxy is a virtual world and community for mental health. Prototyped on the open-world sandbox game Minecraft, Bump Galaxy’s community members can visit several Care Commons designed to improve different aspects of their wellbeing.

They can also virtually meet mental health professionals from around the world who work together on collaborative game-specific care programs.

Redesigning the future of healthcare

Hosted by Philips Experience Design, the Redesigning the future of healthcare exhibition showcases Philips’ designers who are embracing innovation through a radical empathy, holistic, sustainable, and, above all, human-centered approach.

Just like companies and designers around the globe, Philips has taken on the challenge and responsibility to focus on health and wellbeing and is proving their top-class designers are equal to this redesigning challenge. 

Immersive Healing Art System(IHAS)

Hosted and developed by Genesis Arts, the Immersive Healing Art System (IHAS) is a smart and innovative art system that curates and creates an immersive, emotionally healing experience through audio-visual art. IHAS offers endless art streams and engaging interactions that induce positive moods and emotions such as calming, soothing, and uplifting.

Attention to mental health in education with Sprekkie

Sprekkie is a digital solution to support mental health problems and care among young adults. Sprekkie breaks the taboo by enabling the dialogue between young people who are facing mental health problems and the environment surrounding them in a safe and accessible way.

By sharing knowledge in a safe manner, Sprekkie helps young adults with mental problems to get a better understanding of the situation while contributing to lowering the taboo around mental health. 

Agora – Mental Wellness For Cancer

Addressing the substantial challenges cancer patients face, Agora is a digital product that allows oncologists to prescribe mental health care to patients in a safe and engaging way. Through the use of behavioral design and digital technology, Agora helps patients regain a sense of agency and positivity through their journey. 

3D in the regional hospital ZGT

Saxion – Research group Industrial Design presents healthcare innovations through 3D printing in the regional hospital ZGT. The project features the development of user-friendly custom-made pessary showcasing its research and a process that aims to answer two questions:

How can 3D printing be used in medical practice for more efficient care, cost reduction, increased self-reliance of – and less impact on – the patient? And is it possible to develop a pessary that can be easily handled by women themselves and fits without problems, with which a substantially lower doctor contact can be achieved?

Prosthetic X

Prosthetic X is an innovative art-driven project that stimulates thinking about how, why, and who gains insight into our personal health data. Through the development of 9 prostheses that collect data about ourselves by means of an artificial, physical data organ, real-time feedback is provided about our health status. The focus of the project is on privacy-by-design and the empowerment of the aging population.

(IM)POSSIBLE BODIES

From The Makers of ROBOT LOVE, (IM)POSSIBLE BODIES is a virtual and interactive exhibition about cyborgs, data, and artificial intelligence. The exhibition uses augmented realities with (ro)bots, 3D artworks, and custom-made virtual avatars to create a digital voyage of comprehensive, shared sensory online experiences. 

Explore these projects in-depth and don’t miss DesignWanted’s curated virtual tour, Tech for Health.

[ Find out more about designs who focus on improving health and wellbeing through a human-centered approach, don’t miss Hacking is caring, this e-book helps to design a dementia-friendly home ]