Design for Healthcare Part I: Introduction to Human-Centred Design

Health care researchers and clinical practitioners strive to find solutions to improve health and wellbeing of others. At KITE, our FIBRE academic and industry partners recognize that textiles play important functional, aesthetic, and expressive roles in the lives of patients and caregivers, and offer new opportunities for prevention and treatment. Taking a human-centred approach to designing and developing health care products and treatments can reveal new dimensions to the user (patient) experience.

This interactive workshop is for scientists, clinicians, researchers, designers, trainees, and other professionals working in multi-disciplinary spaces toward developing innovative health care solutions. In this first workshop, we will introduce the fundamental concepts of human-centred design in the context of health care. Attendees will participate in immersive activities to learn how these principles can be incorporated into health-related research for textile-based solutions and beyond.

Facilitators:

Dr. Kirsten Schaefer is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at KITE with a background in applied human-centred design research and developing apparel solutions for people with specialized clothing needs. She is a textiles and apparel design educator at the School of Fashion at Ryerson* University, and is currently researching various smart textile applications for healthcare needs.

Dr. Jessica Mudry is the Director of the Health User Experience Lab, Associate Professor, and Chair of the School of Professional Communication at Ryerson* University. A former chemist, BBC and Discovery Channel researcher, she is now a science communication scholar who focuses on the persuasivity of scientific language in politics and popular culture, and the ways in which media portray science to various audiences. Her past academic projects have included a political history of chemistry and nutrition, and international public health communication.

Dr. Sandra Tullio-Pow is the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education & Student Affairs at The Creative School, and Associate Professor in the School of Fashion at Ryerson* University. Her research and practice focus on human-centred apparel design, where she works in collaborative teams to invent clothing solutions for extraordinary groups. Recent projects include patients in hospital rehab programs and those with hemi paresis, breast cancer survivors, women with lymphedema, women who wear plus sizes, and people with low vision.

This is the first in a three-part series. We invite you to join all three workshops:

• April 6: Part 1 - Introduction to Human-Centred Design
• April 20: Part 2 - Doing Human-Centred Design
• May 18: Part 3 - Analyzing and Applying Human-Centred Design Research

Links to register for future workshops in this series will be made available following the completion of Workshop 1.

*Ryerson University renaming in progress. In August 2021, the university announced that it would begin a renaming process to address the legacy of Egerton Ryerson for a more inclusive future.