The summer studentship at the DHW lab will be wrapping up in the next few weeks. As mentioned in previous posts, way finding has been a major focus of the work and is a significant component of both patient visitor and staff experience of the hospital. Take a look here at some of the students' process work and stay tuned for their up coming final presentations.
Nick Hayes was one of the founding designers at the DHW Lab. In January 2015, Nick accepted a once in a life time opportunity to work in a design and branding agency in New York for 3 months. We wish Nick all the best on his adventures to the big apple, and hope to see him back at the Lab one day to apply his experience to design problems at the Auckland DHB. We also would like to take this opportunity to thank Nick for his part in establishing this collaboration between the ADHB and AUT. The Lab has greatly benefited through both his outstanding design work and the genuine relationship building with the staff and users at the Auckland DHB.
Check out his feature below in the New Zealand Herald's Canvas Magazine:
Here at the design Lab, we are interested in how 3D printing can help to improve patient and staff experience in different medical situations. Jen Loy, one of our partners from Griffith University on the Gold Coast, summarises the benefits of 3D printing in this sort clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goRDnAdhXSs
Dr Jennifer Loy runs the 3D Design major, QCA Gold Coast. She also supervises students on the Master of Arts in Visual Arts program who have Product Design as their major and DVA / PhD students with project interests in areas that are related to her research.
Jennifer Loy has a PhD in Industrial Design, with a research focus on sustainable design practice. Her current research interests are in the re-localisation of manufacturing, socio-cultural sustainability and learning through making (digital fabrication). She is part of the Transformative Technologies Research study group looking at the impact of disruptive technologies (such as 3D printing) on patterns of design, production and consumption and has a passion for exploring the interaction of designer maker, values based approaches with value adding through the use of digital fabrication – both subtractive and additive manufacturing (3D printing).
Jen has an industry background in furniture design for both mass and batch production in Australia and the UK, and was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Sustainable Architecture with Wood.
Happy new year from the team here at the DHW lab. Projects are well underway and there a lots of new opportunities ahead of us in 2015. The end of January is fast approaching and the Rosella programme summer studentships (focussing of way finding in the hospital), have been full speed over the summer period. We also have the official launch of the lab space and website coming up, so stay in touch and thanks for stopping by our blog. Bring on 2015!
The hospital is constantly collecting out data and measures all day, everyday. This data may appear in reports or graphs of performance, but is largely unseen by the the hospital and its users. As a part of the summer studentship running a the DHW lab, students have been asked to consider how data might be made more accessible through creative installations and artworks. Check out the brief they have been given below:
You have been looking for a partner in commissioning an abstract data driven visualisation of what’s going on in real time in our hospital in our public spaces. The data is real time information as being fed from our hospital information showing things like admissions, discharges, transfers, diagnostic orders (labs, radiology), dispensed medicines, surgeries, outpatient visits and other sorts of transactional data. We would be looking to apply patient lenses to this information such adults, children, women, ethnicities, localities, conditions (cancer, diabetes, mental health) etc.
You would see these visualisations continually running 24/7, and include disruptions into the visualisations for exceptional events such as births, deaths etc.
We recently ran a workshop with the students to introduce the brief and explore:
What type of data could be used?
What mediums could be used to present this data? Sound? light? objects?
Where might these installations be placed int he public spaces?
Stay tuned for updates on this project...
Earlier in the year, Honours student Lauren Hyland recently undertook a role-play exercise to help her gain empathy for elderly patients in public healthcare. Much more than a simple exercise in acting, Lauren fully transformed her visual appearance and identity, with the help of make-up artists at BodyFX, into that of an ill-looking, frail elderly woman. Following her radical transformation, Lauren immersed herself in the context of public healthcare at Auckland City’s Public Hospital at Grafton, providing her an interactive environment to act out the experience of her users. Lauren reflects on the exercise and her experience below:
‘My key insights were gained through the use of ‘Role-Play’ as an explorative, empathy gaining method. With the help of BodyFX – the make-up & prosthetics specialists – I was able to fully embody what it is like to be an elderly patient by experiencing a day walking in their shoes. I allowed myself to be immersed into the moment – feeling vulnerable, overwhelmed and at times invisible or ignored.'
In response to this outstanding research effort, Take a look at Lauren's magnetic, easily removable privacy screen that retrofits onto existing hospital beds. The design is a concept at this stage, but has scope to be developed in different materials, transparencies and sizes.
Well done Lauren for all the hard work you have put in this year at the DHW lab!
Check out her research video here:
