May Mallahzadeh ⏤ 2024
May Mallahzadeh ⏤ 2024
Healthcare through a designer's lens
Healthcare through a designer's lens
My interest in design was sparked when I watched a Doug Dietz TED talk in 2014. If you don't really know what design can do in a healthcare space, I'll tell you the short story: Doug, an engineer, developed groundbreaking MRI scan machines and felt proud of his creation. However, during a hospital visit, he noticed children leaving scans in tears, often requiring sedation. Realizing he hadn't considered the user experience, Doug adopted a design thinking approach. He transformed the MRI process into a playful and engaging experience by introducing themed machines, like a pirate adventure where children had to stay still to hear a story. This redesign turned the scary experience into an enjoyable one, and Doug saw children leaving the appointments happily, eager to return.
My interest in design was sparked when I watched a Doug Dietz TED talk in 2014. If you don't really know what design can do in a healthcare space, I'll tell you the short story: Doug, an engineer, developed groundbreaking MRI scan machines and felt proud of his creation. However, during a hospital visit, he noticed children leaving scans in tears, often requiring sedation. Realizing he hadn't considered the user experience, Doug adopted a design thinking approach. He transformed the MRI process into a playful and engaging experience by introducing themed machines, like a pirate adventure where children had to stay still to hear a story. This redesign turned the scary experience into an enjoyable one, and Doug saw children leaving the appointments happily, eager to return.
The essence of this story highlights a crucial point – at some point in our lives, we all may face a health crisis. Surviving such challenges is something no one deserves, and we all deserve to live while navigating our lives with the conditions we're confronting.
Healthcare, ideally, shouldn't be a daunting or undesirable experience. However, it often becomes so because, while health breakthroughs and inventions are crucial, we sometimes overlook the human aspect. Focusing solely on providing a solution without taking the extra step to humanize the technology or invention is not enough; we need to involve people.
While watching Doug's story, I was fascinated by design, and that was the initial spark that pushed me toward pursuing design in university. It was during my research for my bachelor's thesis, where I had to design various activities for and with people with Alzheimer’s disease and their caregivers, that I truly learned how design evolves when created for people and just having them in mind and reading about them, compared to when it is designed with individuals with lived experiences.
By the end of my bachelor's studies, I was introduced to co-design. As I progressed through different phases in the design process, creating both physical and digital products, I realized that my passion lies more in learning and collaborating with people, understanding their perspectives, and designing with them than in the end product itself. This realization led me to believe that OSU would be an ideal place for me to further learn and grow.
The OSU Design program is designed to empower individuals to delve into topics of their interest. It provides various lenses, methods, and techniques to explore chosen subjects more deeply, offering opportunities for hands-on activities as a means of exploration.
To offer a brief overview of my process and exploration, the first year was primarily dedicated to investigating the healthcare sector. This is the space I aspire to work in for the future, and I wanted to explore what contributions I could make as a designer. I explored various ways to conduct research as a designer within that space. My main focus was on the maker movement and its application in healthcare, examining how patients generate ideas within this environment. I used class projects to further explore the topic, testing what works and what doesn't through literature reviews, diverse projects, and interactions with individuals dealing with chronic conditions. While I knew I wanted to concentrate on a chronic condition, I hadn't yet determined the specific condition to focus on.
The essence of this story highlights a crucial point – at some point in our lives, we all may face a health crisis. Surviving such challenges is something no one deserves, and we all deserve to live while navigating our lives with the conditions we're confronting.
Healthcare, ideally, shouldn't be a daunting or undesirable experience. However, it often becomes so because, while health breakthroughs and inventions are crucial, we sometimes overlook the human aspect. Focusing solely on providing a solution without taking the extra step to humanize the technology or invention is not enough; we need to involve people.
While watching Doug's story, I was fascinated by design, and that was the initial spark that pushed me toward pursuing design in university. It was during my research for my bachelor's thesis, where I had to design various activities for and with people with Alzheimer’s disease and their caregivers, that I truly learned how design evolves when created for people and just having them in mind and reading about them, compared to when it is designed with individuals with lived experiences.
By the end of my bachelor's studies, I was introduced to co-design. As I progressed through different phases in the design process, creating both physical and digital products, I realized that my passion lies more in learning and collaborating with people, understanding their perspectives, and designing with them than in the end product itself. This realization led me to believe that OSU would be an ideal place for me to further learn and grow.
The OSU Design program is designed to empower individuals to delve into topics of their interest. It provides various lenses, methods, and techniques to explore chosen subjects more deeply, offering opportunities for hands-on activities as a means of exploration.
To offer a brief overview of my process and exploration, the first year was primarily dedicated to investigating the healthcare sector. This is the space I aspire to work in for the future, and I wanted to explore what contributions I could make as a designer. I explored various ways to conduct research as a designer within that space. My main focus was on the maker movement and its application in healthcare, examining how patients generate ideas within this environment. I used class projects to further explore the topic, testing what works and what doesn't through literature reviews, diverse projects, and interactions with individuals dealing with chronic conditions. While I knew I wanted to concentrate on a chronic condition, I hadn't yet determined the specific condition to focus on.
During my first summer, I engaged in an intriguing topic that shifted my focus for about two semesters. I decided to embark on a project aimed at creating a product with an immediate impact for those who would benefit from it. Unfortunately, I encountered some obstacles along the way that made me reconsider whether it was a viable pivot.
By the end of the second year of the program, after being awarded the Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme Fellowship and realizing I had another year to dedicate to research, I opted to continue with the passion that initially led me to the program. By the end of the second year, I had a clear direction, deciding to focus on the specific topic based on my previous research and findings. Long Covid became the central focus of my research.
To understand more about what I focused on and why, as well as my findings from the first year, keep reading!
During my first summer, I engaged in an intriguing topic that shifted my focus for about two semesters. I decided to embark on a project aimed at creating a product with an immediate impact for those who would benefit from it. Unfortunately, I encountered some obstacles along the way that made me reconsider whether it was a viable pivot.
By the end of the second year of the program, after being awarded the Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme Fellowship and realizing I had another year to dedicate to research, I opted to continue with the passion that initially led me to the program. By the end of the second year, I had a clear direction, deciding to focus on the specific topic based on my previous research and findings. Long Covid became the central focus of my research.
To understand more about what I focused on and why, as well as my findings from the first year, keep reading!