Communicating information in health: engaging students in design for health awareness

Abstract

Design is about people. As designers, focussing on people and their needs seems intuitive. But, this is not always the case with design students. Immersed in their personal practice, they often regard design as an abstract activity that makes something look good or work well without considering whether people who ‘aren’t like them’ can understand or use their solutions. This paper examines the impact of an undergraduate design course that tasked students who had no prior exposure to design for health and wellbeing with visually communicating health information for use by its intended audiences. This allowed students with limited or no exposure to design in a health care context to connect with a more person-centred, empathetic design approach. We wanted to know how design students might solve reasonably complex visual information design problems starting with data and information that health care stakeholders had supplied. Two main themes emerged: the value of real-world learning and the need for empathy in design. Students perceived that designing for health care was significant, and that health care was a continually changing discipline. Through this course, students saw the need for designers to be integrated into the health care system alongside health care professionals to develop solutions for communicating health-related topics.