2021-22 Summer Studentships

This year, AUT's Good Health Design, in collaboration with the Institute for Innovation and Improvement (i3) at Waitematā DHB and the Auckland Regional Dental Service (ARDS) have several awesome opportunities for AUT design students interested in or currently pursuing postgraduate studies in design for health and wellbeing. Learn more about how to apply and the projects on offer below.

How to apply.
To apply for the summer studentship, send your CV, portfolio and a statement about why you want this opportunity, which summer studentship(s) you are interested in (this can be more than one) and why you would be suitable for this role to goodhealthdesign@aut.ac.nz before 10 October 2021. Applications will be reviewed as they come in and suitable candidates may be selected before the closing date. Applicants may be contacted for more information or for a short interview to get to know you better.

Supervision Team.
All projects will be supervised by the appropriate staff from the following team:
Cassie Khoo (Good Health Design, AUT + i3, Waitematā DHB)
Ivana Nakarada-Kordic (Good Health Design, AUT + i3, Waitematā DHB)
Steve Reay (Good Health Design, AUT)
Gareth Terry (Centre for Person Centred Research, AUT)
Ravina Patel (i3, Waitematā DHB)
Frances Cullinane (ARDS, Waitematā DHB)
Karen Fielding (i3, Waitematā DHB)

Your Role.
You will be working closely with the supervision team to carry out your assigned design/research project (project opportunities as outlined below). This role will require you to work at Good Health Design (at AUT) for the duration of the summer studentship and be part of a cohort with other summer students. Projects with external partners will also require you to attend meetings at i3 (based in North Shore Hospital) and/or ARDS clinics/locations across Auckland as necessary (for meetings, etc). You will need to document your research and design process throughout the project, and produce a report/presentation at the end of your role. This is a 10-week full time (40 hours per week) paid studentship (a stipend of $6300 – tax-free) over the summer break from November 2021 to February 2022 (with a 2-week closedown period over Christmas from late December 2021 — early January 2022 (TBC)).

Requirements.

We are looking for passionate design students with an interest in design for health and wellbeing. You should be a critical thinker, have human-centred design skills and be a good visual communicator.
You need to be a third-year design student at AUT or a recent design graduate intending to enroll into a postgraduate programme in 2022, or a current postgraduate student.
Preference will be given to students wanting to do postgraduate research in design for health and wellbeing space.
You must be eligible to work in New Zealand.

If you are interested or curious about postgraduate studies and what it can offer, feel free to check out our past Master's projects here or get in touch with us at goodhealthdesign@aut.ac.nz for a chat. Our team is highly experienced in supervising real-world applied design projects with external partners, and can match students to great Master's projects that align with where they want to be in the future.

The project opportunities.

Below are the project opportunities on offer for the summer studentships. More projects will be released in the next few weeks, so check back regularly:

Evalutating ARDS' current brand

This summer studentship is specifically targeted towards an AUT design student to work with Auckland RegionalDental Service (ARDS) on preparing materials to support the subsequent re-branding of the service. As part of ARDS’ work with i3 and AUT via Good Health Design, a need has been identified to increase community awareness, connection, and engagement, especially with the higher needs populations who generally face more barriers to accessing health services. Currently, the resource that is required to achieve contact is immense and the service has recognised that a contributing factor may be their branding – or lack thereof. With the new health reforms in mind, there is an an opportunity to develop a more cohesive identity that resonates with children and could be more aligned with the needs within the wider Northern region.

The summer student will evaluate identity information and supporting materials within the current service and identify opportunities for improvement within the new brand. This may also include a wider audit of children’s services in New Zealand and internationally. The studentship has the potential to lead into a Master’s project around co-designing a re-freshed brand identity that better resonates with communities.

The ideal student will be an AUT Communication Design student interested in branding and/or design for health. Preference is for a student with knowledge of tikanga and an appreciation for the need to connect with our Māori and Pacific communities.

Streamlining the filming of patient experiences

Videos of patient stories and journeys through a health service are a great resource for patients and staff to learn and understand more about hospital experiences and services. The Patient Experience team provide assistance with the development of such videos. Currently, however, the process involved in videoing patient stories and journeys is not easily visible to staff. Limited funding means that the intention for the videos needs to be made clear and the types of videos prioritised to cover a wide range of services and experiences.

This summer studentship is specifically targeted towards an AUT design student to work with the Patient Experience team on creating a clear process for staff to follow, supported by resources to help them identify when it is appropriate for Patient Experience to support the filming of patient stories or patient journey videos.

The student will produce a) a visible and official process for staff wanting to produce patient videos, b) guidelines around best practice for creating meaningful and impactful patient videos and, c) a decision-making tool to help prioritise which videos get funded

The ideal student will be an AUT Design student interested in information design, UX design, and/or design for health.

Using visual communication to promote a shared understanding of i3’s initiatives

‘Welcome to Waitematā’ orientation sessions and the i3 website are often the first point of contact DHB staff have with i3. Current efforts to improve how we communicate our initiatives include the updated i3 website; however, there is an opportunity to extend this to our other i3 - related information and resources so they are better aligned to showcase the great work i3 does. The purpose of this studentship is to design a visual ecosystem to communicate our work in a clear and consistent manner, using more accessible language and through multiple mediums.

This summer studentship is specifically targeted towards an AUT Design Student to work on a) a project wall/board that captures all the past and current projects i3 is working on and b) updating the ‘About us’ brochure used to introduce i3 at ‘Welcome to Waitematā’.

The ideal student will be an AUT Communication Design student interested in information design and/or design for health.

Past Summer Student Projects

Below are projects by summer students who have worked with us previously. Several of these projects have gone on to win or become finalists in the Best Design Awards.