In 2022, an intern collaborated with Renal Dieticians to improve the design of some information leaflets for patients around the topic of phosphorus. Nutrition and kidney health is important for renal patients to understand why it is important to eat healthy and how they can do so in ways that meet their needs and dietary preferences. The purpose of such information leaflets is to help support their consultant with Renal Dieticians about the simple and easy changes they can make. Building on the work of the previous project, the renal dieticians are keen to created a suite of templates to apply great designed layouts for patient information across their entire library of patient information leaflets. This project is ideal for one or two design students who enjoy publication layout, and are up for a challenge around how they can design a template/layout that can be used by a non-designer without compromising on the design!
In 2021, one of our interns collaborated with the Charger Nurse Manager at Waitematā DHB’sNorth Shore Hospital to create the illustration graphics and layout for an information booklet called ‘Supporting you through a difficult time: Interrupting a pregnancy for medical reasons’. This was well-received, with the Charge Nurse being invited to present the work at a national conference in May 2022. They are currently in the final stages of getting this booklet printed and being used. They have been so delighted with the outcome, they are interested in collaborating again with one or two design students on a similar booklet, but for women who are choosing to end their unwanted pregnancy for social reasons. This version is not as sensitive as the original topic (that was for women who chose to end their wanted pregnancy due to the diagnosis of a severe foetal abnormality), but there this decision still requires women and their whānau to be well supported and cared for during the process. This project is ideal for a design student (or two) who has strong skills and enjoys publication layout and illustration.
When people have a stroke (a disruption to the blood flow in their brain), they can have changes to their physical and cognitive function (movement, strength, thinking, communication). The effects go beyond this though, impacting on how people feel, their identity, their mood, and their social relationships, which we refer to as ‘psychosocial well-being’. Stroke services do a great job of helping people recover physically and cognitively but there is currently a big gap in how services help people’s well-being.
Our colleagues are doing a study that is working to improve how services support well-being. To start, they have talked with clinicians, with managers, and with people impacted by stroke. Through these interviews, they have unpacked what currently happens in services, how, where and when well-being is addressed – and when it isn’t addressed. We are seeking a communication design student to help them convert this knowledge into a journey map that clearly demonstrates what is and isn’t happening in services, from different parties’ perspectives. This journey map will play an important role to help share with our participants what the current stroke services looks like, helping them reflect on this so they can help us identify the key places we should focus to try and improve care. This project will be ideal for a communication design student (or two) interested in infographic design and visualising information.
We have a talented group of Masters students who every year complete some stunning pieces of work and research. It is important that these projects are made visible and accessible to the public but also to particular audiences like clinicians and healthcare decision makers as well as future students looking to work in design for health. This is so we can influence and spark change for better experiences and design in our healthcare system and the wellbeing of our communities.
We are seeking a few students in either Animation, VFX and Game Design or Communication Design who are interested or skilled in video editing and animation to help us create the stories around these research projects. The ideal student should be good at storytelling in order to capture the story that best represents the research and the project, and know (or be willing to learn how to use) After Effects and Premiere Pro.
Medication information is often overwhelming and loaded with medical jargon. We had a student in 2020, explore a design for a more visual and patient friendly medication information leaflet – see that project here. In 2021, a group of three students developed this further, designing a template and beginning a more extensive revamped icon bank to represent various conditions, symptoms and side effects of common medications. We are seeking a few more design students who can pick up on the icon bank work and continue developing the full set, particularly taking onboard further feedback from consumers and integrating this into the design. Ideally the student(s) should be confident in illustration/icon design, and up for the challenge of illustrating complex medical conditions in ways that are visually understandable and accessible to those with low health literacy or for whom English is a second language. This project will be in collaboration with our external partner at the Institute for Innovation and Improvement (i3), Te Whatu Ora — Waitematā. Learn more about i3 at i3.waitematadhb.govt.nz
There has been a significant shift in physiotherapy and rehabilitation towards person-centred care, in recent decades. The shift away from a traditional biomedical, therapist-led model of healthcare has been very positive. Musculoskeletal physiotherapists are adopting many different approaches to person-centred care, and the AUT Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy Team felt that they needed a teaching framework to shift their focus also towards person-centred care.
Our colleagues are seeking to collaborate with a communication design student on the design (look, feel and function) of their teaching framework. The current version is reasonably bland, 2-dimensional and static, but the client would like this to be re-designed to be more fluid, flexible and customised based on the person using it to better represent the framework and intention of person-centred care. This tool will be used to teach future physiotherapy and rehabilitation students to improve the care that is delivered to patients. This project will be ideal for a communication design student (or two) interested in infographic design and visualising information.
We have a colleague, working as a midwife at a local hospital, who has been researching the lived experiences of labour and birth of women who are having a second-trimester termination of their pregnancy due to foetal abnormality. Like the Interrupting Pregnancy project (see project here), this project deals with sensitive and emotional topics. So far the research has uncovered key themes of aloneness and loneliness vs connection, silenced grief, the unknown, and pain and suffering.While this all seems intense, what the midwife ‘sees’ is not necessarily what the women ‘feels’. There is a lot of stigma, silencing and grief around this experience for women. The purpose of this research is to uncover what is happening for women in these situations.
Our colleague would like some design assistance with making the concepts and themes from this research visual and engaging so it can be better communicated to appropriate audience who might benefit from the outcomes of this research –this could be both other midwives (to use it to improve future service design), but also women going through these experiences themselves (to help them through their own journey). This project would be ideal for a student interested in illustration, visualising information and/or graphic design.
