Design week: A challenge for designers and medical students

Abstract

Health disparities continue to pose a challenge to lesser-developed nations. As a result, an interdisciplinary approach is needed to address this complex problem and develop innovative solutions. In the present study, design students and students in public health (whose curriculum provides few opportunities to work with design) participated in an interdisciplinary design workshop aimed at developing product solutions to issues faced in the healthcare sector. Twenty-one industrial design students and eight public health students were divided into heterogeneous groups, asked to identify a challenge facing healthcare professionals, and finally design an object-oriented solution. Initial conclusions show that students favoured the workshop’s emphasis on innovative thinking across disciplines. Overall, the workshop promoted interdisciplinary dialogue from the outset and ensured that each and every participant contributed to the design process, thereby facilitating a view of design consistent with the procedures, requirements and limitations of students’ context.