what is Social design?

Social Design is the process which tackles a social challenge and leads to the betterment of human beings by including them, the stakeholders, in the process of creating a solution. My social design projects are all based on the human-centered-design approach,  design thinking, originally used by industrial designers who sought the inputs of end users in designing their products.

projects

HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN WORKSHOP WITH THE UN.

Tackling the challenge of “working together as one” all directors of the UN agencies currently present in Cameroon came together for a retreat. I was invited to facilitate a hands-on workshop on human-centered design with a challenge to stimulate creative out-of the box thinking with quick prototyping and solution finding together rather than with the stakeholders. Full PDF here.

DESIGN THINKING WITH CHILDREN IN CAMEROON.

As part of their unit of inquiry (UoI) "Who we are", 19 second grade students at the American School of Yaounde (ASOY) have been studying the body systems.

It was decided to extend the project to the nearby Saint Therese Orphanage which hosts 34 children. 

I conducted for ASOY a design thinking exercise involving 53 children on the how we might keep our bodies healthy. READ MORE HERE.

VA medical center: MEDICATION NON-COMPLIANCE.

I was part of a team to tackle the challenge of medication non-compliance amongst Veterans at the VA Clinic in Baltimore.

Seventy percent of the VA patients are from the Vietnam War area and are over the age of 75. Many of those patients are suffering from vision and hear impairment. However, after seeing a doctor at the hospital, patients are most of the time just handed out a medication sheet and the medication without further explanation.

We were tackling the question of how to improve medication compliance. While working with doctors and nurses and shadowing veterans we learned much of the procedures and sequences- we came up with some very simple icons as well as some more sophisticated bracelets and other digital devices which can send out signals to remind the patients it was time for taking the medication.

I also came up with a simplified medication sheet which is basically attached to their military ID, one of the very few items the veterans seem to carry along for sure in their everyday life.

JOHNS HOPKINS ARMSTRONG INSTITUTE FOR PATIENTS SAFETY.

PROTOTYPING AN ENTIRE ICU UNIT FOR HANDS-ON INNOVATION

I was part of a team, shadowing nurses and doctors for a day to find out the challenges they are facing when using ICU equipment, to then build a fully equipped ICU unit in the Armstrong's Institute's Innovation Lab, entirely made out of card boards, strings, tape and a few other very simple items. The goal for the cardboard ICU is to become a sort of playroom for Innovators and doctors who want to go thru specific procedures to test out new ideas, iterate and prototype these easily modifiable cardboard machines.

CHILDRENS NATIONAL MEDICAL CENTER.

INTRODUCING EMPATHY AND STORYBOARDING TO REVISE THE PATIENTS EXPERIENCE

Together with the children's Hospital National Center of Health I am working on a grant proposal to include and adapt the skill of storyboarding to review and refine certain patient experiences and procedures. This project is heavily relying on a more empathetic approach towards the patients.