challenge bank

This is where we post challenges for Master of Design students to select for project work – if you’ve got a challenge you’d like our students to work on, contact Hazel White h.white@dundee.ac.uk 01382 388288 to have an informal chat

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The Game of Life

Life transition, or change, can be difficult for many reasons and people, especially those who may be socially excluded, can struggle at these times. There are many factors that can be barriers to change for people such as isolation, homelessness, mental health etc. The Scottish government recognises that skills are often developed locally and by many partners. http://www.employabilityinscotland.com/thescottishgovernmentskillsstrategy.aspx

The Challenge is to develop an interactive ‘game’ to facilitate personal development for individuals at key moments of life changes e.g. facing redundancy, starting a business, leaving school, going back or starting to work etc. This resource would be used by workers with groups/teams to enable individuals to develop skills, knowledge and/or to cope with change and to work on their personal development.

The product could be used to enable people to consider employment or self employment, however, this resource could also be adapted to other transitions in people’s lives, to increase confidence and encourage positive action. The game can be analogue, in the form of a board game etc.

Please contact; Regan Shaw. r.j.shaw@dundee.ac.uk
Community Learning and Development
School of Education Social Work and Community Education, University of Dundee
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IMprints: understanding identity

Increasingly we are being asked to provide evidence that we are who we say we are – whether travelling between countries, on the internet buying goods and services: we need passwords and identifiers that are unique to us. There is also a growing appetite for ‘identity sharing’ through social networks such as Facebook and where mobile devices have given us unrivalled access to the internet. Some people have gone as far as to suggest that we are moving towards a state of ‘persistent identity’ and new technologies are emerging that enhance this state eg. face recognition software. These developments provide many opportunities but some potential negative side effects including a loss of privacy and anonymity, risks of identity theft etc. ‘Identity management’ and ‘identity verification’ are therefore terms that have developed to cover how ‘identity’ is defined, authenticated, protected and managed in a range of settings.

The IMprints research project (with funding from the Electronic and Physical Sciences Research Council) seeks to better understand such appetites and anxieties, by examining future identity management taboos and desires, and their culturally situated causes and effects. The aim is to understand the way that citizens from the US and UK will respond to new identity management practices and technologies, and to promote trustworthy and pleasurable processes of identity verification.

Challenge:

This is therefore an opportunity to work with a live research project and contribute to its development. In the first instance we would like you to identify and research scenarios of identity management from art & design this could involve utilising a range of research methods including for example ‘cultural probes”. There is also the potential then for a student to continue this work and develop prototypes of a physical artefact, virtual online avatar, or spatial experience that addresses future identity management practices. It is expected that such prototypes could utilise a range of new technologies such as RFID tags/ QR codes and so is also an opportunity to consider the relationship between technology and the body.

Contact: Dr Sandra Wilson s.z.wilson@dundee.ac.uk

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Designing an Education Programme for Young Persons with Diabetes

Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) in children requires them to inject themselves several times a day with insulin. The dose of insulin is adjusted by monitoring their blood glucose concentration, obtained from finger prick and, depending on the result of this, monitoring their diet and exercise to maintain their blood glucose levels at the specific levels to prevent serious illness. While health professionals aim to support young people’s self-management of their diabetes, through 3 monthly clinic appointments, education programmes and diabetes camps, limited NHS resources can leave many young people feeling isolated and unsupported by their health professionals.

To increase the support for those with diabetes, technology-based social support programmes, such as ‘Facebook’, ‘You Tube’, and ‘Twitter’ have been incorporated into national patient groups in the UK (e.g. Diabetes UK http://www.diabetessupport.co.uk). However, concerns exist about the possibility of young people receiving misinformation or advice that is different to that recommended by their local diabetes teams.

To address this, individual diabetes teams across the UK are searching for innovative design packages to support young people with diabetes. For example, the diabetes team in Dundee have developed ‘Sweet Text’, a behavioural support and motivation package, using mobile phone technology and are in the process of developing ‘Video Interaction Guidance (VIG), a clinic-based methodology to improve communication between young people and their health professionals.

Challenge: To continue this venture, the Dundee diabetes team would welcome your help to design and integrate further technology-based support packages that reflect the experiences and expertise of the young people themselves. Designing new ways to deliver support for those with diabetes will prevent long term health problems and deliver a corporate programme of support that will be transferrable to other diabetes teams across the UK.

Contact:

Dr Alexandra Greene, Senior Research Fellow in Medical Anthropology a.c.greene@dundee.ac.uk

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Pigeon Post

Designer Jo Hodge is creating toys and accessories which allow children and parents separated through illness, work or family breakdown to communicate online. As part of her research she is working with Hazel White and the Children’s Hospice Association Scotland (CHAS) to develop textile based interfaces to enable children with reduced motor-ability to use the internet. This placement requires a designer to develop and plan workshop materials to enable Jo and Hazel to run workshops at CHAS and gather and evaluate results.

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Weight moderation for breast cancer prevention- motivation and maintenance

Background Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second cause of cancer deaths amongst women in Scotland and the incidence of the disease is increasing (+7.9% between 1998 and 2008). It has been estimated that around 42% of the disease in post menopausal women can be prevented by increases in physical activity, reductions in alcohol intake and decreasing body fatness. It is notable that (at any Body Mass Index) weight gain in adult life is associated with greater risk of the disease and that weight gain between 2 to 10 kg after age 50 years has a 30% increase in breast cancer risk. Menopausal transition is associated with significant weight gain (2 to 2.5k over 3 years) and it is recognised that postmenopausal women are also at higher risk of hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Challenge Weight moderation is often viewed negatively by women, many having tried and failed to lose weight (resulting in low self esteem), many have over ambititious targets and many feel that chronic disease will come their way because of “fate” or “genes”.

How can weight moderation be viewed positively? Avoiding weight gain and losing small amounts of weight (e.g. 5kg) has been shown to reduce risk. Breast cancer is a disease most women fear how can we harness the positive message of risk reduction (rather than fear and/or guilt), women working together to support change in activity and diet with positive  feedback for initiating weight monitoring, avoiding weight gain and maintaining weight loss.

Are their tools, concepts, movements that the design team can help to create?

Professor Annie Anderson, Centre for Research into Cancer prevention and Screening (CRiPS) , Ninewells Medical school, level 7, mailbox 7, University of Dundee. E-mail

a.s.anderson@dundee.ac.uk

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Social Activities after Stroke

Can we use design a way to bring people who have had a stroke together for social support for physical activity (can be walking, exercises or rehabilitation activities, at home, at another venue or just outside in the community). This is a generally elderly population of people who have had a stroke and who may be disabled as a result. These people are living in their own homes, from fairly diverse socio-demographic backgrounds and are not necessarily technology literate, particularly with regard to mobile phones, computers or social networking sites, although we would not exclude the use of these technologies. The social support should be from other people with stroke or other similar disabling conditions, who are also interested in being physically active.
Dr Jacqui Morris, Clinical Research Fellow, Alliance for Self-Care Research,

j.y.morris@dundee.ac.uk

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Young People and Adrenalin

How can you ensure young people with severe allergic disease have self-injectable adrenalin pens available at all times?  Adrenalin provides a life-saving antidote to severe allergic reactions, but it only works if immediately accessible at the time of a reaction. Every year young people with severe allergies die because they experienced an anaphylactic attack when they weren’t carrying their adrenalin Why don’t people want to carry adrenalin?  There are three different types of syringes (Epipen, Anapen and Jext), but all of them are bulky, and won’t fit into a pocket.  While girls can, most of the time, be persuaded to keep them in their bags, young men usually leave their syringes in cars or at home rather than carry them around. Sara Marshall, Professor of Clinical Immunology and Honorary Consultant Immunologist Sara Marshall S.E.Marshall@dundee.ac.uk …………………………………………………………………………………

http://www.atosmedical.com/

Stoma Jewellery

Patients with laryngeal cancer may have to have their voice boxes removed and as a result have a “hole” in their throat (called a laryngectomy stoma).  It is important that dirt, liquids and dust do not enter the stoma and that the new “airway” is kept reasonably moist (as the new airway does the job of the nose and mouth in moistening and “cleaning” the air that enters the lungs on its way down, and preventing liquid from going down the wrong way).  The NHS supplies “bibs” for laryngectomy patients to wear over their stoma, and most people are encouraged to wear a stoma button (see picture of Maggie on attached link) over their stoma. http://www.atosmedical.com/en/For_patients/Patient_stories/Maggies_story.aspx You can purchase coloured bibs and many people wear scarves or cravates to cover their stoma.  However, in the summer, these are hot.  Some jewellers (mostly in the US) have created necklaces that can cover the stoma (see links below), but there is definitely room for more interesting, usable and inexpensive stoma “covers”. http://www.mijnsieraad.com/english/wvfrs_laryngecto.htm http://gillianbeads.blogspot.com/2008/09/stoma-covers-for-throat-cancer.html. Mary Wells PhD, RGN, Senior Lecturer in Cancer Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Dundee

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Mobile applications for learning terminology by non-native speakers

An accurate description of personal belongings of missing persons and unidentified remains in disasters may be pivotal in the identification process. In large disasters, the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) teams may be comprised of forensic experts of multiple nationalities with native and non-native speakers. Research carried out in the Centre of Anatomy and Human Identification (CAHID) has shown that descriptions of items recorded in disasters may vary significantly, and language has a large impact on the variation seen, specifically in naming parts of items such as those of glasses, watches and other personal effects. One of the suggested approaches is exploring mobile technology to assist in learning and naming terms relevant to describing personal belongings. The project will involve designing an application which is viewable on handheld mobile devices (app, webpage etc.) for a number of items, and testing this with groups of potential end-users such as native speakers and non-native speakers of the English and Spanish or French language.The designer will explore relevant literature on effective learning methodologies, information exchange and mobile technology design. Specific end-user requirements such as work in the mortuary environment should also be considered.  While this project is specifically designed with the DVI and police community in mind, the final product may also be relevant to other end-users in for example the retail industry and language students. Dr Jan Bikker (PhD), Postdoctoral Researcher, Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification (CAHID) j.bikker@dundee.ac.uk …………………………………………………………………………………

Communicating with Victims of Disaster

The uncertainty of the faith of a relative in the immediate aftermath of a disaster may be very traumatic for family members and friends of a suspected missing person. In a number of recent disasters, such as the 7/7 bombings, the uncertainty caused by the duration of the identification process often results in increased anxiety of relatives of those missing. Effective communication on the identification procedures as well as the needs of the relatives is pivotal in minimising the stress to family members. Family liaison officers (FLO’s) play a vital role in assisting in this process, however there may still be a need for single resource of information for relatives. Currently, the information available is fragmented while some police forces will only release short explanations of the identification procedures, e.g. via the press or a dedicated section on the force’s website. This information is however minimal and may not fulfil the requirements and needs of the families.  This project will involve designing an “information package” in any relevant media (booklet, website, photobook, etc) which may be used in the aftermath of a disaster to help relatives of those missing. This may include a clear explanation of identification procedures, how relatives can help in the process, weblinks and other information which relatives may need in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. The project will involve exploring the existing literature and information on the web, establishing the needs of relatives, discussions with police officers (FLO’s) and those involved in dealing with relatives and researching identification procedures. This will result in the design of an ‘information package’ which will be tested with relevant groups to establish if this will fulfil the needs of the end-users.

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Raised blood pressure?

Taking blood pressure often causes patients anxiety, leading to inaccurate raised blood pressure readings. What design interventions could be made to reduce anxiety, leading to more accurate readings and reducing unnecessary prescribing? Project contact: Dr Fred Comerford, Institute manager, Social Dimensions of Health Institute, University of St Andrews and Dundee

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Hygenic Packaging

On short-haul flights you are increasingly only served a savoury/sweet snack in a small plastic sachet. Now, from an infection control perspective this may not be necessarily the smartest thing to do as air travellers probably carry quite a number of germs on their hands (touch screen check-in, boarding passes, security checks, passports, mobiles…) as they board the aircraft. Some airlines, such as Air France still offer small desinfectant hand towels as you board but it is the exception. So, could the thought of infection control via eco-friendly, antibacterial packaging be combined with the idea of serving healthy snacks? If so, how can this be achieved in a cost-efficient manner? For more information, please contact Thilo Kroll t.kroll@dundee.ac.uk 01382 388 655

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Arts and Older People – Festival 2012

Creative Scotland, in partnership with the Baring Foundation and Age Scotland, is planning an inspiring and ambitious annual festival of arts for, by, with and about older people. The first festival will take place in October 2012. But we need your help to plan! There is a lot of arts and ageing activity taking place throughout Scotland and we want to map this to shape the new festival. We are particularly interested in hearing about inter-generational arts activity, arts programmes in residential care homes, and existing local festivals targeting older people. If you are involved in any activity of this nature then please share it with us by emailing: maggie.maxwell@creativescotland.com ………………………………………………………………………………….

communicating health messages well

 This project focuses on people with learning difficulties AND/OR low literacy and the use of health-related outcome measures with this population. We know from the literature and from our own research work that the existing formats for presenting the health care assessments are excluding people with learning disabilities and/or low literacy. So, we would be very interested in working with Master of Design students to develop alternative formats around the content areas that these self-report measures seek to capture. For more information, please contact Thilo Kroll t.kroll@dundee.ac.uk01382 388 655

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Design and Wellbeing Brainstorm Map

these are the themes generated in a fast 15 minute brainstorming session on 30.09.11. The ideas can be adapted and built upon.  Download healthcare brainstorm.pdf