Lab4Living visits Good Health Design, Auckland

9 Nov 2022

Lab4Living’s Graham Nesbitt and Claire Craig head to New Zealand this week where they will be working with Good Health Design at Auckland University of Technology. 

Just before the outbreak of COVID, Prof Claire Craig and her colleague Helen Fisher spent time with Steve Reay and Good Health Design on a project that mapped design for health across the Southern Hemisphere. The research confirmed the need to establish a Global Design for Health network to supplement the biannual Design4Health conference and the Design For Health journal, both of which were founded by and are hosted by Lab4Living. The team envisioned the network as an international ecosystem bringing together design and health researchers, practitioners, educators, industry and communities using products and services. Plans began to create a point of connection and build a community outside of the conference. In spite of the challenges of COVID-19, Lab4Living and Good Health Design have continued to work together on creating a web-platform where the network will be hosted.

Read about Claire’s previous visit: Design For Health Symposium 2019, Auckland University of Technology

As part of the current visit, Claire will be giving a keynote at the Good Health Design symposium which is themed around ‘Connections in Action’. Graham Nesbitt will be facilitating two workshops – one that focuses on the branding of the global network and one on the theme of ‘listening to data’. In addition to her keynote, Claire will facilitate a session on the theme of redefining vulnerability, revisiting concepts of ethics in the context of participatory design practices.

Following the conference, Claire and Graham will work with the Good Health Design team on an educational development for future researchers interested in undertaking research in this space.  

COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of spending time with our research colleagues, of sharing our work and building and extending networks. Part of the Expanding Excellence grant we received from Research England was to create and International host hub’ and this visit. A recent visit to Greenland is an important element of this work. We look forward to reconnecting with colleagues, meeting new people and inviting them to the Design4Health 2023 conference which will be held in Sheffield.

Claire Craig

Lab4Living has been collaborating with researchers at Good Health Design for many years, having connected via Design4Health conferences and a keynote presentation at their 2013 symposium.