Project Proposal Form

majordesignproject

DES509
Name:

Lauren Smyth B00617183

Project Title COPD Patient Information Graphics

Project Category: Describe the nature of the type of work you hope to
undertake (Describe the discipline(s) and the specific nature of the work)
I will be creating a graphics package for chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease (COPD) diagnosis patients using a co-design approach alongside the
Belfast Trust. It will help patients to understand what being diagnosed with
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) really means and what the
repercussions of the diagnosis are. I will mainly be using Adobe InDesign,
Illustrator and Photoshop for this project. Between Miss Chloe Marren and
myself we will use and cite a range of journals cross campuses and
publications from the University libraries to create a journal piece for
publishing as well. There will be scope for an app, or even asset screens drawn
up for an app covering the education intervention and academic detailing
side of things.
Project description: Describe in general terms the problems, innovations,
challenges or visions you have identified for exploration.
Jargon loaded, confusing and particularly unattractive posters are crammed
into waiting rooms, a place where ones mood can already be pretty low. It
will be very difficult to design an infographic which takes the sting out of a
serious diagnosis but it is one I would like to tackle. My project will apply fresh
illustrations, with colours, text and diagrams to reach consumers in a timely,
relevant, personal and cost effective manner.
A lot of what interests me is under the umbrella of Service Design,
meaning the interaction between patients and care providers, and how to
make that more effective and delightful. (Sklar, 2015) With the ever growing
interest in all forms of design from the medical sector, I think there is a huge
amount of potential for better graphics and illustrative work in health centres,

hospitals and clinics. The overall picture that can be drawn from the hundreds
of studies published over several decades (Zorn and Ratzan, 2000) is that a
majority of patient information leaflets (PILs), regardless of their topic, require
relatively high reading skills that may not exist in a large proportion of their
target populations. (Gal and Prigat, 2003), It seems blatantly obvious already
that this project will need to be quite highly research based. Not only is the
design and literacy levels of utmost importance but also normally irrelevant
topics such as distribution and community access will need to be taken into
consideration.
Working with such a large corporation, publications come with a lot of
regulatory stringency we will need to make sure our work adheres to as well as
meeting all our design and output goals. We will be receiving a lot of
feedback from members of the Belfast Trust, dieticians and COPD patients at
regular intervals and so all of the above will need to be annotated and
tracked very carefully so as not to lose any details.
Project Ambitions: What do you want to improve in terms of knowledge or skills
through progression of this study area?
The biggest thing I hope to achieve during this project is the skills that are
required to design something creative and fresh and still keep within the
Belfast Trusts rules and regulations. Working on a live project with clients can
be unpredictable at the best of times and I feel like there will be a lot of hands
in the jar so to speak. They will all need to be documented and handled to a
professional standard. These are skills I will build on and also skills which I can
imagine will be very important in my professional career as a post grad.
I have yet to carry out any design work in the healthcare side of things
and so I hope to gain some invaluable experience which may help me build
up a portfolio piece to show that I can apply my skills to a broad range of
environments. There is such a demand for design in this line of work and if I
can get some good experience in this field before I begin applying for jobs, in
my opinion it will open a lot of doors for working opportunities. I will be able to
show that I have not only designed the work for their use but also worked
alongside their professionals.
Finally I really hope to polish up my software skills. I have been using
Adobe InDesign and Photoshop constantly over the past years and so I am
hoping to learn a lot more of the other programs. I am not sure at this minute
how much these other programs will be utilised but any additional skills are
valuable ones.

References: List all references informing your work to date using Harvard
ezahariades, (2013). Graphic Design in Healthcare: An Inconvenient Truth.
[Blog] WCG CommonSense. Available at:
http://blog.wcgworld.com/2013/04/graphic-design-in-healthcare [Accessed
20 Jan. 2016].
Farr, C. (2015). The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly About Design in Health Care.
Gal, I. and Prigat, A. (2003). Why organizations continue to create patient
information leaflets with readability and usability problems: an exploratory
study. Oxford Journals, [online] 20(4), pp.485-493. Available at:
http://her.oxfordjournals.org/content/20/4/485.full [Accessed 20 Jan. 2016].
Sklar, A. (2015). The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly About Design in Health
Care.
Your blog or website link for Major project
http://designsanddoodles.weebly.com