1st Digital Design for Healthcare Conference

This online conference brings together academics, researchers, engineers, businesspeople, designers, producers, gamers, artists, audio professionals and others from a wide variety of fields, for a collaborative, multidisciplinary exploration of the ways in which the pandemic has impacted global ways of working and governance. Abstracts are reviewed. Themes and issues for the conference include, but are not limited to:

Stream A: Healthcare Data and Design

The healthcare sphere generates hundreds of thousands of data points about each patient every day. This is overwhelming. As healthcare is increasingly digitised, ease of use becomes a fundamental problem. Information needs to be responsive, clear to users, and correct, Poor design leads to human error, which not only has a monetary cost, but a cost in the lives and wellbeing of patients and in the careers of professionals. How do we develop a user experience which takes in the needs of all stakeholders with clear outcomes for patients, clinicians, caregivers and other practitioners, as well as hospitals, insurance groups, and governments? We welcome submissions which examine the creation of better UX, evaluations of current systems based on their design, which explore the movement of information through the system, and allow for better dashboards.

Stream B: Illness and Death in the Digital World

The digital world has changed how we interact. Basic functions, such as business, banking, communications, and record keeping have moved into a digital infrastructure. We need to examine the process of digitalizing illness and death. These are issues beyond establishing power of attorney for digital affairs, and managing browser history and financial accounts. How are people notified on social media, or via online networks and gaming platforms? And what if a person is known under a pseudonym or persona? How shall we what records should be assumed by another, kept, removed to protect privacy, or ensure a legacy of ideas and work? Can we create smooth transitions of projects in business settings? What are the legal and moral frameworks for illness, death and dying, that can help us ensure that a digital legacy is protected or administered? We welcome papers on digital frameworks for grieving. Can we design games to assist the grieving process? What are the limits? What about “dead man” protocols and automatic digital actions, obituaries and illness notices to MOOs, MUDs, MUSHs, MUVEs, MMORPGs and other communities?

Stream C: Physical and Digital Design, and Design Education

Universal design examines the principles of making an object of design accessible to the most significant number of users possible. This broadly includes persons with disabilities but also models that allow for constraints imposed by education, ergonomics, gender, and cultural lenses. We are especially interested in the question of representation and inclusion in the design process. The conference examines the application of universal and accessible design principles for analogue and digital designs and developments, from both theoretical and application perspectives. Further, we are interested in the questions of education on the principles of design to new developers, and how to encourage these developments.