Imagination is proud of its international connections and collaborations. We feel that design should span borders and disciplines. I have been engaging with design researchers in Latin America, specifically Chile, Peru, and Brazil, to further knowledge and knowledge exchange within the field of health and healthcare.
Through holding events online – seminars and workshops – we have built solid relationships with our fellow design researchers and together we are developing case studies in order to understand the areas they are looking at, what is relevant, and what additional capacities they need to develop.
One challenge for design researchers in these countries is to convince their healthcare professionals and policy makers of the value of design research, how it can benefit health and health care in the future. To show them how, through design research, livelihoods and governance can be improved by creating products and services and systems that are responsive to human needs.
As part of this we aim to raise the profile of the excellent design research practitioners within these countries by publishing our joint work and case studies through the ‘little books’ series (example linked).
If you would like to know more about our work, or discuss how design research can help your challenges, please connect with us.