_ Designing for HealthCare
From the development of interfaces and virtual environments to the creation of inclusive products and services to how European policies are implemented at the local level, design is recognised as a discipline embedded in almost every industry (products, services, digital technologies) as well as daily life. It delivers experiences that both enrich as well as inspire new ways of understanding and communicating with the world around us. The Response_Able Futures Joint Masters appears at a time when the design sector is becoming more responsible and more responsive to the communities and existing structures that need design’s inclusive practice (e.g. including those excluded through cultural, socio-economic status, ethnicity, beliefs…). Design is part practice (making and creating products and services) as well as a way to carry out research (through collaboration), and design is a lens through which to look at the world (design thinking).
Health_Care needs Design. Because design has an ability to engage hard-to-reach communities and to engage diverse stakeholders, it is valued by policy makers and businesses alike. It possesses frameworks and approaches that provide different insights into health_care systems that other types of research misses. Many organisations may have an inclusive vision, yet many struggle to be inclusive in terms of practice and outreach in both their preventative measures as well as care products. With an ageing global population in many Western countries, both formal and informal health_care practices are facing rapid transformation in terms of technical innovation and require design’s ability for innovation to be not only transformative but sustainable and people-focused.
It is precisely these qualities that enables Design to drive disruption and innovation within the health_care sector. As a programme, the Response_Able Futures joint Master’s seeks a balance between the designer as maker, critic and engaged citizen. In order for design to disrupt and innovate, graduates of the programme need experiences that equip them to deal with care’s complexity, requiring that design education shift from teaching skills in production towards facilitating reactive, immersive engagement that provides students with 21st century skills that are adaptable for a myriad of future contexts.
_ Course Structure
Response_Able Futures is a four-semester master's degree resulting in 120 ECTS credits. Each semester has 30 ECTS and has been designed with a strong focus on a number of complementary core subjects that are organised along five focus areas: a context of care; contemporary design topics; design research methodology; design projects in health_care; and working around the individual positionality of students in regards to their current and future practice. Response_Able Futures is not a traditional course. With a diverse approach to educational delivery, but a shared vision on what it means to design for health_care, each semester builds on the previous, resulting in a programme that is a catalyst for graduates who are able to forge their own paths.
Semester one focuses on inspiration and reflection. It serves to establish the students as a group, establishing individual reflective practice, build safe team dynamics where students are able to be critical and supportive, and inspire students through real-world orientated, exploratory led workshops and civic service experiences in which they learn by doing. In the second and third semester, students expand their network by integrating into local courses. The second semester focuses on skilling, applying and exploring design research methods across complementary disciplines within the context of care. The third semester focuses on applied experiences, providing students more freedom to define their own interests and refine their own ambition, including live projects, and hands-on engagements, through critical and speculative design and real-world placements.
Semester 1 (Belgium)
In this module experts in the sector are brought in to share their specialised insights, methodologies and skills that challenge, inspire and deepen the student’s expertise and understanding. Providing a unique blend of personal and professional development, from creative confidence to collaborative skills essential for tackling complex healthcare challenges, these workshops offer a powerful toolkit for students navigating the intersection of design and health_care. With an emphasis on developing an understanding of people and contexts through design research, this course combines engaging lectures with applied experiences.
This course includes:
Design Research Methods for Participation
A fundamental part of design practice, the Master Classes on research methods focus on identifying the value of participation of stakeholders and links process to results; what methods lead to what insights? How can methods be adapted to be more inclusive or engage more diverse participants? This includes developing an understanding of methods that can be used to understand contexts, how to analyse the results and how to tell these research stories to various stakeholders.
Design Project Care in Crisis
This multi-week module uses the principle of making in the broadest sense: an animated film, a game, a short film, a service, a commemoration of a system, a piece of furniture, etc. to arrive at critical and impactful creations around a target group that is ‘on the fringes’. Part participatory and people-oriented and part activism, this places students in a taboo-related topic in which they must define their own position while designing with empathy and understanding.
The European Care Exploration Experience
Part team-building, and part exploring a given care topic in detail from different perspectives, this experience is a week-long, action-based, mobile week of exploration that engages students in going beyond secondary research. By engaging diverse communities and the public on topics of health and care across Europe, the students will learn not only how to gather and analyse primary research, but also how to share insights with different stakeholders.
Health_Care Design Sprint
Led by an expert from industry in both innovation and social design, this 5-day workshop focuses on rapid problem-solving, in a framework that provides a structured, time-bound process to quickly generate, prototype, and test agile responses to urgent healthcare needs.
Keywords: participatory, people-focused, reactionary, learning-by-doing, experience based learning, field-work, future-foreword design
In this Service Learning experience students work on inclusion and diversity together with the local city government’s Department of Participation. The course places students in organisations within the community (from mental health to child welfare to people with mental impairments to palliative care) where students, together with the local stakeholders, unpack the needs of the organisation and identify the potential impact that design can play in responding to those needs.
Keywords: design communication, civic learning, stakeholder involvement
Students experiment with various media related to personal development, forms of process documentation and reflective writing to build self-awareness regarding self-improvement, self-care as well as aspects related to dissemination and future planning.
Keywords: self-awareness, documentation, dissemination, future-focus, reflection
Semester 2 (Portugal)
This course equips students to address communication challenges in real-world health and care contexts by designing interfaces and products that enhance clarity, efficiency, and usability, tailored to the unique needs of specific audiences. It emphasises the role of graphic rhetoric and user-centred design principles in effectively conveying information and creating impactful solutions.
Students delve into the ontological foundations of design, exploring their social, economic, environmental, and cultural implications. Through cutting-edge research, case study analysis, and thematic project development, students learn to define objectives with sensitivity to healthcare contexts, focusing on both communication strategies and product design tailored to improve healthcare outcomes.
Project II highlights diverse problem-solving approaches—abductive, heuristic, and empirical—essential for driving healthcare innovation and fostering meaningful, human-centred solutions. Additionally, students refine their visual and oral communication skills, enabling them to present their projects with clarity and impact. This preparation positions them to contribute thoughtfully to the evolving field of healthcare design, including the development of innovative healthcare products.
Keywords: health_care design, problem identification, project
The study of research methodologies in design equips students with a comprehensive understanding of the research process, blending theory and practical application. This approach provides essential methodological knowledge, research tools, and technical skills, enabling students to effectively structure scientific inquiries. Key components include formulating research questions, mastering data collection and analysis, and developing scientific writing skills for the clear communication of findings. Through problem-based learning and critical debates, students gain the ability to interpret scientific documents, construct coherent research topics, and prepare well-defined dissertation structures, ultimately building a strong foundation for impactful research in design.
Keywords: methodologies for design research, data collection and analysis
The course Design and Mediation in Health* adopts a critical, iterative, and collaborative approach to engage various stakeholders in addressing health challenges through design-led interdisciplinarity. It emphasises the development of communication skills across disciplines, focusing on clarifying and harmonising specialised lexicons to foster effective collaboration. Students will critically analyse existing informational media and medical artefacts to identify opportunities for design interventions that address the challenges and needs in health. Through co-creation processes, they will define strategies and concepts to respond to these identified opportunities, culminating in a participatory design process to develop a comprehensive programme proposal. The discipline highlights the importance of health communication, exploring its definition, significance, common barriers, and strategies for improvement, with a strong emphasis on person-centred approaches and communication tailored to specific health contexts. This programme aims to equip students with the tools to mediate between disciplines and create impactful, design-driven health solutions.
* in this course students prepare for the placement in Sheffield.
Keywords: health communication, person-centred approaches, participatory design, interdisciplinarity
Design for Social Innovation (6 ECTS)
This subject intends to build and consolidate among the students a knowledge of a possible theoretical and practical body in the development of products and services with a strong sensitivity to environmental and social issues essential to the project activity.It also aims to reflect on the social and cultural values of the new economy based on globalisation, the weight and value of preserving the environment, and the new realities resulting from new lifestyles.
Keywords: environmental sensitivity, social issues, new economy, globalisationenvironmental sensitivity, social issues, new economy, globalisation
Illustration and Project (6 ECTS)
Illustration and Project has as main objective to introduce students to the potential of illustration as a means of communication with various audiences and the suitability to different mediums and media. Students will develop their visual discourse by aligning their illustrations with different textual typologies, such as narrative, descriptive, argumentative, expository, explanatory, and instructional formats. Through project-based learning, they will explore both literal and lateral thinking strategies to craft compelling illustrations. The programme emphasises understanding the semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic dimensions of illustration, as well as recognizing its denotative and connotative layers. Additionally, students will gain knowledge of the figurative processes, including stylistic figures, that underpin successful illustration projects, fostering both technical and conceptual proficiency.
Keywords: authorship, expression, visual discourse
Digital Information Design (6 ECTS)
Digital Information Design focuses on equipping students with foundational knowledge in the representation of information within digital contexts, emphasising its role as a critical mechanism for transforming data into meaningful knowledge. Recognizing the growing importance of data mining and management, the course encourages students to develop an aesthetic, technical, and ethical perspective on the complexities of our information-rich world. Students will explore their dual roles as producers and consumers of information, fostering skills to critically question and navigate the digital landscape. Additionally, they will learn to operate essential tools and systems for digital representation, leveraging these to create reliable, interpretable, and impactful visualisations of mined data. This comprehensive approach ensures students are prepared to engage with the challenges and opportunities of digital information design in a responsible and innovative manner.
Keywords: data visualisation, data mining and management, representation
Semester 3 (UK)
The module draws on the expertise of the Lab4Living research group, offering students real-world perspectives on current advancements and challenges. This unique alignment with Lab4Living enables students to benefit from cutting-edge knowledge and industry connections, supports them in exploring personal interests and professional goals within contemporary health design models, and fosters critical and innovative approaches.
The Lab for Living module offers a structured environment for students to deepen their understanding of diverse concepts, approaches, issues, and debates within health and care research and design practice. Emphasising applied experiences, the module provides opportunities for placements, live projects, and hands-on engagements that enrich learning.Through lectures, seminars, and workshops, students engage with theories, contemporary issues, and debates at the intersection of art, society, health, and care, with specific attention to ethics and methodologies essential to design for health and care practice and research.
As the students advance through the module, they will develop a self-directed proposal for their Master’s Final Project and Thesis. This proposal will outline a clear project theme, detailed plan, and foundation of exploratory research, preparing them for a successful culmination of their MA studies.
Keywords; applied learning, critical design, speculative design, real-world design
Semester 4
Students explore design as a vehicle for addressing a specific identified health or care need (social, cultural, environmental and other concerns related to the student’s own ambition within the broad care spectrum and a specific care community/context).
The thesis report will document their research process, methodology, experiences, analysis as well as showcasing their individual position on care and their values within a social care framework. This includes developing the project for portfolio and public exhibition and the thesis work is composed of three parts: a project, presentation and a report.
Keywords: passion-project, self-directed design, design research, documentation, prototyping, testing and evaluation, dissemination
_ Masters Project
The Masters Final Project and Thesis synthesises designing within a particular health_care culture through the development of a design project that is rooted in research. The final project explores design as a vehicle for addressing a specific identified health or care need (social, cultural, environmental and other concerns related to the student’s ambition that responds to a specific care community/context). The projects and accompanying thesis report will document the student’s research process, methodology, experiences, analysis as well as showcase their individual position and values within a social care framework. Thesis work is composed of three parts: A project, a presentation and a report.
The Response_Able Future students' Masters Final Project will include a well-documented, self-initiated personal design project in a student's specific area of interest that will result in a prototype and related artefacts that can be exhibited to the public. The Masters Final Project will include a presentation to a selected panel of diverse jury members containing both lecturers and external members from both care and design. The presentation is an adaptation of the project report, which is a theoretical and critically grounded report that frames and reflects upon the Masters project. It will include a written project report/dissertation that positions the work in a broader context; highlights the identified need, defines their participation-based design process, situates itself academically and defines the work’s intended impact.
These three parts constitute the student’s Masters Final Project and Thesis. The projects will be defined by the students themselves, but can also be a specific need presented to the students from the wider care industry, that the student has selected as their topic. The project must be related to care as it is defined in the Response_Able Futures definition. As part of this Masters Final Project, students will present their work publicly and to industry through the Graduate Exhibition and online portfolio showcase.
_ Mobility Scheme
The mobility presented within this course planning is central to the Response_Able Futures programme and is mandatory. Students work and move together during these two years. During the first semester, the students work together in Belgium, followed by a move for the second semester to Portugal and after the summer holiday, to the third semester in the UK. For the final semester, students are supported in selecting a host university between LUCA, UA and SHU, with an even spread between the three countries.
If the student's final project involves an organisation or company in a country outside of the three consortium countries, the organisation must become an official Associated Partner institution of Response_Able Futures. In this exceptional case (which needs to be approved by the consortium), students can spend their final semester in the relevant country.
_ Careers
Response_Able Futures graduates will have a European Joint Masters degree in Design and Health_Care and will enter the job market with a diverse range of skills and experiences, opening doors to a variety of career paths within the Health_Care sector and beyond. Graduates who want to work in care organisations, will apply their knowledge to improve existing services and develop new, patient-centred solutions. Graduates interested in becoming doctoral candidates, will be able to build on their research experience to further explore design-led healthcare innovation from an academic perspective. Graduates interested in international development will work with NGOs in the diverse contexts of the Global South, and will utilise their design expertise to address healthcare challenges in underserved communities. The entrepreneurial spirit fostered by the programme will also lead motivated graduates to establish equity-based startups within the creative techno-industries and develop innovative products and services to address specific healthcare needs. Alternatively, graduates may also find themselves contributing their expertise as policy advisors in Europe and abroad, shaping health_care policies and strategies to promote inclusivity and accessibility.
With a model of designing with intent, graduates will learn to apply and adapt methodology to suit specific contexts, and know and understand how to communicate to different stakeholders. The programme’s emphasis on transferable skills such as systems thinking, futuring, service design and social entrepreneurship provides graduates with the versatility to excel in a variety of professional settings.
