Human Centred Collaborative
Design: An Institutional Approach
Robert Luke
George Brown College
Outline
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Context: Canadian productivity
College applied research
Innovation Support Services
Project examples
Students
Canada’s Innovation Gap
 13th out of 17 countries (OECD)
 “D” for innovation: “it’s been a D for decades”
– Conference Board of Canada, How Canada
Performs: A Report Card on Canada
 Canada's ‘Capacity to innovate’: C– Global Insight
 Canada’s innovation rated Mediocre
– Canada's Science, Technology and Innovation
Council (STIC) State of the Nation 2008
College Applied Research
 Helps boost Canadian productivity
– Canada is second in OECD for HERD; 12th in BERD
• HERD: Higher Education Expenditures on R&D
• BERD: Business Expenditures on R&D
 Firms are not making effective use of
postsecondary R&D capabilities
– “We’ve gone too far in subsidizing R&D, and not
far enough in subsidizing diffusion of innovation.”
(Sharpe 2009)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DiffusionOfInnovation.png
Innovation Support Services
Help industry to
 Validate practicality and usability of new
technologies/products/processes
 Simulate impact of their use
 Adapt those technologies for deployment
under diverse conditions
Testing practicality and
market/user/practice
adoption and adaptation
From discovery to design
Multidisciplinary Collaborative Problem Solving
 The intentional application of applied
research and innovation services to industry
needs and contexts
 Uses college verticals in a horizontal
integration strategy
Fundamental
Research
Applied
Research
Technology
Development & Demonstration
(Pilot to Full Scale)
Product
Commercialization
& Market
Development
Market
Entry &
Market
Volume
http://www.sdtc.ca/en/about/innovation_chain.htm
Human Centred Design
Participatory design
 Grounded in the understanding of real-world
practices of users and user communities
Funding
 The College and Community Innovation
Program, Natural Sciences and Engineering
Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
 Colleges Ontario Network for Industry
Innovation (CONII), MRI
Examples
 Diabetes Portal
 Health eHome
 Heart Monitoring Vest
Diabetes Portal
Industry partner
 Dr Michael Evans, Director of the Health
Media Innovation Lab, St. Michael's Hospital
GBC Team Members
 Jean-Paul Amore, Michael Sanderson, Curtis
Jones, Navi Hayer, Carlos Alcoser, Kimberley
Perriera, Amy Wong
– School of Design
Diabetes Portal
 A web-based portal for patients to access
information on the complex issues around
diabetes in a variety of approachable
electronic formats
 Needs to speak to diverse users
 Phase 1: develop multimedia content
prototypes for persons 55 year of age and
older who have been prescribed insulin
secretagogues for type 2 diabetes
Diabetes Portal
 Michael Evans, Lori MacCullum
Health Media and Innovation Lab, Li Ka Shing
Knowledge Institute, St Michael’s Hospital
Diabetes Portal
Diabetes Portal
Diabetes Portal
Diabetes Portal
Diabetes Portal
Diabetes Portal
Diabetes Portal
Diabetes Portal
Diabetes Portal
Health eHome
Industry partners
 Origin Retirement Communities; Saint Elizabeth Health
Care; The Town of Markham; St. Michael’s Hospital;
McMaster University; Adaptive Technology Resource
Centre, University of Toronto; Centre for Global eHealth
Innovation; CMHC
GBC Team Members
 Monica Contreras1; Khalid Danok2; Iris Epstein3; Luigi
Ferrara4; Julie Gaudet3; Anna Milan1; and Katrina Senyk1
–
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–
1
Institute without Boundaries
2 School of Computer Technology
3 Nursing
4 School of Design
Health eHome
 Part of the Inclusive Design Institute
– J. Treviranus (PI) University of Toronto
– Partners: George Brown College, Ontario College
of Art and Design, Sheridan College, Seneca
College, Ryerson University, York University
– Funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation
Health eHome
 How can living environments promote safety,
health, and quality of life for residents?
 Can homes be adaptive to their occupants?
Health eHome
 Component of the Interprofessional Online
Research and Technology Assessment
Laboratory (IPORTAL)
 25000 sq.ft. Simulated Practice Centre
 Centre for Health Sciences,
new Waterfront Campus
Healthy Home configurable apartment
40’
20’
2-way mirror
10’
Observation Room
40’
Health eHome
 Integrating multiple health sciences disciplines
with design, construction and engineering
technology
 Research and development activities designed
to shorten adoption times for new health
products, protocols and processes in the
context of interprofessional practice
Heart Monitoring Vest
Industry Partners
 Ocorant Inc.
 Ross and Doell Industrial Design
GBC Team Members
 Marsha Jorgensen1; Angella Mackey1; Ken
Mantle2; Gita McAllister3;
and Jenna Patterson1
–
Fashion Techniques and Design
– 2 Engineering Technology
– 3 Nursing
1
Heart Monitoring Vest
Vest Design Challenge
 To design a vest that enables its wearer to
place six electrodes in the exact same place on
their chest each day for up to 30 days, without
the help of a nurse.
Heart Monitoring Vest
Design hurdles:
 How will the patient know
where to place the
electrodes? How will the vest
design account for multiple
variations of the electrode
placement?
Heart Monitoring Vest
Rapid prototyping
 In order to solve the design
challenges the fashion design
students fabricated weekly rapid
prototypes out of paper, cotton,
Velcro and rough fasteners.
Heart Monitoring Vest
 New prototypes were produced weekly,
becoming more complex as new solutions
were unfolded.
Heart Monitoring Vest
Others
 Advanced Patient Education for Cancer
Survivorship (APECS)
– OCAD (Funded by SSHRC)
 Building Recipes and Understanding Nutrition
for Cancer-survivorship Health (BRUNCH)
– Princess Margaret Hospital
 Real-time Locating System for Improved
Infection Control
– Infonaut, Inc.
Innovation Literacy
 Students gain research, problem solving,
leadership and entrepreneurship skills, and
the ability to recognize innovation in the
product development lifecycle
 Highly Qualified and Skilled Personnel
– flexible innovators in the workforce
Contact
Robert Luke, Ph.D.
Assistant Vice President
Research and Innovation
George Brown College
rluke@georgebrown.ca