The Well-being and Health Research Group emerges from the experience developed in the homonymous line of research of the Design Processes Group. The activity initiated in the research of design, applied to the health and well-being consolidates it as an autonomous research group in the year 2018 through the fulfillment of research projects, formative interventions, workshops, publications etc. that have an impact at a local and national scope.
Today it has consolidated its position as an Emerging Research Group (ERG), recognised by the Generalitat de Catalunya, with the publication of books, patent projects and numerous participatory activities.
In the last decade the health sector has incorporated responsibilities in the health sector including service design, participative processes, space and furniture design, design conception, visual communication, virtual reality, innovation, development etc. EINA possesses a wide expertise in this field with various design professionals and researchers that carry out regular collaborations with partners as Hospital de Sant Joan de Déu. In this context and with the expertise of its members having directed masters and Degree final projects related to the sector, the Well-being and Health Research Group has the double objective of meeting the market requirements and make a knowledge transfer in the sector.
Objectives
The objectives of the research group according to the 2022-2025 strategic plan are:
- To maintain and consolidate the academic results of the eBOOM, Espacio-Plataforma, RESTAURA and Nixi for Children projects.
- To define research actions with local impact.
- To disseminate research results in international environments.
- To involve research and teaching of Design, Health and Wellbeing in EINA's undergraduate and master's research studies.
Coordination
Researchers
Raúl Oliva, Dolors Soriano, David Steegmann, Salvador Huertas, Elena Bartomeu, Anna Pujadas, Enric Garrido
PhD Candidates
- Articulation of the consultation and waiting space.
- Analysis and tactilomotricity of surfaces.
- User agency.
- Stress management within hospital processes.
- Simulation of spaces and processes.
- Inclusive information design.
- Digital health, digital wellbeing.
- Cure&Care, design as repair of the world.
Cure&Care Design
Cure&Care Design is the Group's new line of research. It includes everything we do to maintain, perpetuate and repair our world. This world includes ourselves and our environment, bound together in a complex web that sustains life.
eBOOM: gamified training against addictions in technologies
This research project was a finalist in the public procurement process of innovation Citilab 2020, for the search for solutions against technology addictions among young people.
It is clear that techno-addictions are one of the major problems that concern our youth, and in these waves of confinement Covid'19, it is necessary to seek innovative solutions for educational environments.
Techno-addictions include all the phenomena or problems of abuse of New Information and Communication Technologies (NICTs), and is often manifested in Internet addiction from mobile devices.
In this context, we propose to refocus the proposal and focus on training those parents who cannot help their children to make a conscious use of the devices because they do not master the vocabulary or registers of what happens online.
To do this, we will carry out a set of gamified actions that, from the design of the experience, will allow participants to expand their knowledge and reflect on fictional situations that promote intergenerational exchange of roles.
The result of planning these actions gives rise to an ecosystem that can be translated into different interventions such as workshops, conferences, products, services, etc. In this project, we have developed a strategic alignment of actions in the form of a Knowledge and Socialisation Workshop with technologies, which we call e-BOOM.
With the collaboration of:
IES La Serreta (Rubí), MAGNET, GDM GAMES, GReVIA (Grup de Recerca en Victimització Infantil i Adolescent), Departament de Psicologia Clínica i Psicobiologia (Universitat de Barcelona), Fundació Privada EINA.
Espai Plataforma, Creation of spaces for new collectivities
Spaces for collectivities are in constant change. It is a constant of change that responds to the sector's concern to adapt spaces to the needs of the people who use them.
Design professionals, manufacturers, editors, publishers and distributors are usually concerned with adjusting objects designed for living environments for changing users. But EINA's Design, Health and Wellbeing Research Group has detected a major shift. In its study of the activity of professionals, it has observed a profound change, a change of paradigm: the space for collectivities is nowadays a platform.
This book recounts the research carried out by the team that has tackled the development of the platform-space concept and its application. The scenarios and limits, the continuity.
The space for collectivities must respond to connectivity, to a shared awareness of wellbeing, to a sensibility of the new collective as a juxtaposition of individualities. The main strategies for defining product portfolios and uses of the space-platform have to do with the revision of what we consider physical and virtual, what we consider public and private, what we consider leisure and business. We invite you to explore the new paradigm of spaces for collectivities, and to experience them with full knowledge.
Intensification Workshop Hospital Sant Joan de Déu. Workshop
EINA's "Design, Health and Wellbeing" Intensification Conference in collaboration with the Hospital de San Juan de Dios was a hackathon of design projects for the Cancer Center of the Hospital, developed by 120 students of the 2nd and 3rd year of the Degree in Dissey of EINA. In two days (4 and 5 December 2018) 18 proposals were made for the new building, including design of services, products, spaces and clothing adapted to the needs of the users, in an incusive way with paediatric patients and the entire community of caregivers.
The hackathon inaugurated the research agreement that EINA has with San Juan de Dios, as well as giving rise to a research activity related to large-scale teaching and skills acquisition capacity in mass learning environments, such as hackathons.
Final Degree Projects
In each year of the Bachelor of Design there are students who develop their Final Degree Project on topics related to Design for Health and Wellbeing:
Paula Terra (2018) Dröp: Simplifica la Diabetes. It is a set of three products (a wearable, a mobile application and an insulin injector) that makes it possible to manage this disease in a simple, pleasant and user-friendly way, as it reduces and optimises both the procedures and the devices needed to follow an appropriate treatment.
Dröp has won the "Runner-Up for A'Design Award. Honorable Mention" in the category "Scientific Instrument, Medical Devices and Equipment Design" in 2019.
Tomás Lóbez (2018) NIXI for Children. It is an immersive virtual reality experience that allows children who are due to undergo surgery and their families to anticipate information about the operating theatre and what their experience will be like on the day of the operation so that they can familiarise themselves with what they will find in the hospital and thus reduce the fear and stress caused by what they do not know.
Nixi for Children, which was conceived in Tomás Lóbez's TFG, has won the SaluDigital award in the category "Best private digital health initiative of the year", awarded by the Mediforum group to the best digital health initiatives at a national level in 2020.
Exhibition 21 junio 2022 Presentation of the research book ESPACIO-PLATAFORMA. Interactive exhibition design.
Conference 12 March 2021 Espai-Plataforma:Publication of results. Barcelona Design Centre. Speakers: Raúl Oliva, David Steegmann, Elena Bartomeu.
Seminar 15 June 2020 Benestar cognitiu: Eines per fer front a l’impacte de la covid-19 a la teva empresa. Catalan Cluster Network. Cluster Design, Cluster Mental Health. Speaker: Oriol Ventura.
Seminar 24 February 2020 Espais de Consultes Externes en Salut Mental. Hospital Clínic de Barcelona: Seminar on Architecture and Patient Experience. Speaker: Oriol Ventura
Conference 28 November 2019 Designing beyond screens. How to design service experiences that respond to functional and emotional needs. The case of Sant Joan de Déu Hospital in Barcelona. Service design doing. Speakers: Javier Nieto and Oriol Ventura.
Conference 2 October 2019 Espai Ideal en Salut Mental. Xpatient Barcelona Congress. Speaker: Oriol Ventura.
Seminar 18 September 2019Nixi for Children, entrenaments de realitat virtual per reduir l’ansietat perioperatòria en pacients pediàtrics. Xpatient Barcelona Congress. Speaker: Tomás Lóbez.
Conference 2 June 2017 Espacio familias, praderas hospitalarias. Diseño e investigación para la salud. Auditorio del Museo del Diseño, Barcelona Design Week. Speaker: Oriol Ventura.
Seminar 30 May 2012 Solucions modulars i adaptables per a espais hospitalaris. First Open Design Research Seminar of the BDIC's R+D programme. Speaker: Oriol Ventura.
Bartomeu, E., Huertas, S., et al. (2022): Espacio-plataforma. Creación de espacios para nuevas colectividades. EINA-UAB.
Ventura O, Bartomeu E, Santillana AS (2019) “El espacio ideal. Consultas Externas del Servicio de Salud Mental. ITAKA Hospital Sant Joan de Déu de Barcelona!”. XPA & Health Com. 2 pp 35-40. ISSN: 2604-0999.
Ventura O, Bartomeu E. A shared space for families in a children’s hospital. JHD. 2021;6(3):419–428.
Elena Bartomeu & Oriol Ventura (2021): Participatory practices for co-designing a multipurpose family space in a children's hospital, Design for Health
Bartomeu, E., Soriano, D. (2020) Atopic 2: World-building for a Meaningful Future. SiGCHI. Speculative Education 2020.
The specific fields of application of our research are in areas such as healthcare interior design, virtual reality applied to the care process, patient service, user experience, data visualisation, techno-addiction, materials for environmental wellbeing, education and training in saludogenesis.
The sectors that can benefit from our activity are educational and training centres, civic centres and associations, primary care centres, hospitals and health centres, childlife and childcare, clusters in the design and construction sectors, as well as architecture and design SMEs.
In recent years we have advised and accompanied companies such as Global Projects, Santa&Cole, Casals Ventilación in the implementation of design principles applied to health and wellbeing.
