We conduct research and develop education and translation programs at the intersection of design and public health
Research
Over the last century, public health and design have evolved in response to social, technical, and economic transformations.The tremendous success of public health has been driven by science and the rigorous analysis of economic, demographic, environmental, and medical information to influence public policy and make recommendations for large-scale impact. Design creates and applies frameworks and methods that support organizations to pragmatically solve specific yet complex challenges fraught with uncertainty due to social, emotional, and cultural factors.
We investigate whether design can furnish frameworks and methods for rigorous immersion in seemingly intractable public health problems. We focus on behavior issues that continue to threaten the well-being of three constituencies: people, organizations, and the natural environment.
Active Projects
Whole Life: Designing Life After Covid-19
This initiative aims to help individuals, government agencies, foundations, and policymakers better prepare for future epidemics and prevent them from becoming pandemics. It has three independent and interconnected projects:
- Remember Now captures various ways that people across the globe are coping with the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Sketch Tomorrow explores pragmatic, bold, and holistic interventions in today’s world.
- Prototype Futures creates and tests rough low fidelity and low-resolution models that can help lead changes towards well-being.
TB Eradicated
This initiative explores how to eradicate TB in urban areas.
Conserving Futures
This initiative deals with 19th-century environmental conservation models struggling to respond to 21st-century realities.
Cities for Well-being
This explores platforms that enhance well-being considering residents’ activities in integration with the design of flexible infrastructures and the dynamics of their natural environment.
Information Pollution
This initiative investigates how this once scarce resource has become a multi-faceted hazard.
Education and Translation Programs
Classes
We offer graduate-level classes that expose Harvard students from five colleges to design.
Coaching Sessions
These are for students and faculty who are trying to use aspects of design in their own ventures.
Builder Fellows
Builders are accomplished professionals who want to bring an early-stage project related to design and well-being for a year of focused work.
Game-Changer Fellows
Game-changers are early and mid-career professionals who already have expertise in public health, public policy, or design and want to come to Harvard to explore the confluence of the three fields.
Audits
These are assessments of the current design capabilities of an organization and recommendations for improvement.
Scans
They are observations of the daily life experiences of the people the organization is trying to serve.
Sprints
These provide organizations short, intensive use of design to start or accelerate projects.
Open and Closed Events
These are focused on promoting collaboration and creating and disseminating knowledge and expertise across disciplines.