Designing with the Immune System (original) (raw)

Wissinger Blood Sweat and Tears Navigating Creepy versus Cool in Wearable Biotech

INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY, 2018

This paper considers how personal data protections figure into the design process of wearable technology. The data question is becoming especially important in the face of recent innovations in biotechnology that capitalize on the new fungibility of biology and electronics, in which new biotech wearables capitalize on the ability to analyze and track changes in blood, sweat, and tears. Interviews and participant observation with wearable tech designers, data scientists, fashion tech entrepreneurs, and select experts in cybersecurity and intellectual property law, reveal a range of approaches to data protection in design within the culture where wearables are beginning to merge with biotech. While a few respondents were extremely vigilant about protecting consumer’s privacy, the majority felt that when consumers ‘opt in’ to data sharing, they should be cognizant of the risks. From their perspective, it is not necessarily the producer’s responsibility to protect user’s personal data. These attitudes present a problematic logic, which leaves users vulnerable to data exploitation. The paper concludes by arguing that this laissez-faire culture is the environment in which wearable biotech is being developed and will be deployed. This emerging technology raises issues about bodies, data, and ownership in crucial need of analysis and critique to push its move into the mainstream toward more equitable and inclusive ends.

When Human Body Meets Technology: The Designer Approach to Wearable Devices

2014

The huge impact of emerging technologies has been changing population’s capabilities (physical, sensorial and cognitive) and lifestyle ( works, leisure, living and social interaction). The human which is the main actor of the social life is now surrounded by numerous technological devices which enable him to connect, discover and learn in every condition and place. Currently there is a great inclination to modify well-being concept and health care by changing the technology in “wearable”. Wearable technology represents a potentially large and rapidly increasing research and development area, involving several cross-disciplines such as biology, physiology, physics, chemistry, micro-nanotechnologies and material sciences, industrial sectors like medical devices, electronics, microchips, textile, telecommunications and engineering disciplines. The expression wearable device refers to electrical or mechanical systems, which are worn on the human body by means of incorporation into items...

The Craft of Wearable Wellbeing

As the fields of wearable health devices, from fitness bangles to exoskeletons are rapidly expanding, the notions of wearability, wellbeing, style and personal identity need to be better understood by those designing them. By acknowledging the experience and expertise of the wearers of such devices and including them in a co-design process, insights into these supra-functional needs can be generated and developed and incorporated into the design. (McDonagh 2006; Hassenhahl 2013) Wearable health devices are traditionally designed within a biomedical model, this emphasis leads to the design of objects that do not address the psychological and social impact upon the wearer, and so produces artefacts that wearers often perceive as unwearable and unstylish; resulting in low adherence towards the device. (Fess & Philips, 1987; O’Brien, 2012).

Wearable Health Technology Design: A Humanist Accessory Approach

This article presents the “accessory approach,” conceived as a holistic form of body adornment, not only associated with fashion, but also as a design approach which includes a wearer’s physical, psychological and social preferences. We propose this as a humanistic design philosophy which may inform the design of future wearable health technology, in contrast to increasing trends toward the medicalization and quantification of people’s whole lives. At the same time, there is a pragmatic case to be made for more human-centred approaches to the design of assistive technologies for the body, which are frequently rejected by end users due to poor cultural (as well as physical) fit. We examine the potential socio-phenomenological framework offered by the accessory as a relational category of both expressive and functional objects. Using Cunningham’s framework of narrative contemporary jewellery, we analyse three projects, and show how the accessory can function as a complex platform to support relations between maker, wearer and viewer. Finally, we relate this approach to the debate in interactive wearable design regarding the visibility of technology on the body, and propose a shift from designing wearable health technologies with minimal “social weight,” to providing a relational platform capable of supporting what we have termed “social agility.”

A new approach to wearable systems: Biodesign beyond the boundaries

2011

This paper presents a design framework for wearable systems. The research is focused on the development of a new design method aimed at the design of wearables. The objective is to use designer’s sensibility to address wearables issues by meeting not only technological and medical requirements, but also user needs and social challenges with a human-centred approach. The research is based on an interdisciplinary approach typical of the Biodesign discipline, a nucleus of competencies in the areas of design, ergonomics, engineering and medicine. This approach has been developed with various researchers in order to better understand wearables from different perspectives. This paper describes a wearable device for physiological monitoring and training in high performance sport developed at The University of the New South Wales. The case study is used as a starting point for the development of a new design method and guidelines for wearable systems.

Co-Designing for Care: Craft and Wearable Wellbeing

2018

This chapter examines the design of wearable medical devices. Design is understood to be a process and output that concerns the form, function and the meaning of the designed object. However, participation in the design process by users can actively influence the output. Involvement in the co-creation of personal medical devices (PMDs) contributes towards patients’ wellbeing and increases their adherence to device usage. The chapter takes a case study approach to the design of orthotics in which patients are involved as co-designers, considering the solutions crafted by traditional and digital technologies within the framework of a biopsychosocial model of healthcare. The chapter concludes with insights into the benefits to patients and healthcare services from orthotics conceived and worn as desirable objects.