Tactical Design for Pandemics
Design solutions for public health in times of pandemics, in preparation for the future
Faculty Leads:
Carlos Teixeira
Class:
Strategies for Open Innovation
Students:
Vaaibhav Bhardwaj
Kanal Chhajed
Mridula Dasari
Ananya Garg
Jack Gerber
Mrinali Gokani
Dmytri Gouba
Yoichi Kanayama
Hongpyo Kim
Esther Lee
Shuyi Liu
Pinakee Naik
Katie Petersen
Tanvi Ranka
Sze Wing Alpha Wong
Yueyue Yang
The global mobilization of resources and knowledge in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred new solutions across borders. A team of designers, researchers, and faculty at IIT Institute of Design (ID) have conducted a real-time analysis of emerging infrastructures for public health from a tactical design perspective. ID Associate Professor Carlos Teixeira conducted this study with support of André Nogueira, ID alum and Associate Researcher. This study investigated the current infrastructures being deployed in response to pandemics through real-time analysis of design interventions in five focus areas; the interventions span various locations, including the USA, Italy, South Korea and China. The study resulted in a collection of infrastructures and new possible fields of action that are enabled by the combination of these infrastructures. The learnings of analysis indicate tactical design considerations for professionals working in response to pandemics.
Our study revealed that the intelligent integration of infrastructures and the design of their components is critical to dealing with pandemics. Our capacity to address emerging needs depends on our ability to identify available infrastructures and strategically apply design to multiple system levels. While we are dealing with unprecedented diversity, many infrastructures fall short of adequately addressing the variety of needs and demands. We learned that the more diversity we face, the more design is needed. Different strategies and emerging imperatives will require organizations and people to iteratively develop new ways of organizing daily activities, consequently creating new interventions.
A team of graduate students will continue to study and analyze these emerging infrastructures on an industry-by-industry basis, with the involvement of experts from the fields of design and public health.
View the report here.
