Research
The first time I used research to design an outcome was in 2008. I was working as a web designer at Magellan Health, a healthcare company that specialized in behavioral health. Magellan had recently been awarded a contract with the Illinois Department of Veteran’s Affairs to provide assistance to veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injuries (TBI), and I spent several weeks working with internal staff and the VA to design and build a website as part of the program. As a veteran myself, I have unique knowledge of the struggles veterans face, and it quickly became apparent that the people I was working with did not have this same perspective. While they wanted to trumpet “Get help” all over the website, I had to remind them that military members by nature aren’t the help-seeking type. So instead, we spent some time talking to veterans, and ultimately we focused our efforts on supporting family members and highlighting stories from other veterans who had struggled and overcame.
From that point onward, research became the foundation of every design project. As a designer, I always stepped back to start at the beginning: who are you designing for, and what problem are you trying to solve? One of my last projects at Magellan revolved around creating a member portal for Medicaid members with a severe mental illness. However, after research showed that a sizable percentage of these members are homeless and 40 percent of them don’t have phones, I pivoted the project to focus on the people taking care of the members. While this pivot worked well within the realm of user experience, I felt it was inadequate, and I found myself wondering what we could do instead. Most solutions are formulated from a therapy standpoint, but what if we evaluated solutions beginning from the actual person’s perspective?
We hear about these types of problems every day, but the idea of using design to solve complex problems—also called “wicked problems”—is an unexplored frontier. Helping people quit addiction or keeping a person with schizophrenia on track and off the street is a unique situation that requires a different approach.
In my research practice at Miami University, I concentrated my work on designing for wicked problems, such as incorporating mental health services at infertility clinics, providing families with appropriate post-treatment care after their child leaves the hospital, or providing viable alternatives to traditional in-person pediatric physical therapy via telemedicine. By using research to gain a different perspective, my hope as a designer is to find unique solutions to difficult problems, and while we can’t solve for everything, perhaps we can design for one step at a time.
Thesis Project
Utilizing Play to Help Adopted Children Form Healthy Attachments
Thousands of children are adopted both domestically and internationally every year. Many of these children come from institutional or foster care and may have repeatedly experienced trauma, abuse and neglect, which negatively affect their transition and attachment with their adoptive families (Van Der Kolk, 2005). If left untreated, these effects can last into adulthood, impairing a person’s ability to form secure relationships throughout their lives (White, 2014).
Using the lens of attachment, the purpose of this research is to explore the use of virtual play—especially play therapy—to help adopted children in Pennsylvania work through these past traumas so they can form healthy attachments with their adoptive families. Treating complex trauma in these children requires treatment that addresses the whole child: 1) safety, 2) relationships and 3) self-regulation and management (Purvis, 2013).
Many interventions are behavioral-based and revolve around the caregiver and family, such as attachment parenting and Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) training (Chobhthaigh, 2019). There have also been a variety of research studies on adoption and/or foster care, as well as the use of play therapy to help children with trauma. However, few studies focus on adopted children and their use of play, and no studies have been published that revolve around the use of virtual play to treat adopted children with trauma.
How might we utilize play to help adopted children in Pennsylvania work through past traumas so that they can form healthy attachments with their adoptive families?
Design Solution: Mythos
In the form of a video game, adopted children and children with trauma role-play as a stuffed bear who’s lost their home and finds themselves on a journey of self-discovery. The game will be partnered with therapy and a physical stuffed bear. At the end of each session, the therapist will ask the child questions about their experience.
Target audience: Adopted children, ages 5-12
Ultimate learning/treatment goal: Termination of self-defeating acting out behaviors and acceptance of self as loved and loveable within an adopted family
Other Research Projects
For more details of the design research process for these projects and a dropbox link, please contact me.
