MFA Thesis: Cultivating Innovative Health Interventions (In Progress)
2024-Present | 2 years | Thesis Project | In fulfillment of a Master of Fine Arts in Design (Design Research and Development track)
Abstract
This thesis explores how design methods might be integrated into public health practice to support more innovative approaches to intervention development and open new pathways for addressing persistent health inequities. The study focuses on the early stages of problem exploration and definition, identified as promising yet underexplored opportunities for innovation through design integration. Specifically, it investigates how design-led activities, including How Might We questioning and design conjecturing, may expand how practitioners frame and understand health problems, creating conditions for more innovative intervention directions.
To examine this, 22 tobacco prevention and control professionals from across the United States participated in facilitated design workshops structured around these design-led activities. Participants engaged in collaborative problem exploration through How Might We question development and "preposterous" intervention conjecturing, followed by group discussion and critical evaluation. Workshop discussions and participant-generated materials were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis to examine patterns of engagement and the types of insights and outcomes produced through the process.
Analysis and writing is currently ongoing. Final findings and a public-facing project website will be released in April 2026. Stay tuned!
Approach
Design workshops (involving problem selection, problem statement writing, How Might We question generation, preposterous intervention conjecturing, and evaluative discussion); baseline and post-workshop surveys; reflexive thematic and basic statistical analysis; intervention concept visualizations; report writing; project website design
Projected Outcomes
Research insights into how select design methods influence practitioners’ approaches to problem exploration and resulting outcomes; a documented workshop framework demonstrating how design-led activities can support early stages of intervention development; visualizations of participant-generated intervention concepts; and a public-facing project website sharing findings, visualizations, and methodological resources for design and public health practitioners.
Thesis Committee
Co-advisors: Professor William Nickley and Dr. Sébastien Proulx
Committee member: Dr. Joanne G. Patterson
Committee member: Dr. Joanne G. Patterson
Curious to learn more?
Feel free to reach out for a chat—I'd be happy
to talk with you about my thesis project!
to talk with you about my thesis project!
