Abstract
We all have to consider the importance of mental health, which just as with physical health can cause us to feel ill, unwell and ostracized from our community. However, the stereotypes and prejudice that result from misconceptions about mental problems appears to form an impassive and invisible barrier between the people with mental health challenges and the public who is less willing to interact with them. As three researchers respectively from service design, visual communication and art education, we undertook collaborative interdisciplinary design as a strategy, in order to explore a participatory approach to engage with our participants, namely, an anonymous community in Norway that supports mental health and a group of 27 youths in Finland. The aim of our project was to create pleasurable and meaningful experiences for the mentally marginalized individuals, thus potentially having a positive impact on their subjective wellbeing. We conclude the paper with a discussion of how participatory design enabled the participation of those mentally marginalized individuals and eventually catalyzed a positive change.
Keywords
subjective wellbeing, participatory design, interdisciplinary design, positive design
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2018.214
Citation
Li, H., Zha, Y., and Zhao, J. (2018) Co-creating Happy Moments: A Case Study of Designing for People with Mental Health Challenges, in Storni, C., Leahy, K., McMahon, M., Lloyd, P. and Bohemia, E. (eds.), Design as a catalyst for change - DRS International Conference 2018, 25-28 June, Limerick, Ireland. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2018.214
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Co-creating Happy Moments: A Case Study of Designing for People with Mental Health Challenges
We all have to consider the importance of mental health, which just as with physical health can cause us to feel ill, unwell and ostracized from our community. However, the stereotypes and prejudice that result from misconceptions about mental problems appears to form an impassive and invisible barrier between the people with mental health challenges and the public who is less willing to interact with them. As three researchers respectively from service design, visual communication and art education, we undertook collaborative interdisciplinary design as a strategy, in order to explore a participatory approach to engage with our participants, namely, an anonymous community in Norway that supports mental health and a group of 27 youths in Finland. The aim of our project was to create pleasurable and meaningful experiences for the mentally marginalized individuals, thus potentially having a positive impact on their subjective wellbeing. We conclude the paper with a discussion of how participatory design enabled the participation of those mentally marginalized individuals and eventually catalyzed a positive change.