Innovation Design Engineering (MA/MSc)
Nadia Maria Bassiri
I am a multidisciplinary designer from Glasgow. My work at the Royal College of Art has been focused on human centred design projects and applying design thinking to a variety of social issues, whilst engaging and collaborating with external stakeholders. Prior to the RCA, I graduated from the Glasgow School of Art in Product Design Engineering and subsequently established a diverse portfolio of design engineering work, taking products from initial concept to market. Always searching for opportunities to enhance my skills, I decided to return to university to challenge and diversify my design practice. My degree at the RCA was enabled by an Industrial Design Studentship awarded from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851.
I am particularly interested in and passionate about the intersection between technology and the future of health and social care. As a result, my final solo project Trace was focused on exploring new wearable sensor technology and how this can be applied to improve mental health care in the future.
If you would like further information and details about Trace, please get in touch via nadia.bassiri@network.rca.ac.uk
What is OCD — Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder that affects 0.75 million people in the UK.[1] Where obsessive thoughts and anxiety can trap people in a cycle of compulsive behaviours. This cycle of anxiety and compulsions can affect every part of a person’s life, from simple tasks to close relationships.
OCD Subcategories — There are common compulsions shared between OCD sufferers which can fall into a number of subcategories and Trace is designed for two of the most prevalent subcategories, checking and contamination, where compulsions often manifest as ritualistic interactions with objects. For example, a person with contamination OCD this could manifest as excessively washing hands multiple times a day and a person with checking OCD may return 5 or 6 times to check door locks multiple times a day, until their anxiety reduces.
OCD Subcategories
Stakeholder involvment — Following a human centred design approach Trace was designed in collaboration with therapists and people with lived OCD experience. Workshops with the OCD lived experience group was facilitated by the McPin Foundation, a mental health research charity. Through academic research, multiple interviews and workshops, meaningful insights were synthesised to create distinct features, that solve a number of challenges and barriers that people can face throughout their OCD therapy journey. The result of this process was the development of a new wearable and app though which users can understand their condition better with symptom and treatment data.
TRACE RCA2020 02 02
If you would like further information and details about Trace and the benefits it can have, please get in touch via nadia.bassiri@network.rca.ac.uk