Kristi Bartlett is the director of product development at ZIBRIO, the Balance Company, where she designs products for fall prevention in aging. She became interested in design for healthcare after her experiences caring for a family member with medical needs opened her eyes to the lack of consideration for patients and home users in medical design. Kristi holds an M.S. in Industrial Design from the University of Houston and a B.A. in Civil & Environmental Engineering from Rice University.
Kristi is currently pursuing a PhD in Technology at Purdue University. Her primary research area is spatial thinking, or creative thinking in three-dimensions. Kristi also researchers the dynamics in design education and industry that contribute to its lack of diversity. She believes that the design field needs to change so that product teams better reflect the diversity of real-world users.
What do ageism, racism, ableism, and sexism have in common? These social issues all overlap with the topic of healthcare design. In this talk, I will introduce social science theories like critical race theory, critical disability studies, and feminist theory, and explain how they connect to healthcare design. I believe that interdisciplinary work is key to advancing equity issues in the design profession. Therefore, I all designers can benefit from learning social science theory and applying it to our work, and end users will benefit too. Whether you are interested in healthcare design specifically, or interested in diversity issues in the design field in general, this talk is for you.
