Takeda

Design Factory Melbourne

Helping people to manage their Narcolepsy.

As part of the SUGAR Network for Design Innovation and in collaboration with Japanese biopharmaceutical company Takeda, a team of students from Design Factory Melbourne and the Hasso Plattner Institute (Germany) developed a digital solution for people with narcolepsy to track their unique symptoms, medication and habits, allowing them to be better informed on how these factors correlate.

Behavioural changes are a fundamental part of managing narcolepsy. The condition is treated by a combination of medications and the adoption of behavioural and lifestyle changes (e.g. sleep hygiene, exercise, and diet). The team’s concept, Habitual, is a digital solution which acts as a personal companion for people living with narcolepsy. It enables them to learn about their individual condition and understand how their symptoms, medications and other factors correlate with each other. With regular use, they will be able to use the tracked data to better adapt their lifestyles, schedules and habits. The team found that with regular tracking, a person with narcolepsy can see how their condition correlates with their medication, their lifestyle, and most importantly, the impact on their sleep. Since narcolepsy is so diverse, Habitual allows people with narcolepsy to track their specific symptoms and other relevant information.

Concept by Manami Ray (Design Strategy & Innovation), Yichen Zhang (Communication Design) & Melanie Calleja (Communication Design) and students from Hasso Plattner Institute; Wiktoria Staszak (Digital Health), Julius Severin (Digital Health) & Juan Carlos Niño (Digital Health)

Industry Partner: Takeda Pharmaceuticals

Habitual empowers people with narcolepsy to understand their condition

Habitual - freedom to live on your own terms

Habitual tracking questionnaire for common narcolepsy symptoms

Habitual offers personalised programs to encourage behaviour change

Habitual shows patterns and trends in your data

Acknowledgement of Country

The School of Design and Architecture respectfully acknowledges the Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners and knowledge-keepers of the lands, waters and sky that surround us, where we work, learn, create, communicate and make place. We recognise that sovereignty has never been ceded and this always was and will always be Wurundjeri Country. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who continue to make a better world through design.

We extend our acknowledgement to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, students, alumni, real-life clients, and knowledge keepers, who have contributed to our own education diversity and growth. We will continue to ensure that staff and students respectfully honour ancestral connection to Country and Place in everything that they do.

We are dedicated to the notion of design to make a better world and we acknowledge that making tools, shaping place, sharing stories, making meaning, wayfinding and collaborating have long been and continue to be both central and integral to First Peoples' cultures. We recognize that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ cultural contributions have continued relevance to design practice and commit to: reconciling ancestries of design and contemporary practice as well as pursuing culturally and professionally appropriate ways to engage with a diverse population of colleagues, industries and clients. In a time of treaty-making and voice we understand that there are overlaps between caring for Country and the sustainable production of goods, services, experiences, products and buildings.

Guided by the principles of respect, reconciliation, and reciprocity we undertake to indigenising and decolonising design practice by dismantling colonial structures and challenging biases that have marginalised Indigenous voices and design.

As students of SoDA you will be given opportunities to both engage with and educate yourself in Indigenous creative practices and cultural protocols through a lens of inclusivity, diversity, respect, mutual understanding, inter-cultural dialogue in all aspects of design practice. Indigenous people have been telling stories, making tools, and connecting to Country through visual media, placemaking and place marking for more than 60,000 years and these practices are part of an ongoing, evolving and live tradition.