Abstract

Design plays a marginal part in the discourse of diabetes care, mainly in visualizing the form and packaging of medical technologies. The authors however have a practice that advocates that design orientated solutions can add much needed dimensions to problems that have traditionally been the exclusive preserve of expert discourses. This position has for long been a validated and largely accepted approach in design’s engagement with issues in sustainability and development studies. A similar approach in the area of medicine has been constructed by the authors and marks out a position of advocacy where the designer takes on agency to intervene on behalf of the user community. This position contains a healthy critique of the traditional approach of product design for manufacture while simultaneously amplifying a desire to intervene and make a substantial improvement in the quality of life of people with diabetes. This article first opens out contemporary diabetes care as a contested domain and then goes on to sketch out the key aspects of a design practice focussed upon delivering positive health outcomes in diabetes care. The specific context of discussion for this article is the practice of teaching in design studios where students of design listen to the voices of people with diabetes and visualize ways for design to provide products and service solutions that transform the lived experiences of people with diabetes.