Percy Headly Foundation
MA/MSc Multidisciplinary Design Innovation Students
Based in Newcastle upon Tyne
The Percy Hedley Foundation is one of the largest regional charities supporting people with disabilities. It promotes the rights, needs and aspirations of disabled children and adults through specialist, high quality services.
The Project Brief:
From three potential areas for exploration presented by the Foundation, the team chose to look into a therapy called Conductive Education for Adults. This opportunity involved improving the awareness of the therapy and providing possible design improvements to the equipment and environment used to deliver it.
Multidisciplinary Team:
Students with backgrounds in Design, Business and Communication Technology came together for this project.
What the team did:
The starting point for the project was a meeting with the client and a tour of the Foundation and its facilities. This helped the team construct the project’s objectives.
The team spoke to Conductive Education participants and instructors, as well as observing and trying out the sessions at the Foundation.
After gathering key insights, the team immersed themselves in the needs of the users and the medical conditions treated, consulting experts within these areas.
The research conducted informed an ideation stage, where each team member focused on an area, drawing on their personal skills and expertise.
The Outcome:
The short-term solutions included eye-catching promotional materials and a website that provided better descriptions of the services available. Potential fund and awareness raising activities were proposed.
A new, innovative and cost effective method for recording the participant’s progress using photography was suggested. Incremental changes to the current equipment were visualised and recommended.
Long-term changes included ways in which The Foundation could change and improve the complete experience of Conductive Education.
“The students tackled a very specialist area of work (rehabilitative therapy with people newly diagnosed with MS), but were able to apply relevant principles to their examination and identified, most successfully, key issues that we had been too close to recognise, or too busy to explore. Their solutions, some conceptual and some very practical, have influenced our development plans. Eventually I anticipate they will result in a medical therapy centre being converted into an attractive leisure facility - changing needy patients into valued customers and participants. A worthwhile investment of our time and of real benefit to the students”.
Tony Best, CEO
What our students said:
“I feel I have gained excellent team working skills and I am a much better communicator than I was previously”.
MDI Student, Product Design
“I feel my confidence levels have improved greatly”.
MDI Student, Business
“I felt really happy with the outcome of the project; it was a truly satisfying experience”.
MDI Student, Design
