Working with the Innovation Consultancy Group at Kaiser Permanente, I designed a series of research probes and communication tool kits to train nurses and unit managers in implementing the new NKEplus procedures for nurse shift changes. The activities and communication tools were geared towards guiding unit team members on how to assess their own unit in preparation for customizing and implementing NKEplus. The objectives of NKEplus included building strategies for transfering patient information efficiently and clearly, communicate and update plan-of-care goals and education on why including patients in care planning is critical for the well-being and recovery of patients.

In 2011 this project was featured as a case study in the International Journal of Design. The essay “Service Design and Change of Systems: Human-Centered Approaches to Implementing and Spreading Service Design” chronicles the process and serves as a great case study for service design. The paper walks through the entire process, acknowledges the challenges around implementing change in healthcare settings and clearly points out the failures and lessons learned along the way. One of the most significant challenges was creating and introducing the NKEplus system in a way that allowed the nurses and doctors to have ownership over it.

The role of graphic design in this project was that of instigator, mediator and guide. Four major sets of communication pieces were designed and used at various stages of the NKEplus implementation. The team started by following the ‘Cake model for change’, which states that, “talking to staff about ‘what to do’ (conversation of action) is only valuable after giving appropriate time and effort to help them relate to the underlying goals of the action and involve them in seeing a variety of possibilities of how to achieve that goal.” Using this model as a guide, we designed a series of communication materials that instigated conversations around; 1) Purpose & Relatedness 2) Possibilities & Opportunities 3) Action 4) Acknowledgement.

DOWNLOAD PDF of complete white paper.

Posters

A series of large posters were designed to communicate the general system of NKEplus and used during the early introductory workshops. Rather than a lecturing format using PowerPoint we opted for large-scale physical posters that felt tangible and ‘on the same’ level as the participants.

Staff Companion Book

The Staff Companion Book was used to instigate conversations on two levels. First, it contained information graphics to frame the purpose of NKEplus and how it was related to helping nurses achieve their goals. The second section contained observational activities for the nurses to complete during their day. This allowed each nurse to identify opportunity areas on a personal level by observing and recording their own successes and pain points. This information was brought into subsequent workshops where nurses were encourage to share their findings and talk openly about issues and possible solutions.

‘We Made It Ours’ poster

This final poster was designed to communicate the final NKEplus procedure and protocols as designed by the nurses. Each step of NKEplus was clearly communicated to support nurses while working within the new NKEplus system.

Patient Engagement Cards

Gaming was used to acknowledge nurse’s participation and use of the NKEplus system during the official launch. The Patient Engagement Competition made use of bedside table top cards in which patients could give nurse’s who provided outstanding care ‘award clips’.

One final aspect of this project that I feel is important is the design of the visual language used throughout the work. Rather than applying my personal aesthetic preferences, I strove to reflect the cultural aesthetic of the nurse’s environment, their personalities and instill a culture of ‘making it yours’. How might nurse’s design their own workbook? What words, symbols and colors would they chose? What styles best align with the language they use to communicate with each other and within the hospital environment? After visiting the unit in Santa Clara and reviewing photographs taken from earlier in the project, bright colors, a combination of organic and structured layout systems and large typography felt best suited to elicit the adoption of these materials by the nurses and create a sense of positive energy, playfulness and encourage documentation and mark-making. I think for most graphic designers, allowing the audience to dictate the aesthetic qualities of the work might be uncomfortable. Most of us think of ourselves as having a unique ‘style’ or ‘voice’ and use this to inject ownership into the work we create for others. Placing our ‘signature’ on it – just as a painter would sign a completed work. To say that designers don’t do this would be a lie – at least for me. However, allowing the audience to guide me in the creation of the visual language freed me to experiment and work with materials I might not have otherwise used. Rather than inhibiting my creative energy, it actually opened it up and removed inhibitions.

For more information on NKEplus visit the Kaiser Innovation Consultancy website.

The redesign of PG&E’s About Us section was the first step in a larger site design overall. The project was a collaboration between Razorfish and PG&E design teams with Razorfish leading on content strategy, UX, visual design and front-end development. Our primary objectives were to improve relationships with customers by building trust through the connection of rhetorical claims with on the ground action and creating a strong sense of transparency, accountability and proactivity. Secondary objectives included creating a flexible design framework that supports the evolution and integration of current and future content and creating a stronger human narrative within the PG&E story.

Full site scheduled to launch in Spring 2013.

Complete content and information architecture overall of the SmartMeter™ section of PGE.com. The project included a full content audit of the current SmartMeter™ website and integration of new assets created for the Power A Brighter Future campaign. Goals included:

1. Improving hierarchy of information to align with users’ mental models of SmartMeter™ related activities such as researching, installation preparation, use & benefits and troubleshooting.

2. Educating public on reasonings for and benefits of SmartMeter™ technology.

3. Education on the relationship between SmartMeter™ and the Smart Grid.

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Course Description

For the Fall 2010 edition of the Graphic Production course within the Diversity Studies and Community Arts programs, our class partnered with the CCA Research and Planning Departments, and Facilities Dept. and PG&E’s Pacific Energy Center. Students were responsible for designing a site-specific map, data visualization or other graphic narrative that sought to accomplish one or more of the following:

• Exposes hidden energy narratives: We all use energy every day but do we know where it comes from? How is it produced (where it comes from), distributed (how it got here) and used (how is it translated into human action) within a particular space?

• Increases awareness of the social, economic, environmental and/or cultural implications of energy production, delivery and usage. How can a piece of graphic design work unpack the larger social, economical, environmental and/or cultural implications of energy production, distribution and delivery?

• Alters/Debunks perception of energy as an intangible infinite commodity: This could be done by visualizing the effects energy use has in our lives, proposing alternative realities or visualizing the physical labor needed to produce the energy we use. Whatever the tactic – your goal is to challenge people’s passive attitudes towards energy usage.

The final project was installed in various site-specific locations on the CCA SF campus and presented to representatives of CCA Research and Planning Departments and PG&E’s Pacific Energy Center.

Course Description

In 2010, my Graphic Design class partnered with the La Cocina Food Business Incubation Program to investigate the culinary traditions, practices and values that live within each of the businesses participating in the program. Students gathered stories through ethnographic interviews with business owners then began a process of analysis by identifying and visualizing patterns of process into patterns and typographic forms. These graphic marks were then used as a base for creating a visual language in which to graphically present these culinary narratives in a printed format. Here, the designer is positioned as part author, part narrator of a personal culinary story which requires sensitivity to the original storyteller and the social, economic and cultural issues present within the story. The finished design work and recipes were collected into a narrative-type cookbook that was self-published and sold to benefit a choice community organization or cause.

The overarching goal of the project was to gain understanding of the role visual language plays in the definition and characterization of a business and its products. Recipes and culinary processes, like visual graphics, are more than the sum of their parts – they influence the way a story is told thus affecting its transmission to an external audience. By exploring and presenting these narratives through design we exemplify the power and possibility of graphic design to share cultural diversity and promote engagement with traditional culinary practices.

The course was part of the ENGAGE at CCA program.

Student Work

Course Description

What role, beyond aesthetic applications, can artists and designers serve in the resurrection of rural abandoned spaces and the long forgotten narratives embedded within them? What value do these narratives add to the revitalization of a space? What mediums, materials and tactics can designers and artists deploy to engage a community in conversation about the possibilities for the space and ways it might serve their current and future goals? These and other questions will be explored as we partner with architect Maria McVarish and the New Season Community Development Corporation in Esparto, CA to design a series of installations in and around the historic Esparto Train Station.

The station was part of the Vaca Valley and Clear Lake railroad and transported passengers, as well as agricultural goods. The line connected towns throughout the Valley until 1957 when the last train left the Esparto station. Today, the building stands in disrepair, its history and role within the community faded into the background. The elongated windows are boarded up but inside remain some remnants of the activity that once took place; a large, cast iron floor scale and a small, bright apartment where the station agent lived. Remnants of train tracks scatter the landscape. In 2011, the building was purchased by Maria McVarish and is scheduled for redevelopment in 2012.

By reintroducing latent narratives, we may illuminate various frames in which to view the space and reconnect to the building and its site. As a starting point, students will conduct a series of ethnographic type interviews with Esparto residents, representatives of the Capay Valley farming community and other community stakeholders to gain understanding of their relationship with the station and their visions for its revitalization. Aggregating their research, students will design and implement a considered, site-specific installation in order to, as a class, provide a series of moves on-site that will begin a conversation towards larger community awareness for the train station’s planned future.

Open to all graduate majors.

Visit http://mnemictrain.com/ to learn more about the Esparto Train Station and follow redevelopment plans, student work and community events.

This project was an effort to investigate how emerging technologies could potentially help rural communities. Our community partner for the project was Capay Valley Vision, an organization whose mission is to foster a vision for the future of the Capay Valley region and facilitate collaborative processes for common dialogue, planning and action to preserve the rural character, agricultural traditions and natural resources of the region. Through interviews with Thomas Nelson, a board member of Capay Valley Vision and owner of Full Belly Farms, we discovered their biggest concern is the dwindling population of native pollinators. They have been seeking ways to involve the community of locals, seasonal workers and farmers in an effort to increase hedgerow planting and gardens consisting of native wildflowers.

With this in mind, our team developed a bio-dynamic community calendar to be placed in the proposed Esparto Community Center in the old Esparto Train Station. The low-energy, solar powered e-ink board dynamically features the yearly planting and harvest cycles along with corresponding community events of Esparto. As winter goes into spring, summer into fall, the calendar display changes and digitally ‘grows’ along with the seasons giving visual cues to currently blooming native wildflowers that support native pollinators to ensure bountiful harvests for the community.

This same region will be part of an interdisciplinary design course this Spring semester at California College of the Arts entitled Building Narratives: Installations for Transitional Space.

Documentation:

Proposal presentation
Detailed research report

Special thanks to:

Alexis Petty for her wonderful and insightful contributions to the research, concepting and illustrations.

Identity design for Remnant Records, an indie electronic and experimental music label based in San Francisco.

The concept for the “The Great Traitor” LP album design was inspired by the samples of shortwave radio station recordings that were used in the album’s title track. The recordings were sampled with permission of The Conet Project which has released a 4CD set of the audio samples. Our goal was to reflect the characteristic and history of these shortwave radio recordings as described by Irdial Records:

We referenced structures of morse, binary and braille codes to create a look and feel that expresses rigidity, anonymity and encryption. I also referenced the designs of Peter Saville for inspiration on form and layout. The sleeves were hand letter-pressed at BlueBarn House on Fabriano paper in gray.

Visit rmnnt.com for more information.

The record is available for purchase at:
Hard Wax
Boomkat

Album design for Manatee, an indie band located in Oakland, CA. Inspiration for the design came from research on manatee habitats and eating habits. Aside from being extremely endangered, a manatee’s diet consists of various sea vegetables. I decided to reference their favorite food – turtle grass – in the design because the rhythmic flow of the thin blades in water reminded me of the flowing rhythms of guitars in bands such the Smashing Pumpkins and My Bloody Valentine. I also wanted to capture the casual personality of the band members of whom I had the pleasure of getting to know while collaborating on the project. Both are calm with a charming sense of whimsy and simplicity about them. Their music is uptempo and poppy with obvious influences from The Velvet Underground and The Replacements with a clear interplay between melody and noise.

Find out more about the band and get a preview of the track “Indecision” here.