Health Design Lab
Using design to collaborate on health — beyond healthcare. We work with communities to imagine, create and support more equitable, responsive and human-centered systems.
Designing With, Not For
The Health Design Lab (HDL) is a research and design centre at Emily Carr University focused on addressing complex health challenges through participatory design. We believe health is about more than healthcare—it’s about culture, equity, community and agency. Our team of faculty, research associates and students works directly with communities through storytelling, co-design, making and visualizing.
Our Collaborations
Our collaborations help surface needs, amplify voices, generate new ideas and improve systems and services. We aim to support health initiatives that are grounded in lived experience, cultural context and creative insight.
How We Work + Who We Work With
HDL is grounded in collaboration. Our flexible teams—comprising design faculty, researchers and student assistants—come together to meet the unique needs of each project. We work in partnership with community organizations, health authorities, academic researchers, nonprofits and local businesses.
Projects are typically funded through grants or direct partner support. What unites all our collaborations is a shared commitment to inclusive, community-engaged processes that centre the voices of those most affected.
Current Areas of Focus
- Supporting Indigenous-led projects and initiatives
- Participatory design in aging and dementia care
- Storytelling as research evidence and knowledge-sharing
- Creative, inclusive approaches for communities often overlooked by traditional systems
Get to Know Us Better
Our Team
Research Assistants
Our team is constantly expanding to meet new project needs, bringing on new team members and integrating new students into our projects as paid research assistants, or through course-based projects. Most of our students are enrolled at ECU in the Master of Design Program, or one of three Bachelor of Design programs (Communication Design, Industrial Design or Interaction Design). Students bring design skills and new perspectives to each project, often playing critical roles as co-design facilitators. On average, our team includes 10-20 research assistants on various projects.
Faculty + Design Research Associates
Projects in the Health Design Lab are led by HDL Director, Caylee Raber and HDL Coordinator, Otilia Spantulescu, along with a team of faculty and design research associates brought on board for specific projects to provide project leadership and design expertise.
Approach
Mindset + Methods + Collaborators
How we work is informed by our mindset, participatory design methods and our collaborators on any given project. We adapt our methods and approaches to each project, context and community – working in flexible, emergent and exploratory modes.
We value ways of working that are inquiry-based, exploratory and relational.
We view designers as collaborators, story-listeners and facilitators and seek to work with people with lived experience through participatory co-design methods
We use creative strategies and hands-on activities and making to support self-expression, story-sharing and dialogue with an understanding that these approaches can help draw out ideas, insights and valuable experiential knowledge
Contact
Caylee Raber
Director
raber@ecuad.ca
Otilia Spantulescu
Project Coordinator
ospantulescu@ecuad.ca
Let’s work together.
Inquire
Have a project or idea in mind? We welcome inquiries from industry and community partners. Connect with us at research@ecuad.ca to explore collaborations and partnerships, or access to our researchers, technologies and emerging talent.
Access Funding
Industry partnerships with Emily Carr Research may qualify for government funding that supports innovation and research. Learn more about funding opportunities by contacting us at research@ecuad.ca.
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