GardenSpace with Eden

Patient Data Explorer is a new, real-time analytics software that improves the efficiency of cancer research. Doctors and researchers can now securely and instantly access clinical data from multiple sources in a unified interface.

Tutkihankintoja.fi is a service that allows citizens, companies, and interest groups to explore the Finnish government spending. It provides information on state spending for goods, supplies, and services down to the purchase order level. For the first time, all this information is available in an online service. Tutkihankintoja.fi improves transparency in the use of public funds and provides information on the market to companies.

Studio H is a high school design/build curriculum for rural community benefit. Launched in Bertie County, North Carolina, the program now resides at Realm Charter School in Berkeley, California. By learning through a design sensibility and “dirt-under-your-fingernails” construction skills, we’re developing creativity, critical thinking, citizenship, and capital to give students the skills they need to succeed, while building the assets the community needs to survive. Given the opportunity to engage within a public education system, we believe the next generation will be the greatest asset and untapped resource in rural communities’ futures. Studio H is a different kind of classroom. We design, build, and transform.

280 million people worldwide have diabetes causing 4 million deaths each year. With no cure on the horizon, daily self-management is the only option for sufferers to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Blood glucose levels must be tested several times a day and insulin dosage adjusted accordingly. While the technology to monitor blood glucose is improving, the cognitive and physical abilities of the (mostly older) patient group still present a major challenge. "For my patients who require insulin, the steps involved in the self-care of their diabetes can be complicated and overwhelming" -Diabetes Nurse (SanFrancisco) It often falls to nurses to overcome these usability obstacles - spending valuable consultation time training patients to use these devices instead of focusing on more important healthcare issues to prevent complications, e.g. blindness and amputations. In less developed healthcare systems, patients rarely get any training-leaving them frustrated by complex technology, procedures, and instructions that prevent them from effectively managing their diabetes, increasing their health risks. Roche Diabetes Care commissioned Frontend to analyze this issue. What are the usability barriers for patients and nurses? How could the process be simplified? How can we empower patients to manage their diabetes? How can we help nurses optimize training?

The End of the Day is a public audio installation that can only be played at sunset. It’s a guided audio experience about a moment many years from now, when you are looking back and reflecting on a life well-lived –about reclaiming a good future as a brave and hopeful act.

New drug therapies and medical devices save lives. In some cases, patients wait for years to participate in a clinical trial for a new drug or for that drug to come to market. It takes over a year just to complete study startup, the process of getting all the hospitals, private practices, and government health institutions that are part of a clinical trial ready to see patients. Why? Study startup is burdensome and complex–a large number of documents have to be routed and approved, and many regulatory requirements have to be met. Communication happens mostly through time-consuming methods like phone, email, and fax.

Out of the Box is a simple yet effective solution for the increasing number of cell-phone users who have difficulties with learning to use a new smartphone. For older people, this experience can be particularly frustrating as they apply analogue modes of learning to digital experiences - looking in the box for help that simply is not there. Rather than design a dumbed down “special phone”, the designers decided to look at the problem in a different way. Instead of designing another device, they looked at changing the way people learn to use them. By drawing on user strengths and familiar mental models, the designers created a set of books which would act as the packaging and provide an entire learning experience for any device. The books actually contain the phone, and use each page turn to reveal the elements of the phone in the right order, helping the user to set up the sim card, battery and even slide the case onto the phone. The phone then slots into the book, which acts as the main manual. Arrows point to the exact locations the user should press, avoiding confusion and eliminating the feeling of being lost in a menu.

Grin is a comprehensive digital/physical orthodontic platform that provides remote monitoring solutions to bring patients the convenience and responsible care they've come to expect while keeping licensed, local orthodontists at the center of their treatment.With the Grin platform, orthodontists can overcome the current challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic by strengthening existing patient relationships and reducing chair time by virtually reaching into their patients' mouths as if they were present for an in-person appointment.

Earlier Rig Control Systems were engineered to perfection and capable of displaying complex controls and information. But it was too complex to use and required a lot of training to educate an operator. To motivate, and encourage old and new operators to work with these complex machines and avoid losing well-trained operators and billions of dollars, we designed a new rig control system for one of our most complicated rigs — Boomer.