Niek
This research project was done in collaboration with BrabantAdvies. An advisory organisation for the province of North Brabant. I was asked to conduct a design project to improve zoonotic literacy for a specific target group. Zoonotic literacy is the amount of knowledge and awareness a person has about zoonosis. A zoonosis is an infection disease that is spread from animals to humans. There are risks for transmission all across society. Especially in places where humans come into contact with animals.
After careful scoping, the project focused on Zoonotic literacy within nature-inclusive farming. A form of farming where farm animals is brought into nature again rather than in big stalls. Research showed zoonotic risks are quite unknown and the risks of disease transmission increases as animals come into contact more with both humans and other animals.
As a result, I designed a multi-stakeholder design thinking session. Within this session I proposed 4 exercises with the goal to create more awareness about zoonotic risks. Thus increasing zoonotic literacy.
The research tried to investigate the effects on stakeholder awareness by combining the OneHealth approach with design thinking methodologies. The OneHealth approach takes into account the health of humans, animals and the environment. As a result, the exercises got a post-humanistic perspective.
The results showed how the OneHealth design thinking session makes using the OneHealth framework easier to grasp and use. The session did not provide significant change in risk awareness. However, the session did increase knowledge sharing and an open discussion, rather than a closed one. A healthy starting point for increasing risk awareness for stakeholders.
Within this project I learned to create a multi-stakeholder session focusing on risk mitigation. I learned to navigate within a very complex topic and simplify it as a non-expert. Including a lot of careful scoping to focus this very broad topic into a study format. I also learned to create in-depth research insights and tie the many facets of my research together in a coherent research paper.
Downloads
Research paper
Exercise 1: Identifying possible risks + farm map
Exercise 2: OneHealth personas
Exercise 3: OneHealth empathy maps
Exercise 4: Possible transmission timeline + virus persona
