Graduate Certificate in Design for Health and Wellbeing

The Graduate Certificate in Design for Health and Wellbeing introduces concepts including why space matters, spatial research methods and how users' health and wellbeing are impacted by their environments. Design practice will enable learners to put theory into practice guided by evidence-based insights. Students will be equipped with the skills needed to brief and critically evaluate the spaces that we inhabit and impact our health and wellbeing; and interpret and critique visual communication techniques in various forms, including plans, sketch models, and 3D digital renderings. Students will be encouraged to develop strong written, oral and visual communication skills within the core subjects.

This course is intended for both designers and non-designers. For many students, including design professionals, the specific approaches used in designing for health and wellbeing will be new and or possibly misunderstood. This course will introduce the principles and processes of user-experience (UX), design thinking and evidence-based design to enable students to correctly and creatively apply these concepts to design problems within their own contexts. The collaborative nature of this course, will allow students to work in interdisciplinary design teams of designers and non-designers, drawing on their diverse skills, knowledge and interests to enrichen the design process and enhance the end design product.

On completion of this course, graduates will be able to:

• Demonstrate knowledge of research evidence, debates, policies and practices related to design for health and wellbeing;
• Demonstrate awareness of the impact of spatial considerations (including landscape) for user health and wellbeing;
• Use design practice skills, tools and knowledge to simply interpret data and ideas in a diverse range of formats, for specialist audiences;
• Integrate information from multi-disciplinary contexts to enhance design, design thinking and design analysis;
• Inform policy and practice related to design for health and wellbeing;
• Plan and execute an evaluation project related to a chosen topical health or wellbeing issue.

The main focus of the Graduate Certificate in Design for Health and Wellbeing is an understanding of how the built environment impacts the health and wellbeing of users.

Skills that will contribute to the improvement of our built environment for user health and wellbeing:

• A grounding in evidence based built environment design related to health and wellbeing;
• An understanding of systems, structures and policies in Australia and other countries that impact built environment decisions related to health and wellbeing;
• The skills to communicate effectively with designers and non-designers and to work within teams;
• The ability to identify and discuss current and key challenges in design for health and wellbeing from a global perspective; and
• The ability to direct decision-making related to design and policy in order to improve built environments for the benefit of users' health and wellbeing.