Background
Tara Mullaney is a scientist-turned-designer that loves exploring the realm of emotions and experiences. She hails from the United States, and holds dual bachelor degrees in anthropology and biology from MIT, a Master of Cancer Biology from Stanford University, and a Master of Design in Designed Objects from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her previous work experience ranges from anti-cancer drug development to innovation workshop facilitation and design consulting. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Industrial Design researching experience design within healthcare, and teaching classes in Service Design and Interaction Concept Design at the Umeå Institute of Design in Sweden.
PhD Project
Thinking Beyond the Cure: Experience Design and Healthcare
My research is focused on investigating the patient experience within healthcare, with the aim of increasing patient knowledge, participation, and power within these environments, paying particular attention to the impact that large medical technologies have upon patients. I am currently working on a project with the Radiotherapy Clinic at Norrlands University Hospital to research and implement experience design interventions within this clinical setting.
My advisors are Erik Stolterman (School of Informatics, Indiana University) and Helena Pettersson (Department of Culture and Media Studies, Umeå University). My research project, managed by Tufve Nyholm (Department of Radiation Physics, Umeå University), is funded by the EU Structural Foundation, Objective 2, North Sweden, and the Cancer Research Foundation, Northern Sweden.
Areas of interest
Experience Design, Healthcare, Ethnography, Philosophy of Technology.
Publications
Mullaney, T., Pettersson, H., Nyholm, T., Stolterman, S. 2012. Thinking Beyond the Cure: A Case for Patient-Centered Thinking in the Design of Medical Technologies. International Journal of Design (paper under revision).
Mullaney, T. and Nyholm, T. 2012. System, Site, Patient: A Three-Tiered Methodological Approach to Constructing Holistic Understanding of the User through Design Research. DRS 2012 Bangkok, July 1-4, 2012 (paper accepted).
Mullaney, T., Nyholm, T., Edvardsson, D. 2011. Wellbeing in Healthcare Environments: A Human-Centered Design Research Approach to Improving the Cancer Patient Experience during Radiation Therapy. Design4Health Conference, July 13-15, 2011.
Mullaney, T. 2011. Emotional Wellbeing and Radiotherapy: A Methodological Approach to Improving the Patient Experience. DESIRE'11: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Creativity and Innovation in Design, Doctoral Consortium. ACM, New York, NY, USA.
Mullaney, T. 2010. Designing for Durable Relationships with Products. Proceedings from the 7th International Conference on Design & Emotion. Chicago, IL, USA.
Mullaney, T. (2009). Sustaining the Human-Object Relationship. Design & Emotion (www.design-emotion.com).
Press
DagensMedicin, November 9th, 2011. (pdf)
Recent Teaching
Spring, 2011
Fall, 2010
