Abbie Peard

My project is partnered with the Rotunda Hospital and looks into designing a visual communication tool about medication risks, whilst supporting shared decision making for pregnant and breastfeeding women. The healthcare professionals currently have to help a woman understand specific scenarios with complex information, delivered mostly through conversation.

The challenge is that medication risk in pregnancy isn’t static and it shifts depending on the person, the condition, the trimester, and sometimes all three at once.
That complexity can be hard to communicate verbally, and even harder to absorb in a short appointment.

My research has shown that people can feel confident in the information they’ve received and still struggle to act on it. This suggests the full picture may not be understood by them, and a visual communication tool would be beneficial in these circumstances.

The tool I’m designing aims to bridge the gap by giving people something they can return to, digest at their own pace, and use to feel genuinely informed rather than just told something. The solution will be trustworthy, layered, and built around the person.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​