DESIGN THINKING

Product + Service Design

Proposed business cases and design challenges are evaluated by a multidisciplinary team of students and faculty throughout a 14- to 16- week studio project, which results in the creation of innovative design concepts and solutions for consumers to live well across their lifespan.

The Space

The Live Well's unique design thinking process model provides industry partners full access to multidisciplinary resources, allowing for a multitude of project outcomes. Each product or service development project has its own designated design studio, which is locked and password protected to ensure project confidentiality. The design studio serves as an open environment for the team to freely innovate and execute project development.

The Teams

The team uses the dedicated studio space to visually display research results, conduct co-creation sessions with consumers, present ideation conclusions, and show refinement of concepts. At project completion, the industry sponsor owns all design concepts and intellectual property developed during the project.

Our Skills

Product Design
Service Design
Packaging Design
UI/UX Design
2D/3D Modeling
Consumer Research
Animation
Trend Forecasting
Low-Mid-High Fidelity Prototyping
Artifical Intellegence
AR/VR Design
Gamification

User-Centered Research

User-centered research is at the core of our design thinking process. The Live Well Collaborative has a network of experienced participants eager to fulfill any user-centered research needs that your organization may have.

Think Tanks

The Live Well conducts Think Tanks with UC's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) to gain key strategic insights into the aging market. The OLLI group consists of individuals in the 50+ population who are continuing their education by taking college courses at the University of Cincinnati (UC). Combining the OLLI group with Live Well's UC students provides a unique setting for creative thinking and promotes innovation across the lifespan. During these Think Tank sessions, the group participates in activities and exercises based on the needs of the project. These Think Tanks are utilized multiple times throughout the design thinking process. After each session, the team collects information, synthesizes insights, and visualizes concepts.

Insight Visualizations

Through Think Tanks, workshops, and studios, the Live Well has accumulated a wealth of design research knowledge centered around various product and service categories. We are experts in creating insight visualizations that convey information effectively for your organization.

Research Tools

The Live Well Collaborative has developed a variety of research tools to promote innovation and collaborative thinking for your organization's specific needs. These research tools allow you to break down the barriers of conventional brainstorming and see the problem from a different perspective, which leads to creative design solutions.

Design Education

At the Live Well Collaborative, we strive for great design. We stand for value, transparency, and empathy in everything we do. To stand by these values, the Live Well has created a unique design thinking approach to solve design challenges. To enhance your organization's design process, we offer online learning modules and customized learning labs.

Learning Modules

Design Education Packet

Project Planning

Sponsor: Community Leaders Institute | March 2023

The Live Well Collaborative has conducted learning labs over the past eleven years for The Community Leaders Institute (CLI). CLI is a 6-week leadership development program dedicated to non-profit leaders in the community. In Live Well’s most recent learning lab at CLI, the team facilitated a half-day exercise which demonstrated the positive impact of design thinking on community projects. Using the curated, superhero-themed journey map, the Live Well assisted participants as they created a viable action plan for their project, identified available resources, and recognized potential inhibitors and enablers throughout their journey. This activity allowed the participants to organize their thoughts and create actionable steps to reach their project milestones more quickly. These key concepts of design thinking can be applied to their future projects.

Healthcare Applications

Sponsor: Live Well Collaborative + Singapore Polytechnic | March 2015

The Live Well Collaborative (Cincinnati) visited the Singapore site and delivered two separate 1-day learning labs on Design Thinking 101. Each workshop consisted of 20 to 30 faculty and students interested in learning how to apply the design thinking process to the healthcare industry. After being introduced to the main concepts of design thinking, each participant received a healthcare journey map. The journey map facilitated an interactive game, allowing each person to identify an existing healthcare challenge faced by their families. Once identified, they went through the challenge and ways to improve the situation by determining current enablers and inhibitors throughout the process. The mind-mapping tool was also used along the journey to encourage ideation. By implementing the design thinking process, at the end of the game each participant had uncovered different areas of improvement for their families. These new skills could then be applied to future projects and healthcare situations.

Improving the Patient's Journey

Sponsor: Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center | October 2022

The Live Well Collaborative facilitated a two-hour learning lab with participants from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC). The main focus of the lab is to expose the CCHMC thought leaders to Live Well’s design thinking process. The Live Well Collaborative created a project-specific game to demonstrate how patient/user-centered design can influence positive healthcare outcomes. The game incorporates a superhero theme that allows each participant to interactively learn the process, encouraging them to think differently about how to improve his or her patient’s journey. Through the game, each participant is able to uncover solutions to shift the patient’s journey from a current state to a preferred, higher-quality state. At the end of the learning lab, each participant acquired new techniques and skills that could be applied to future projects and design challenges at CCHMC.

Design Innovation for Marketing Students

Live Well + UC | March 2022

Professor Dianne Hardin is collaborating with Live Well to develop novel ways of educating students in design thinking methodologies and digital marketing. The tools we have co-developed together provide students with an interactive experience that utilizes Live Well’s Health and Wellbeing Loft to introduce design-based tools and develop integrated design-marketing programs.
Since 2018, Professor Hardin has partnered with the designers at Live Well to deliver a curriculum which includes a systematic approach to helping students gain an understanding of what health and wellbeing means to an aging population.

When COVID forced us all to eliminate on-site Loft experiences, we co-created a virtual reality tour that simulates the Loft's studio spaces and extends access to our archetype models. Her students now use a combination of modalities to identify health and wellness intervention opportunities.

Work With Us

Experience our design thinking process by becoming a partner, accepting a cooperative learning position, or participating in one of our user-centered research sessions.

As a Partner

Are you looking for design solutions? Join the Live Well team as a partner to run studios that match your unique design needs.

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As a Faculty Advisor or Co-op

Push ideas and methodologies learned in the classroom to new levels by working directly with stakeholders and partners, from the research phase to final outputs.

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As a Research Fellow

Fellowship at the Live Well provides an unmatched opportunity to advance your career goals and design skillset through growth and leadership.

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