Haiyan Zhang is a designer, technologist and maker of things (really cool technical things) who currently holds the unusual title of Innovation Director at the Microsoft Research lab in Cambridge, England. There, she applies her unusual skillset to a wide range of unusual solutions to real-life problems, many of which draw on novel applications of gaming technology in serious areas like healthcare.

On today’s podcast, Haiyan talks about her unique “brain hack” approach to the human-centered design process, and discusses a wide range of projects, from the connected play experience of Zanzibar, to Fizzyo, which turns laborious breathing exercises for children with cystic fibrosis into a video game, to Project Emma, an application of haptic vibration technology that, somewhat curiously, offsets the effects of tremors caused by Parkinson’s disease.