Today’s episode is a fun one as we’re talking all about designing for play. Our guests Sydney and Dr. Kaitlin Wiseman are the co-founders of Playhouse MD, a line of childcare essentials that answer the question: could it be possible to transform your kid’s toughest moments into playtime? From their bestselling narwhal nasal bulb to our personal favorite, the newly-released giraffe thermometer, Sydney and Dr. Kaitlin are reimagining kids’ healthcare through play. After selling out multiple times and launching in Target nationwide, their viral success points to the value of designing for the emotional side of care. Join us to talk to Sydney and Dr. Kaitlin about what inspired Playhouse MD, working together as a toy designer and family physician, and what ‘play’ means in a medical context.

Show Notes 🖊️

To learn more about PlayhouseMD and explore their full line of childcare essentials, visit:
https://playhousemd.com/

✨ Listener discount: Use code DWSYN20 for 20% off individual products (one-time use per customer).

Episode References

01:35 Dr. Kaitlin is a family physician, meaning she provides comprehensive care for patients of all ages, including children.

03:52 An otoscope is a medical tool used to examine the ear canal and eardrum.

04:59 A nasal bulb helps suction mucus from a baby’s nose to clear congestion.

05:30 In design, pain points refer to moments of user frustration or difficulty—not physical pain.

06:51 Nasal aspirating is the process of removing mucus using tools like a nasal bulb.

13:41 TPR (Thermoplastic Rubber) is a flexible, durable material commonly used in medical devices.

30:19 A spirometer measures lung capacity and airflow. Bella references its use in asthma care through Asthmatuner (Medituner).

32:10 White space refers to unmet needs or untapped opportunities in the market.

34:49 IDEO is a global design consultancy known for human-centered innovation in healthcare and beyond.

38:24 Biotoxicity testing ensures device materials are safe for patients.
BPA-free means products meet safety standards limiting Bisphenol A exposure.

40:16 Ergonomics focuses on designing products that fit human bodies comfortably and naturally.

40:56 FDA items are products regulated for safety and effectiveness by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.

45:27 An MRI machine creates detailed 3D images of the body. Designer Doug Dietz helped redesign MRI experiences to reduce fear for pediatric patients.

46:47 RSV is a common respiratory illness affecting the lungs, especially in young children.

Chapters ⏱️

00:00–01:42 Intro

01:43–05:18 From toy design to reimagining kids’ healthcare

05:19–09:47 Making nasal aspirating more playful

09:48–16:41 How a toy designer and physician collaborate

16:42–29:19 Balancing playfulness with safety

29:20–33:51 The opportunity in playful medical devices

33:51–38:04 Designing the rocket syringe

38:06–44:41 Testing challenges for medical products

44:42–49:17 Reimagining the doctor’s office experience

49:18–52:29 What would your 5-year-old self think?

Welcome back to The Designer Will See You Now podcast, where we talk health, design, and advocacy. Most healthtech conversations focus on the next 'cool' product that promises to revolutionize how we approach health. But… we rarely talk about the one thing that actually determines if people will use it: and that’s how it makes them feel. Today, we're talking about the stigma that prevents people from seeking help in the first place. Were you ever teased for wearing glasses, or picked on for using an inhaler? These experiences can build lifelong hesitancy towards using these products. Today’s guest, Nick Morgan-Jones, understands this well: as a product designer with hearing loss, he is on a mission to build hearing tech  - for people who don’t want to wear hearing aids. With 10 years of design experience under his belt, Nick is launching Overtone to tackle the stigma and do for hearing technology what branding did for glasses. Join us to talk about how Nick’s personal journey inspires his designs, the insidious power of stigma, and how Overtone challenges our preconceptions about the hearing loss experience. 

Show Notes 🖊️

• To learn more about Overtone, sign up to be the first to hear about the launch at https://www.overtone.so/ 

• 04:57 Nick cites that the average time it takes for people who find out they could benefit from hearing technology to actually getting hearing aids is 7-11 years. This statistic is corroborated by a 2019 study from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which concluded an average of 8.9 years https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6363915/ 

• 06:41 The first hearing aids Nick wore consistently were Phonak Lyric, which are designed to be completely invisible https://www.phonak.com/en-us/hearing-devices/hearing-aids/lyric 

• 13:42 We discuss the ‘curb-cut effect,’ a phenomenon where disability-friendly features, originally designed for individuals with disabilities, provide significant, unexpected benefits to the general public. The name comes from a 1972 initiative by the city of Berkeley, California to install the first ‘curb-cuts’ into sidewalks, after pressure from disability activists. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_curb_cut_effect 

Chapters 📖

00:00-01:39 Intro

01:40-04:56 Nick’s hearing loss experience and its impact on his design work

04:57-07:28 Hesitancy about ‘accepting’ your disability

07:29-11:42 Recognizing the impact of stigma in healthtech

11:43-16:39 Why designing ‘for disability’ benefits everyone

16:40-21:00 Who gets to decide how assistive tech looks?

21:01-29:14 Starting Overtone and early design challenges

29:15-32:43 The technology behind Overtone

32:44-37:03 Rejecting ‘one style fits all’ for assistive tech

37:04-38:38 Designing for ears is stupidly difficult

38:39-41:22 Nick’s unique marketing strategy as a small startup

41:23-46:46 Recontextualizing Overtone as designer hearing tech

46:47-50:14 When your brand becomes the product category

50:15-51:06 Outro

Welcome back to The Designer Will See You Now podcast, where we talk health, design, and advocacy. Today we’re excited to introduce TWO award-winning illustrators and animators, Emily Holden and Annie Campbell. They lead Now Medical Studios and uniquely specialize in medical illustration and animation, which means creating visualizations for educational materials, infographics, medical devices, and more. Their work blends art and science in order to bring medicine to life in an understandable and engaging way (as they say, “if your granny can understand it you’ve done a good job”). Through intentional choices around aesthetics, sound design, and representation of people of different backgrounds, Annie and Emily tell a story that challenges established notions of how healthcare should look. Join us in talking to them about how medical illustration and animation impacts startup investment, considerations for accessibility and representation in their work, and myth-busting inaccurate depictions we see day to day. 

Show Notes 🖊️

• ​For more information on Annie and Emily’s work, check out their illustration & animation studio Now Medical Studios https://www.nowmedicalstudios.com/ 
• ​04:28 “Gross anatomy” is the study of body structures visible to the naked eye, such as bones, muscles, and organs.
• ​06:51 In the study of anatomy, “spot tests” are exams where students identify parts of the body and answer questions about their function.
• ​09:14 “Gestural and figure drawing” is the practice of drawing the human form, focusing on anatomy, proportions, and movement.
• ​12:00 “Medical communications agencies” specialize in translating scientific data into clear, compliant, and engaging content for pharmaceutical companies, healthcare organizations, and professionals.
• ​15:31 “Medical writers” create clear and scientifically-sound documents about medicine and healthcare for various audiences.
• ​18:42 “KPI” stands for Key Performance Indicator, a quantifiable metric that measures progress towards specific business goals. 
• ​20:42 Annie references the “pathways” and “journeys” that product designers create, referring to ‘user flows,’ which are visual maps showing the path users take to complete a goal in a product.
• ​29:42 Annie references a 2015 tweet from the Association of Medical Illustrators’ twitter, calling out a $50 million Neuroimaging Institute ad for depicting a brain backwards https://x.com/AMIdotorg/status/583341666028920832 
• ​43:14 “QC process” stands for Quality Control process, in this context evaluating medical visualizations for accuracy and compliance with accessibility standards.
• ​44:44 Within design, the “Occam’s Razor” principle suggests shaving away any unnecessary information or content to arrive at the simplest solution - essentially, less is more.
• ​46:36 Annie references Johnson & Johnson’s initiative Illustrate Change, which, together with the Association of Medical Illustrators, aims to increase diversity and representation in medical illustration. Learn more here https://www.jnj.com/media-center/press-releases/johnson-johnson-launches-illustrate-change-an-initiative-to-increase-diversity-and-representation-in-medical-illustrations 

Chapters 📖

00:00-01:44 Intro & showreel

01:45-05:39 What is medical illustration and how Annie & Emily got into it

05:40-09:39 Do you need a medical degree to be a medical illustrator?

09:40-11:12 Working creatively AND analytically

11:13-12:30 Non-traditional paths into medical illustration

12:31-14:25 Comparing to Ola & Bella’s career journeys

14:26-17:46 Making dry topics engaging

17:47-21:35 Explain it like you’re talking to your granny

21:36-26:15 Make stuff that you’d want to look at

26:16-28:53 Dark sexy medicine vibes

28:54-35:37 Shockingly inaccurate depictions out in the world

35:38-41:14 How great visuals help medical startups win investors

41:15-45:17 Accessibility considerations

45:18-50:26 Diversity in medical illustration

50:27-52:34 Favorite projects

52:35-53:39 Outro

In one of our favorite conversations yet, we welcome Ti Chang, an award-winning industrial designer whose work in ‘pleasure jewelry’ explores the connection between pleasure, wellness, and societal taboos. She is the Co-Founder and Chief Design Officer at Crave, which boasts among its line the Vesper: a vibrator necklace “often seen on A-list celebrities that inspire sensual empowerment and provoke cultural conversations.” As a design leader with 23 years of experience in the industry, Ti emphasizes the importance of improving inclusivity in the industrial and product design space. Today we are excited to speak with her about designing and testing pleasure products, combining activism with her design process, and the importance of having the conviction to make what you want to see in the world.

Show Notes 🖊️

• ​For more information on Ti and her work, check out her portfolio https://designerti.com/ and Crave’s website https://lovecrave.com/pages/about?srsltid=AfmBOoryy8vhQM5hG300h23qnKjVz9BlTuD72iwx4Egcl_1saJmRX7bJ
• ​At 01:01, we introduce Ti Chang as an “industrial designer,” meaning someone who designs physical products for everyday use.
• ​At 02:45, Ti’s company Crave makes “high-end pleasure products,” meaning premium sex toys.
• ​At 06:09, Ti explains that her cofounder’s inspiration for the brand name Crave was from a conference potentially hosted by “IDEO,” the design consultancy Innovation Design Engineering Organization.
• ​At 15:26, Ti mentions the well-known design principle “form follows function,” that says a product’s shape and aesthetic design is determined by its purpose.
• ​At 25:23, Bella asks Ti about her “usability testing” process, which involves watching real people interact with prototypes to gather feedback and improve a design.
• ​At 38:04, when Ti explains how women’s bodies are considered in “ergonomics and human factors,” she’s referring to the design of products to fit human bodies.
• ​At 39:47, Ti mentions partnering with “IDSA,” the Industrial Designers Society of America association.
• ​At 46:29, Ti critiques “AI slop,” or cheap, careless, low-effort AI-generated content.
• ​At 51:40, Ti explains the challenges menopausal women faced for decades trying to get on “HRT” or Hormone Replacement Therapy.

Chapters 📖

00:00-02:06 Intro to the episode

02:07-04:52 Ti tells us about herself and what inspired her to design pleasure products

04:53-06:37 The inspiration behind the brand name “Crave”

06:38-08:01 Ti’s design philosophy

08:02-12:57 Challenging self-pleasure stigma

12:58-14:53 How Ti started her own brand

14:54-18:01 What is the line between pleasure products and jewelry?

18:02-20:58 Pleasure jewelry as a personal statement

20:59-24:06 Why even A-list celebrities are wearing Ti’s vibrator necklace

24:07-25:14 The need for “artful” design

25:15-29:26 Surprises from usability testing pleasure products

29:27-32:15 Pleasure jewelry is just getting started

32:16-41:24 The challenges and opportunities of being a female industrial designer

41:25-48:40 In the age of AI, human conviction is priceless

48:41-56:16 Designs that make us feel seen

56:17-56:41 Outro

Welcome back to our second After Work, where we grab a little drink and just chat about designs that we’re interested in. If you had to design a women’s health clinic brand from scratch, what sort of tone and online experience would you create? What does that tell us about the female healthcare experience? These are the questions we explore in this episode, as we do a casual design crit of a women’s clinic website. While we missed the drink for today’s episode, we did not miss out on the fun thanks to our guest participant Perry, who is particularly interested in questions of identity, how people define it and what it means to them. Join us to unpack what gendered themes manifest in healthtech and who truly benefits from catered, online care.

Chapters 📖

00:00-2:30 Intro

2:31-6:22 Why ‘built by women, for women’ strikes a chord

6:23-8:59 Letting patients know: we’re in this together

9:00-11:23 Taboo health conversations for men vs. women

11:24-15:20 Expectations around aging for men vs. women

15:21-20:31 The health insurances accepted reveals who gets access to the service

20:32-21:33 If this website was a person, who would they be?

21:34-22:40 What resonated for us

22:41-23:53 Outro

For our second ever guest episode we’re thrilled to have Maja Magnusson, CEO of Care To Translate, a medical translation tool that helps break down language barriers between patients and care providers. A growing shortage of interpreters around the world can lead to long waiting times and loss of agency for patients, and stressful work environments with a higher risk of misdiagnosis and malpractice. Care to Translate aims to address this issue in order to make healthcare more dependable and accessible for everyone. We talked to Maja about why culturally-sensitive medical translation is critical for staff and patients, the risks of relying on machine translation, designing for emergency scenarios and accessibility, and what it’s like running a startup. 

Show Notes 🖊️

• In this episode we talked to CEO Maja Magnusson about her medical translation app, Care to Translate. For more information check out the product website https://www.caretotranslate.com/ 

• At 40:51, Ola references Care to Translate’s interview with machine translation literacy expert Lynne Bowker. The full interview can be accessed here https://www.caretotranslate.com/news/the-most-common-pitfalls-of-machine-translation---and-how-to-use-it-safely-in-health-care 

• At 55:11, Ola references Care to Translate’s Red Dot Award win. For more information see Care to Translate’s article on their success here https://www.caretotranslate.com/news/care-to-translate-wins-red-dot-award-2025-for-its-multilingual-medical-translation-app

• At 59:50, Ola references a conversation about functional design from Episode 3 https://open.spotify.com/episode/6WMNzw8wJJirmtDBL7lsq0?si=NwEWqvV6T3ipe3XwIQ4twA that discussed Megan Metzger’s Figma talk ‘Designing for Climate Disaster’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akudd_qFWrg 

  
  

Chapters 📖

00:00-08:33 Introducing the Care To Translate app and CEO Maja

08:34-11:52 Notable use cases for Care To Translate

11:53-14:33 How Care to Translate is designed differently for staff versus patients

14:34-16:50 Patients? Care Recipients? The challenge of finding the right word for healthtech ‘users’

16:51-21:27 Is Care to Translate addressing the original problem it set out to solve?

21:28-23:37 How language barriers affect health outcomes in minority and immigrant populations

23:38-28:34 Having meaningful conversations with stakeholders around addressing health inequality

28:35-30:19 The patient version of Care to Translate

30:20-35:13 Handling cultural nuances in medical translation

35:14-40:45 Data used to train the live translation feature and why the Phrase Library is Care to Translate’s holy grail

40:46-51:38 The risks of relying on machine translation and the importance of educating users of AI tools

51:39-54:54 How Care To Translate is designed for use in urgent, high-stakes situations

54:55-01:00:55 The Care to Translate design process for accommodating different user abilities, backgrounds, and contexts

01:00:56-01:05:07 Care To Translate’s commitment to accessibility

01:05:08-01:09:35 Care to Translate’s designer ‘cheat sheet’

01:09:36-01:12:11 Maja’s collaboration with her design team

01:12:12-01:16:41 How the app has changed since its first launch

01:16:42-01:20:48 How Care To Translate was able to scale so quickly in the medical industry

01:20:49-01:28:43 Maja’s experience as CEO of a healthtech startup

01:28:44-01:29:19 Note about the Cost Saving Calculator on the Care To Translate website

01:29:20-01:33:44 Maja’s favorite word she’s learned since working on Care to Translate

01:33:45-01:43:41 Bella & Ola wrap up

This month we’ve got a special mini-episode format we call Refills, where we top up your prescription of healthtech topics and trends. Join us, your co-hosts Bella and Ola, for a chat about grief, ambient scribing, and AI’s role in both. With questions like: Could AI’s potential for creating new experiences with passed loved ones interrupt our natural grieving process? Does saved time through ambient scribing mean more rest for doctors and intentional time with patients, or will it increase pressure to see as many patients as possible? We'll explore how the answers are often not black and white and how these considerations impact our work as designers.

Show Notes 🖊️

At 01:06, Bella brings up Tharin Pillay’s article ‘‘The Dead Have Never Been This Talkative: The Rise of AI Resurrection,’ which she references throughout the first half of the episode for evidence on false memory and AI’s role in grief. The article is available here https://time.com/7298290/ai-death-grief-memory/

At 06:56, Bella explains how memory is dynamic, and can warp over time based on how you retell it. More information can be found in this article from Northwestern University https://womenshealth.obgyn.msu.edu/blog/memory-telephone-game

At 15:11, Ola references the controversy around the use of Anthony Bourdain’s voice in the posthumous documentary Roadrunner. Helen Rosner’s New Yorker article dives deeper into the ethics discussion https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-gastronomy/the-ethics-of-a-deepfake-anthony-bourdain-voice

At 21:25, Ola describes Abridge’s competitive features and their most recent $300 million funding round. More information can be found at the Abridge website https://www.abridge.com/ and the Wall Street Journal’s article on the latest valuation https://www.wsj.com/articles/abridge-whose-ai-app-takes-notes-for-doctors-valued-at-5-3-billion-at-funding-801825f3

At 32:29, Ola references Jakob Nielsen’s article on how AI is changing our UI paradigm again for the first time in 60 years https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ai-paradigm/

Chapters 📖

00:00-01:05 Introduction

01:06-07:40 What is false memory and our own experiences

07:41-11:49 How generative AI could impact the grieving process

11:50-16:14 Ethical considerations of AI-generating people who have passed

16:15-20:19 AI ‘relationships’ and validation without accountability

20:23-22:42 What is ambient scribing and why did Abridge just get $300 million in funding

22:43-25:05 Pros and cons of AI medical transcription

25:06-27:44 Cognitive laziness

27:45-30:06 What will doctors do with the time saved by AI

30:07-33:53 Our responsibility as designers of AI products

Cheers! 🥂 We’re back with our very first After Work episode, where we grab a little drink and just chat about designs that we’re interested in. Today that’s AsthmaTuner, an app and companion bluetooth device that help people with asthma live without symptoms. Bella started as AsthmaTuner’s first designer and continues to lead design 8 years later, and Ola had a stint designing at AsthmaTuner for 2 years - so with 10 years between us, we’ve got a thing or two to say about the thinking behind the user experience. So pull up a chair and dive deep with us as we unpack how to motivate patients to follow their treatment plans, why encouraging patients to be honest instead of perfect matters, and much more. 

Show Notes 🖊️

• Curious to learn more about AsthmaTuner? All information is available at https://medituner.com/ (https://medituner.com/se/ for listeners in Sweden). AsthmaTuner is available in Sweden and is currently undergoing clinical trials in the US.

• At 03:42, Ola discusses Megan Metzger’s Figma Config talk, “Designing for Climate Disaster.” The full talk is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akudd_qFWrg - check it out!

• At 36:30, Ola references Oinas-Kukkonen and Harjumaa’s Persuasive Systems Design model. For more information on their model and research, their work is available to download at https://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/vol24/iss1/28/ 

Chapters 📖

00:00-03:23 Introduction

03:24-17:30 Our thoughts on Megan Metzger’s ‘Designing for Climate Disaster’ talk 

17:31-22:59 What is AsthmaTuner?

23:00-28:06 How to test your asthma in the app

28:07-35:21 AsthmaTuner’s fan-favorite feature (or how to motivate patients to make testing a habit)

35:22-40:27 Breaking down persuasive design

40:28-48:13 The medication “adherence” problem

48:14-54:09 How AsthmaTuner’s new medication log helps patients be honest instead of perfect

54:10-59:12 What makes a desirable healthtech product

59:13-01:00:33 Wrap-up

Welcome back to the Designer Will See You Now podcast! This episode is a big milestone for us as we welcome our very first guest, Dr. Jared Sun, to discuss the importance of listening to and co-designing with patients. Jared is a Stanford-educated ER doctor and medical researcher who works part time in LA and part time in the Western Cape of South Africa. His work in South Africa focuses on helping under-resourced communities build more effective emergency care systems tailored to local needs, and over 10 years he has helped train over 10,000 first responders across 100 communities. Join us as Jared explains how the success of these initiatives can be boiled down to one simple approach: “shut up and listen.”

Show Notes 🖊️

• At 19:07, Jared references that due to its history of apartheid, the majority of people in impoverished communities in South Africa are “black or colored,” and explains that “colored” is its own race classification in South Africa. For listeners who are unfamiliar, in South Africa “colored” describes someone of mixed-race ancestry and has different connotations from the use of the word in the United States. For more information, 

https://www.semafor.com/article/09/24/2023/how-to-understand-the-coloured-role-in-south-africas-history

• At 41:32, Ola references the work of Doug Eby, Vice President of Medical Services at the Southcentral Foundation Nuka System of Care, who has worked to create a community-based medical system with native people in Alaska. His collaboration with tribal leaders and ‘patient customers’ has resulted in an improvement in health outcomes from single-digit percentiles to the 75th percentile. For more information, we highly suggest listening to Doug’s episode on Vardmarktpodden (English starts at 01:33) https://open.spotify.com/episode/40EfCjqBHwqL4VgKnW8Mzm?si=wlabvOLBRfmS8PJ6zAfKpQ

• At 01:05:57, Bella references Boston Consulting Group’s redesign of Karolinska Hospital in Sweden, and how their assumption-based approach disregarded the true needs of patients and providers and resulted in a failed project. For more information, https://www.mitti.se/nyheter/inte-hangt-med-har-ar-alla-nya-karolinskas-skandaler-6.27.117406.cbb1e921df

Chapters 📖

00:00-07:23 Bella’s time at the OFFF design conference

07:24-08:35 Introducing Dr. Jared Sun

08:36-11:54 How Jared got started working on ER systems in the Western Cape of South Africa

11:55-18:04 “Aggressive humbling” and the importance of co-design

18:05-24:55 Building trust and collaboration with local communities

24:56-29:34 What is a community-based emergency care system

29:35-31:52 How ER information is spread through local communities

31:53-35:49 There is no ‘one size fits all’ and other unexpected learnings

35:50-43:14 Variations of community-based emergency care systems in South Africa and worldwide

43:14-49:52 Patient-centeredness means being adaptable instead of vilifying patients 

49:53-54:34 The transformative impact of community-based emergency care systems in Western Cape townships

54:35-01:01:18 The importance of local communities owning their medical systems and decentering yourself as a designer

01:01:19-01:04:08 The worst day of the year for the ER and Jared’s send-off message to our listeners

01:04:09-01:16:42 Debrief with hosts Bella and Ola

Welcome to The Designer Will See You Now podcast! In our first episode, meet us - the hosts and longtime designer-friends - Ola and Bella. We give some background on our personal journeys into design, what inspired us to start a health tech podcast, and most importantly why we think you’ll be inspired to listen. Instead of a tech conference, think of this as chatting with your pals who are passionate about why things work the way they do, and what can make them better. Let’s discuss design philosophies, what makes good healthtech, and why there is no perfect word for ‘users’ (patients? people?). We can’t wait to meet you!

Chapters 📖

00:00-03:45 Welcome to The Designer Will See You Now podcast

03:36-05:55 Who are we and what do we design

05:56-10:29 What got us into design

10:30-18:19 3 words that describe our design philosophies

18:20-23:16 How Bella got into healthtech 

23:17-25:14 Bella’s definition of healthtech

25:15-31:18 How Ola got into healthtech 

31:19-31:52 Ola’s definition of healthtech 

31:53-34:04 What makes a good healthtech product 

34:05-39:27 How to avoid making patients feel stupid 

39:28-41:12 Why is there no good word for ’users’??

41:13-49:45 What’s unique about designing for healthtech

49:46-54:45 What can you (listener!) expect moving forward 

54:46-54:59 Bye!