About
Tactile Tools™
Photos
By Adam R. Thomas 2018-19.
The Tactile Tools™ methodology is a design thinking approach to bring together diverse groups of people to solve complex problems in an iterative and collaborative way. The approach draws on leading human centred design research to help industry partners understand their clients from a first-person perspective.
The Tactile Tools™ methodology has been tested with over 200 experts from across healthcare, engineering, aged care, government and education. A Tactile Tools™ workshop is a tangible and effective way to:
Coalesce interdisciplinary working groups
Understand the lived experience of patients/consumers
Map stakeholders relationships
Visualise the roadblocks to implementing change or reform
Break down complex problems and develop human centred solutions.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING:
“Using Tactile Tools and our partnership with RMIT helps us with our design thinking capability, it exposes us to a range of different solutions and different ways of working.”
MATIU BUSH, FOUNDER, ONE GOOD DEATH
“The Tactile Tools quickly put all our participants in the workshop on an even playing field. It’s new and it’s innovative and lets you problem solve in a very methodical way.”
CATE O’KANE, VICTORIAN HEALTHCARE ASSOCIATION, VOLUNTARY ASSISTED DYING MODEL OF CARE WORKING GROUP
Facilitators
Tactile Tools™ was developed as a collaboration between Dr Leah Heiss and Dr Marius Foley.
Dr Leah Heiss
Dr Leah Heiss is an award-winning designer and Co-Director of the RMIT Wearables and Sensing Network. Her wearable health technologies include Diabetes Jewellery; swallowable devices to detect disease; biosignal sensing emergency jewellery; and personal devices to monitor cardio vascular disease symptoms. Facett, the world’s first modular hearing aid that Leah designed for Blamey Saunders hears won many awards including the Australian Good Design Award of the Year 2018 and the CSIRO Design Innovation Award. Leah’s work is part of Museums Victoria heritage collection and she has exhibited at galleries locally and globally. She teaches through the RMIT Master of Design Futures and her teaching practice focuses on health sector innovation and design leadership. Through executive education Leah has employed her Tactile ToolsTM methodology to help over 200 experts from across healthcare, engineering and education prototype solutions to complex problems.
Dr Marius Foley
Dr Marius Foley is the Program Manager of the Master of Design Futures (MDF) in the RMIT School of Design. The MDF is grounded in the principles of human centred design and the various practices that are emerging, such as Service, Strategic, Transdisciplinary and Transition Design. Marius has an interest in what design brings to leadership in contemporary, networked and multi-disciplinary situations. His research centres on co-creative and collaborative practices, innovation and the influence of human centred design across diverse sectors, including design education; design engagements with aged care; and design and media innovation, especially in rural and remote communities.