United Nations Conference and The Power of Good Design

In August, Worldwide Breast Cancer (WBC) board member Shelley Henson led a discussion panel and presentation on “Human Centered Design for NGO’s” at the United Nations Conference in Salt Lake City, UT. Together with our CEO and Founder, Dr. Corrine Ellsworth-Beaumont, and a member of our medical advisory group, Lily Gutnik, MD and a fourth panel member Tim Gibbons.

We discussed how to use human centered design practices in understanding the needs of beneficiaries and developing solutions that involved their input. The key to this is using empathy to experience, understand and relate to the challenges that beneficiaries face.

At Worldwide Breast Cancer, we employ human centered design by finding ways to walk in the patient’s shoes. We go through the diagnostic process for investigating symptoms, interview patients, talk to clinicians and of testing and retest our materials with various audiences. After years of refining our communication approach, we know how to best explain concepts like screening and early detection without being stopped by the common obstacles of taboo, fear and literacy issues.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our presentation and took part in the panel discussion. We hope that you learned how to use this approach and make it part of your own organizational practices.

To see takeaways from the presentation, visit: https://socialjusticedesign.org/resources/

Shelley Henson and Corrine Ellsworth Beaumont at the UN Conference.

Corrine Ellsworth Beaumont, Tim Gibbons, Lily Gutnik and Shelley Henson.